In this article we would like to talk about the difference between full plant extract CBD and CBD isolates and which one is better. Just to review what the differences between the two is. CBD isolate would be an isolated CBD Molecule, usually in form of crystalline powder. Although it could be put in other products. But it’s just pure CBD that’s been isolated either from the plant and it’s just a pure powder of CBD or it’s been synthesized in a lab. And that’s usually just used in research.
But for the most part, the two main forms that people buy of CBD are either full plant extracts, which are a raw plant extract of CBD that includes other cannabinoids (CBC, CBG, CBN, THC), terpenes and other components and also provides the entourage effect. Which is all those components working together to give you the benefits of CBD oil. Versus a CBD isolate which is just the CBD isolated by itself, just the molecule and none of the other compounds.
People like to use both and people find both to be effective for different reasons. Some people kind of just swear by the full plant extract because they like the more natural plant approach. Some people like the CBD Isolate for their own reason. There’s evidence that both work.
Full Plant Extract CBD works better than CBD Isolate?
CBD Isolate 
Full Spectrum CBD
In this context, we want to talk about one of the most exciting papers, which shows some of the benefits of the fact that the CBD full plant extract performs better than CBD isolate.
And one of the main reasons is, that in this study, where they compared directly a CBD isolate to a CBD full plant extract, that the CBD plant extract performed better than the CBD isolate, in that it was more predictable in how to dose it.
Whereas with the CBD isolate, there was a bell-shaped curve, where if you gave too little or you gave too much it didn’t have the desired effect that they were looking for.
It was a trial with mice and not with humans and they were testing for inflammation and pain relief in these mice. We get more excited about the human trials.
But they were testing and they were comparing pure CBD to a full plant extract CBD from a very high CBD rich cannabis plant. And it’s actually a strain that you may have heard of before from Israel called Avi-Dekel.
Learn more:
- What is the difference between Full Spectrum & Broad Spectrum CBD Oil?
- CBD from Hemp or Marijuana – Is there a difference?
The Strain used is very similar to Hemp
The other thing is, if you take a look in the paper, the plant that they used it’s very similar to hemp respectively the cannabinoid profile of certain hemp varieties. It has 1% THC as opposed to 0.3% THC. But that’s not a huge amount more and it’s a very high CBD rich cannabis plant.
It’s very similar to the stats of cannabinoids that you see in a lab report for a CBD hemp oil, that many of you are using and that you can access from any state as long as it complies by the rules of hemp.
The Study that led to the Entourage Effect
This study is really famous, because a lot of people point to this study because it shows a lot of the benefits of the entourage effect of all those other components working together in the full plant extract.
What they showed was, the dose dependency of the effect of either the full extracted CBD oil or the CBD isolate. And the dose predictability was much better and it could have been used more efficiently when the full CBD plant extract was used.
Meaning, if you gave more of the full plant extract CBD you had more pain relief and more anti-inflammation. Whereas when you compared it to the CBD isolate what you had was the problem to predict the exact right dose.
It looks like a bell on a graph, that’s why they call it this bell-shaped response. If you give too little of a dose it didn’t work very well and if you gave too much of a dose it also didn’t work as well.
We know a lot of people prefer the plant extract, and they’re going to like this article, because this paper points to the fact that it shows evidence of the medicine of the whole plant.
Learn more:
- The Theory of the Entourage Effect of Cannabinoids & less Drug Interaction
- Is Full spectrum CBD Oil the same as a Full Plant Extract?
CBD Isolate is used in Official Studies & Research
This isn’t to say that CBD isolates are worthless! We don’t want anyone to think we are saying that. We know people benefit from them and there’s also plenty of studies, because most of the studies done with CBD are based on CBD isolate.
But we are interested in these studies that use the full plant extract. And they do standardized it. They usually write in the study standardized extract of cannabis sativa L.
We get really excited when we see that, because the more scientific evidence we have of the plant medicine working, the more that we can justify its usage straight from the plant. And show hard evidence for the medicinal qualities of the plant.
Although, we have plenty of human anecdotal evidence, because this plant has been used as a medicine by people for thousands of years. It just wasn’t always in published papers on PubMed.
But either way, it’s good to have evidence for both. A lot of the studies that we have of CBDs effects such as some of the studies that have shown that it’s good for anxiety and for pain, they used a CBD Isolate. Not all of them like for example Sativex, that’s a plant extract. In those cases the CBD was from a plant.
Full Plant Extract CBD is Easier to Dose
We want to show you this paper because it is one of the more famous examples and pieces of evidence for the entourage effect. Because what’s hypothesized is that the plant extract was more effective than the CBD isolate because of the other components working in there.
And don’t get me wrong, the CBD isolate was still effective, it just wasn’t as predictable according to dose. Whereas you had to get the dosage just right with the CBD isolate.
With the CBD full plant extract it was much easier to dose the CBD and get the dose just right by knowing that you either had to just increase or decrease the dose depending on the effect that you wanted.
Learn more:
- CBD Oil Dosage – How much CBD should I take?
- CBD Oil Side Effects – And possible Adverse Reactions of Cannabidiol
Both can be processed into a wide variety of products
And it’s important to note that, both of these can be made into other kinds of products. You can put isolate of course almost in anything but CBD full plant extract itself you can put that in tons of different products as well.
As for example, like food or beauty products or whatever. They’re both very usable in that case. They both can be applied for people’s uses very easily. It’s just a matter of finding which one works better for you or for your application.
What are your experiences? – Tell us!
We would like to hear your thoughts on which what has worked better for you. If you’ve used both, full plant extracts which is just the product made from the plant itself as compared to CBD isolates, where it was the isolated CBD molecule. Which one worked better for you?
We’d love to read your own story in our CBD Oil Reviews & Testimonials Section. Because we know people that read our articles are using both CBD Isolate and/or CBD the full plant extracts.
Check out this paper and let us know what you think. Mainly we would like to get a conversation going on what have you seen is better for you. If you’ve used both, do you prefer the isolate or do you prefer the plant extract? And why? We know a lot of people really just prefer the plant extract because they want that more natural route.
Martin Lee of project CBD, which is a great site for CBD as well, said this recently: I see usage and application for both. I’m not against one or the other I think both of them have a great applications. It’s just going to vary depending on who you are and what you’re using it for.
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