CBG Atlas · The Mother CannabinoidEvidence-graded · Provenance-tracked
The mother cannabinoid

Everything begins with CBG.

CBG is the precursor the plant builds the other cannabinoids from — and one of the least understood. CBG Atlas is the evidence-graded reference for what is actually known, told at your level and honest about its limits.

6
Rung evidence ladder
1 of 10
Conditions with human data
21
Verified studies
Pre-
Clinical evidence base
Every claim sourced & graded21 PubMed-verified studiesEditorially independent
Why the honesty matters

Someone, somewhere, is deciding whether to give this to a parent, a patient, themselves. They deserve the real state of the evidence — not the most hopeful reading of it.

The promise behind every grade, every hedge, every citation
What we don't know

The gap-map — coverage, not marketing.

Across 10 tracked conditions, CBG has 0 with established or demonstrated human efficacy, 1 with any human data at all, and 1 with no primary evidence. The rest are preclinical or mechanistic only. This is the honest state of the evidence.

10
Conditions tracked
1
With any human data
0
At Established or Demonstrated
Why we publish the gaps

Most references show you their strongest page. The gap-map shows every tracked condition — including the ones with no primary evidence at all — with what would have to be done before a grade could move. A gap is not a promise, and nothing on it says CBG works for anything.

01 — The origin

Why CBG is the mother cannabinoid.

Not a marketing epithet — a description of the biosynthesis. Every well-known cannabinoid in the plant descends from one acid, and that is why this reference starts here.

Figure E · biosynthesis
The making of the mother cannabinoid
The biosynthetic origin of cannabinoids.Geranyl pyrophosphate and olivetolic acid combine, via a prenyltransferase, into CBGA — the mother acid. This upstream step is general biochemistry, drawn lighter because it is not yet in the registry. CBGA is then converted by THCA synthase into THCA (Sirikantaramas 2004), by CBDA synthase into CBDA (Taura 1996), and into CBCA — the synthases are not perfectly specific and also yield some CBCA (Zirpel 2018). Heat and time decarboxylate the acids into the neutral forms THC, CBD and CBC (Wang 2016).PRECURSORSplant building blocksMOTHER ACIDACID FORMSmade in the plantNEUTRAL FORMSafter heat + timeDEMONSTRATED · PLANT BIOCHEMISTRYverified: Taura 1996 · Sirikantaramas 2004 · Zirpel 2018 · Wang 2016GPPgeranyl-PPolivetolicacidPRENYLTRANSFERASEgeneral biochemistry · not yet in registryCBGATHE MOTHER ACIDTHCA synthaseCBDA synthaseCBCA synthaseTHCACBDACBCASirikantaramas 2004Taura 1996Zirpel 2018 · also →CBCADECARBOXYLATION · heat + timekinetics: Wang 2016THCCBDCBCΔ⁹-THCcannabidiolcannabichromene
One precursor, three branches — CBGA is the biochemical origin of the “mother cannabinoid.” Every step here is registry-verified except the upstream one (drawn lighter): the plant assembles CBGA from GPP + olivetolic acid, which we state as general biochemistry until a primary enzyme study is verified in. Taura 1996 · 10.1074/jbc.271.29.17411 · Sirikantaramas 2004 · 10.1074/jbc.m403693200 · Zirpel 2018 · 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2018.07.031 · Wang 2016 · PMID 28861498
i

A single branch point

Every well-known cannabinoid traces back through CBGA. Change what happens at the synthase step and you change which cannabinoid the plant makes.

ii

Acid, then neutral

Plants make the acidic forms — THCA, CBDA, CBCA. Heat and time decarboxylate them into the neutral forms most people know.

iii

Why it matters

Understanding the origin is the foundation for reading any claim about a cannabinoid's effects — and for seeing where the evidence is, or isn't.

Signature instrument

Where CBG may act.

A guided map of where CBG’s known mechanisms could act — every region graded, hedged, and honest about what it does not show.

