Where does CBD come from? From hemp trichome to bottle

Hemp and so-called recreational cannabis are one species, Cannabis sativa L. The law tells them apart by their content of Δ⁹-THC, the psychoactive molecule, as our article on the differences between hemp and cannabis explains in detail.

The governing text is the order of 30 December 2021. It authorises growing, importing and industrial use of varieties listed in the EU Common Catalogue or the French official catalogue whose Δ⁹-THC content does not exceed 0.30%. Flowers and leaves face three extra conditions: the plants must come from certified seed, plants may not be sold nor cuttings taken, and only active farmers may grow them. The same 0.30% cap applies to extracts and to the products containing them.

The order also prohibited selling raw flowers and leaves to consumers. The Conseil d'État annulled that ban on 29 December 2022. Our guide to the EU catalogue of hemp varieties explains which varieties are authorised.

CBD is concentrated in particular structures of the plant. A 2020 study in Scientific Reports notes that cannabinoids and terpenes are produced and stored in the secretory cells of glandular trichomes, and these are especially dense on seedless female flowers. Stems and roots hold very little, which is why CBD is harvested from the flowering tops. Our article on the role of trichomes shows them under the microscope.

Synthesis takes three steps. First the plant combines olivetolic acid and geranyl pyrophosphate into CBGA, the "mother molecule". Then an enzyme, CBDA synthase, converts CBGA into CBDA, as described in a 2021 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology. CBD hemp mainly carries this enzyme, whereas THC cannabis mainly carries THCA synthase. Last, heat strips a carboxyl group from CBDA and it becomes CBD, a reaction called decarboxylation.

Other compounds come from the same glands. The 2020 study lists 120 terpenoids in cannabis, 61 monoterpenes and 52 sesquiterpenoids among them. Hemp also produces two flavonoids found only in this species, cannflavins A and B, whose biosynthetic pathway was described in 2019.

All CBD products start from the same dried flowering tops, and they differ in how much of the plant they keep.

Flower is sold as is once dried. Resin needs no solvent: the trichomes are knocked off, either dry over sieves or in ice water, then collected and pressed. The glossary describes methods such as dry sifting.

Oil has to be extracted, and a 2022 comparison of industrial techniques covers the two main methods. Supercritical CO₂ typically runs at 100 to 300 bar and 35 to 60 °C; it leaves no residue in the extract, though the equipment is costly. Ethanol dissolves chlorophyll and waxes as well, less so when used cold, at −60 to −40 °C. It must then be evaporated, ideally below 60 °C. A "winterisation" step, chilling then filtering, removes the waxes, and the review considers it necessary after CO₂ extraction. The process is explained in our article on supercritical CO₂ extraction.

The extract is then diluted in a vegetable oil: often MCT oil from coconut or palm kernel, hemp seed oil or olive oil. That ratio sets the percentage on the label. At 10% weight per volume, an oil holds 100 mg of CBD per millilitre, which makes 1,000 mg in a 10 ml bottle. Each step is covered in our article on how a CBD oil is made.

One extract can reach the market in three forms. Full spectrum keeps the cannabinoids, THC traces below the legal limit included, and some of the terpenes. Broad spectrum has the THC removed. An isolate is purified CBD alone, as a crystalline powder. To choose between them, see our comparison full spectrum or isolate.

CBD can come from sources other than hemp. In 2019, a Berkeley team reported in Nature the complete biosynthesis of cannabinoids, including CBDA, in engineered yeast, and chemical synthesis is another route. These options are reviewed in our article on CBD produced outside hemp.

A separate matter is CBD used as raw material for synthetic molecules. According to the ANSM, France's medicines agency, HHC is obtained by chemical synthesis from natural cannabinoids, and the agency classified HHC as a narcotic from 13 June 2023. H4CBD, which the ANSM places among "chemically modified natural substances", followed on 3 June 2024, along with THCP and a whole family of derivatives. A "CBD derivative" therefore falls outside CBD products altogether; our article on the H4CBD ban gives the details.

You can read a product's origin on its label and its certificate of analysis. Four items let you follow the chain back:

• the batch number, identical to the one on the certificate;
• the variety, which you can find in the EU catalogue;
• Δ⁹-THC, at 0.30% or less in the finished product;
• no HHC, H4CBD or THCP, when the lab tested for them.

Each line is explained in our guide to reading a certificate of analysis, and our laboratory page lists the catalogue products. On the regulatory side, oils presented as food supplements have been off sale in France since May 2026, after the Ministry of Agriculture restated that foods containing CBD are not authorised.