AB-001.

AB-001 is an adamantoylindole, a full agonist of the CB1 and CB2 receptors. In the functional assay published in 2013 by Banister's team, the EC50 is 35 nM at CB1 and 48 nM at CB2, with an efficacy of 105% and 86% of that of the reference agonist WIN 55,212-2 (AtT-20 cells expressing rat CB1 and human CB2). The difference from cannabis lies less in affinity than in efficacy: Δ9-THC is only a partial agonist of CB1, whereas in this assay the compound reaches the efficacy of the reference full agonist. The same study nevertheless observed in the rat neither significant hypothermia nor bradycardia, even at 30 mg/kg, whereas the carboxamide analogue APICA produced them dose-dependently; this gap between cellular potency and animal response is not explained. Human pharmacology has never been studied: human data are lacking on kinetics, dependence potential and the effects of repeated use, and no clinical series concerns this precise molecule. The only published human work bears on urine, where the unchanged compound is absent, detection resting on its metabolites hydroxylated on the adamantane cage.

Source

An entirely synthetic molecule, absent from hemp as from any living organism. It belongs to the synthetic cannabinoid market: it was spotted in 2010 in products sold in head shops in Ireland, notified in 2011 by the German authorities to the early warning system of the European drugs agency, and identified in powders seized in Hungary. No medical, food or industrial use is known for this compound, whose legitimate use is limited to research and analytical calibration.

No biological pathway: this compound comes from no plant or animal metabolism and exists only through organic synthesis. Its first published preparation appears in the 2013 article that provided its pharmacological evaluation.

European Union

There is no harmonised control measure at European Union level for this compound: classification is a matter for the Member States, the European level being limited to the early warning system, to which the substance was notified in 2011 by the German authorities. Internationally, it appears in no schedule of the United Nations conventions.

France

The molecule is listed by name in France. Annex IV of the decree of 22 February 1990 setting the list of substances classified as narcotics contains a generic family of "indol-3-yl methanones", defined by the nature of the substituent borne by the nitrogen of the indole ring and by that of the group borne by the carbon of the methanone bridge, the adamantyl group being among those admitted. The text expressly cites among its examples "AB-001 ou (1-pentyl-3-(adamant-1-oyl) indole)", a mention introduced by the decree of 31 March 2017 published in the Journal officiel of 6 April 2017. This is therefore a listing by name and not a mere generic clause: use, possession, transfer, acquisition and importation fall under the narcotics regime. The older clause covering "Tetrahydrocannabinols, their esters, ethers, salts as well as the salts of the aforementioned derivatives" is of no relevance here, this compound being neither a tetrahydrocannabinol nor a derivative of one.

Sources: EUR-Lex, UNODC, CND, ANSM, IUPHAR/BPS, ChEBI, EUDA. Our method.

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

adamantoylindole

Verification

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

Wikipedia (English)

AB-001 (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.

1. 1Banister SD, Wilkinson SM, Longworth M et al. The synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of adamantane-derived indoles: cannabimimetic drugs of abuse. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2013. (new tab)PMID 23551277
2. 2Jankovics P et al. Detection and identification of the new potential synthetic cannabinoids 1-pentyl-3-(2-iodobenzoyl)indole and 1-pentyl-3-(1-adamantoyl)indole in seized bulk powders in Hungary. Forensic Science International, 2012. (new tab)PMID 21813254
3. 3Grigoryev A, Kavanagh P, Melnik A. The detection of the urinary metabolites of 3-[(adamantan-1-yl)carbonyl]-1-pentylindole (AB-001), a novel cannabimimetic, by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Drug Testing and Analysis, 2012. (new tab)PMID 22102533
4. 4Légifrance. Annex IV of the order of 22 February 1990 setting the list of substances classified as narcotics, indol-3-yl methanone family. (new tab)
5. 5Légifrance. Order of 31 March 2017 amending the order of 22 February 1990, Journal officiel of 6 April 2017. (new tab)
6. 6Légifrance. Order of 3 October 2017 amending the order of 22 February 1990, generic definition of indol-3-yl methanones. (new tab)
7. 7PubChem CID 57404070, AB-001. (new tab)
8. 8ANSM, consolidated list of substances classified as narcotics, updated 16 February 2026: AB-001 cited as an example of the « indol-3-yl methanone » family (Annex IV) (new tab)

SMILES

CCCCCN1C=C(C2=CC=CC=C21)C(=O)C34CC5CC(C3)CC(C5)C4

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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