Interactive · select a region

Choose a row to see the specific signals researchers are studying, what each is based on, and what it does not yet establish.

Regions mapped
7
Human trials
1
Regions with no primary evidence
3

Original anatomical study. Decorative — every claim it points at is written out beside it.

Body regionSelect to expand
  • CBG's most potent known interaction is at α2-adrenoceptors, alongside 5-HT1A antagonism and TRP-channel activity. One small acute human trial has measured anxiety, stress and mood; everything else here is laboratory or animal work.

    Signals under study
    • Low

      Anxiety & stress — one small, single-dose, placebo-controlled human trial (Cuttler 2024). Graded Low: acute, self-report endpoints, and two preclinical studies in our registry point the other way.

    • Hypothesized

      Mood — 5-HT1A antagonism is a plausible mechanism. No human trial has measured it.

    • Preclinical

      Neuroinflammation — TRP-channel activity seen in cell and animal studies only.

    What the evidence does not establish

    Whether these receptor interactions produce a meaningful, measurable effect in people — and at what dose. The single human trial measured one acute dose in healthy volunteers.

Three of seven regions hold no primary evidence at all. They are on the map because the receptor is, not because the outcome is — and a map that showed only regions with findings would be a marketing diagram.

The full gap-map → Every verified study →

Built to be trusted

Trust you can verify — not trust you’re asked to grant.

Hash-pinned snapshots

Every published snapshot carries a SHA-256 registry hash (154671f50c4a) and every study its own provenance hash. Download the exact snapshot and check what you read against it.

Download & verify →

Contradicting evidence, shown

Where the literature conflicts, we say so. Studies that contradict a claim are counted on the gap-map beside the ones that support it. We never manufacture consensus.

See the conflicts →

Contractual independence

Funded by Peregrine Biopharma, which holds no editorial authority — a firewall written into the funding agreement, not a promise.

Read the standard →
How we grade evidence

One scale. Honest about every rung.

Every claim on CBG Atlas carries a grade, and the grade governs the language it is allowed to use. The two move together — so the tone can never outrun the evidence.

  1. Established

    Settled science — replicated human data, or biochemistry that is not in dispute.

    is shown to
  2. Demonstrated

    Shown reproducibly in controlled experiments — typically laboratory (in-vitro) work.

    has been shown to
  3. Emerging

    An early signal — preclinical (animal) work, or human evidence too limited to settle the question.

    may · early evidence suggests
  4. Low

    Limited and low-confidence — sparse, indirect, or single-source data.

    limited evidence · unclear
  5. Hypothesized

    Proposed and plausible — but not yet shown.

    proposed mechanism
  6. Not supported

    Tested, and the evidence does NOT support it. This is a finding against the claim — not an absence of evidence.

    evidence does not support
Sourcing it yourself

What to require before you buy.

Our directories are empty on purpose: a listing appears only when its verification can be checked. Until then, here is what to demand of anyone selling to you.

Photographs — Kadarius Seegars · Madeline Liu · National Cancer Institute. Unsplash License; licence and source recorded per file in the repository.

Where to find it

Three directories, by who you are.

Educational listings, never endorsements. Each entry shows the verification it actually carries, and no listing is a health claim.

01

Consumer products

For readers buying something

Brands, retailers and marketplaces listed for third-party testing and plain milligram labeling — the checks to make before you buy.

02

Compounds to formulate

For formulators and manufacturers

Manufacturers, distributors and toll formulators for CBG actives, judged on the documentation, purity and traceability they publish.

03

Research compounds

For researchers and analysts

Neat standards, certified solutions and reference materials for quantitation, calibration and method validation. Research use only.

Coming later — Atlas, the grounded assistant

Atlas is not open yet, and nothing on this site answers questions today. When it opens it will answer only from this verified registry, cite every source, carry the grade with the claim, and say “we don't know” where the registry is silent. Read what Atlas will and will not do.