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Synthetic

5F-PB-22

A quinolinyl ester of indole-3-carboxylate, a potent agonist at CB1 and CB2; in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention since 2018, a narcotic in France.

Narcotic: named in schedule
Level of detail

Harm-reduction warning

No characterised human dose: animal / in vitro data only. Effect profile, safety margin and acute toxicity are not documented in human clinical practice. Extremely potent compound: severe effects, seizures and deaths reported in the literature.

C₂₃H₂₁FN₂O₂

CAS 1400742-41-7

Family
Synthetic CB receptor agonistNew psychoactive substance
Molar mass
376.43 g/mol

Updated on

In plain terms

5F-PB-22 is a synthetic cannabinoid sold illegally. It has nothing in common with CBD: it acts on the same receptors as THC. Death cases with detection of the substance have been described in the United States and Germany. It is classed as a narcotic in France and is in Schedule II of the 1971 Convention.

Receptors and activity

Target network

CB1AgonistKi = 0.1 nM · human[3H]CP-55940 displacement, human CB1
  • Activates

The lower the cited value, the closer the target sits to 5F-PB-22: one ring per factor of 100. A target with no measured value stays on the edge.

Where these targets live

Where each target has been found in humans, according to the cited studies. The map shows the target, not an effect of 5F-PB-22.

Brain, side view
Body, front view
Blood

CB1CB1 found in 7 regions of the body

  1. Basal gangliadenseMost dense in basal ganglia outflow nuclei1
  2. CerebellumdenseVery dense in the cerebellum1
  3. HippocampusdenseVery high concentrations in the hippocampus2
  4. AmygdaladenseHigh concentrations in the amygdala2
  5. CortexpresentPresent throughout the neocortex2
  6. Adipose tissuepresentExpressed in adipose tissue3
  7. GutpresentColonic epithelium, smooth muscle and plexus4

Map sources

  1. Herkenham M et al. Cannabinoid receptor localization in brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 1990 (new tab)
  2. Glass M et al. Cannabinoid receptors in the human brain: a detailed anatomical and quantitative autoradiographic study in the fetal, neonatal and adult human brain. Neuroscience, 1997 (new tab)
  3. Engeli S et al. Activation of the peripheral endocannabinoid system in human obesity. Diabetes, 2005 (new tab)
  4. Wright K et al. Differential expression of cannabinoid receptors in the human colon: cannabinoids promote epithelial wound healing. Gastroenterology, 2005 (new tab)

Cited values

  1. CB1AgonistKi = 0.1 nM · human100 out of 100

    Sommer et al. 2026, Addiction (new tab) · [3H]CP-55940 displacement, human CB1

  2. CB2Agonistno measured value cited
Bar length follows the measured value (Ki, Kd, EC50 or IC50), on one scale shared by every entry, from 100 µM to 0.1 nM. A target with no cited value has no bar.

Pharmacology

5F-PB-22 is the quinolin-8-yl ester of 1-(5-fluoropentyl)indole-3-carboxylic acid, a fluorinated analogue of PB-22 (QUPIC). De Luca et al. (Neuropharmacology 2016) measure at native CB1 in rat cortex an affinity of 0.13 nM, 26 times lower than the Ki of JWH-018 (3.38 nM), and a potency (EC50 3.7 nM) and efficacy (Emax 203%) higher than those of JWH-018 (20.2 nM; 163%). At 0.01 mg/kg intravenously, it increases dopamine in the nucleus accumbens shell; the agonist properties of the compounds studied are abolished or strongly reduced by the CB1 antagonist AM251 and absent in mice lacking CB1. Banister et al. (ACS Chem Neurosci 2015) confirm agonist activity at human CB1 and CB2 and observe that analogues fluorinated at the chain end are generally 2 to 5 times more potent at CB1 in vitro, with no consistent trend in vivo (in rats, the hypothermia ranks PB-22 ahead of 5F-PB-22). No clinical trial was found in the sources consulted: human data come from case reports, including four deaths in the United States (1.1 to 1.5 ng/mL; Behonick et al. 2014) and one death in Germany (0.37 ng/mL; Angerer et al. 2017).

Key sources.

History

Source
A synthetic cannabinoid of the drug market, with no documented academic or pharmaceutical origin; quantified in four post-mortem samples in the United States between July and October 2013 (Behonick et al. 2014).

Origin

Laboratory synthesis

Quinolin-8-yl ester of 1-(5-fluoropentyl)indole-3-carboxylic acid, the analogue of PB-22 (QUPIC) fluorinated at the end of the pentyl chain.

Classification

Family, origin and source verification

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

indole-3-carboxylate

Verification

Classification, sources and binding values checked on 20 October 2026; text read against its sources and Wikipedia.

Wikipedia (English)

5F-PB-22 (new tab)

Article paired by the molecule's structure (InChIKey), revision read on 19 October 2026. Read as a second opinion, never cited as a source.

References

  1. De Luca et al. · Neuropharmacology 2016 (new tab)PMID 26686391
  2. Banister et al. · ACS Chem Neurosci 2015 (new tab)PMID 25921407
  3. Sommer et al. · Addiction 2026 (new tab)PMID 41423817
  4. Wohlfarth et al. · Anal Bioanal Chem 2014 (new tab)PMID 24518903
  5. Behonick et al. · J Anal Toxicol 2014 (new tab)PMID 24876364
  6. Angerer et al. · Forensic Sci Int 2017 (new tab)PMID 29133010
  7. Tang et al. · Forensic Sci Int 2017 (new tab)PMID 28846913

Identifiers

Names

IUPAC name
quinolin-8-yl 1-(5-fluoropentyl)indole-3-carboxylate
Other names
5-fluoro-PB-22 · 5F-QUPIC

Identifiers

Formula
C₂₃H₂₁FN₂O₂
CAS
1400742-41-7
PubChem CID
72710774(new tab)
InChIKey
MBOCMBFDYVSGLJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N
SMILES
C1=CC=C2C(=C1)C(=CN2CCCCCF)C(=O)OC3=CC=CC4=C3N=CC=C4

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

LLM ingestion format: a structured superset of the entry (identifiers, binding, versioned legal status). Full corpus.