Good Herb Soda and Terps & Co

For many people, the word ‘Terpene’ is a strange and unfamiliar term. You might have heard the phrase ‘Terpene’ for the first time, but you already know what terpenes are because you’ve experienced them all your life.

Terpenes are the organic compounds found everywhere in nature within each herb, flower, and fruit that give them their unique scent and flavour. So, when someone says, “Stop and smell the roses,” what they’re saying is, “Stop and smell the terpenes.”

Scientifically speaking, terpenes are a large class of hydrocarbon compounds that are then acted upon by various enzymes to add a wide variety of functional effects produced by terpenes.

Most commonly, terpenes are in essential oils often utilised in aromatherapy and other forms of holistic healing. Similarly, the fragrance industry uses terpenes in perfumes, colognes, and other scented products.

Why Does a Plant Produce Terpenes?

Terpenes play a dual role for plants. On the one hand, Terpenes act as a defence mechanism created by plants to protect against herbivores, insects, and other environmental dangers. On the other hand, they’re also responsible for a plant’s regeneration and oxygenation. By excreting an intense aroma, plants can repel specific bugs while attracting the beneficial insects they need for pollination.

Many factors influence a plant’s development of terpenes, including climate, weather, age, maturation, fertilisers, soil type, and even the time of day. The same plant species found in different parts of the world may have a slightly different smell or flavour.

How Terpenes Interact with Humans?

Terpenes provide therapeutic benefits. Based on traditional herbal medicines and emerging science, terpenes seem to offer healing benefits for a wide array of health conditions and general support of holistic health. Because terpenes are partially responsible for maintaining the health & safety of the plants against environmental threats, it makes sense that they offer us medical benefits as well.

A 2009 review published in the International Journal of Neuroscience explains the effects of aromatic compounds either psychologically or pharmacologically.

The psychological hypothesis argues that a person’s beliefs, expectations, emotional associations, and perceptions are the real reasons behind terpenes’ effects, not their direct interaction with the body’s systems.

The pharmacological hypothesis argues that terpenes affect mood, physiology, and behaviour because they interact with the human body’s nervous and endocrine systems (hormones).

There Is Evidence For Both Hypotheses:

We know how our liking or disliking an odour can influence a positive or negative shift in our moods. A scent we like can improve our mood, decrease anxiety, and even reduce the unpleasantness of pain, and the odours we dislike can worsen our mood and the way we feel pain.

Science proves that terpenes bind to receptors in the brain to give rise to various pharmacological effects. The brain uses neurons to communicate/coordinate everything we feel, think, and do, and neurons have receptors on their surface to receive signals from nearby neurons. Different terpenes react with various receptors in the brain, and depending upon which receptors terpenes react with, they may help induce sleep and relax muscles. In contrast, others reduce stress and elevate mood, or reduce inflammation and increase energy.

For example, Limonene, the terpene found in citrus fruits such as lemon, serves up a refreshing and mood-elevating sensation. In contrast, Myrcene, found in Mangos, provides more of a relaxing effect.