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Synthetic

ADB-HEXINACA

An indazole synthetic cannabinoid, a potent CB1 agonist, classified as a narcotic in France by generic clause.

Narcotic: generic clause
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.

C₂₀H₃₀N₄O₂

CID 163191674

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

Updated on

In plain terms

ADB-HEXINACA is a molecule made in a laboratory, with no link at all to hemp. It appeared around 2021 in seized herbal material. It acts on the same receptors as THC and, in mice, at lower doses; it has nothing to do with CBD and goes into no legally sold product.

Receptors and activity

Target network

CB1AgonistEC50 = 13.5 nMmembrane potential (FLIPR), AtT20 cells expressing CB1; Emax 124 ± 5% of the reference; β-arrestin 2 recruitment pEC50 8.27
  • Activates

The lower the cited value, the closer the target sits to ADB-HEXINACA: 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 ADB-HEXINACA.

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. CB1AgonistEC50 = 13.5 nM64 out of 100

    Sparkes et al. 2024, ACS Chem Neurosci (new tab) · membrane potential (FLIPR), AtT20 cells expressing CB1; Emax 124 ± 5% of the reference; β-arrestin 2 recruitment pEC50 8.27

  2. CB2Agonistno measured value cited

    Measured in the same body of work (Sparkes et al., 2024); value not re-read in the full text

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

ADB-HEXINACA belongs to the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists of the indazole-3-carboxamide series: an indazole core bearing a hexyl chain at position 1 and a tert-leucinamide head, which makes it the long-chain homologue of ADB-BUTINACA and ADB-PINACA. Sparkes and colleagues (2024) describe it as a potent and fully efficacious CB1 agonist, its maximal efficacy exceeding that of the reference agonist; that is the decisive difference from THC, a partial agonist whose effect plateaus. In rodents, it fully substitutes for THC in discrimination assays and depresses locomotor activity at markedly lower exposures than THC (Shetty et al., 2026). Activity at the CB2 receptor was measured in the same series of studies. By contrast, no published data document any action at TRPV1, GPR55, PPARγ or 5-HT1A, and controlled human data are wholly lacking: what is known comes from forensic toxicology and animal experimentation, not from clinical trials.

Key sources.

History

Source
An entirely synthetic molecule, absent from cannabis and from any other plant. It has been encountered in herbal material (Giorgetti et al., 2024) and in impregnated papers seized in Scottish prisons (Kronstrand et al., 2022), and not in an isolated form intended for an identified use.

Origin

Laboratory synthesis

No known biological pathway: the molecule does not exist in living things and comes solely from synthetic chemistry.

Classification

Family, origin and source verification

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

indazole-3-carboxamide

Verification

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

Wikipedia (English)

ADB-HEXINACA (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. Gilbert N, Costello A, Ellison JR, et al. Synthesis, characterisation, detection and quantification of a novel hexyl-substituted synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist (ADB-HINACA). Forensic Chemistry, 2021, 26:100354 (first description) (new tab)DOI 10.1016/j.forc.2021.100354
  2. Sparkes E, Timmerman A, Markham JW, et al. Synthesis and Functional Evaluation of Synthetic Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists Related to ADB-HEXINACA. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2024, 15(9):1787-1812 (new tab)PMID 38597712
  3. Baginski SR, Rautio T, Nisbet LA, et al. The metabolic profile of the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist ADB-HEXINACA using human hepatocytes, LC-QTOF-MS and synthesized reference standards. Journal of Analytical Toxicology, 2023 (new tab)PMID 37747838
  4. Giorgetti A, Zschiesche A, Groth O, et al. ADB-HEXINACA, a novel synthetic cannabinoid with a hexyl substituent: phase I metabolism in authentic urine samples, a case report and prevalence on the German market. Drug Testing and Analysis, 2024, 16(11):1350-1365 (new tab)PMID 38350637
  5. Shetty RA, Hill RD, McDonald JA, et al. Behavioral pharmacology of novel synthetic indazole, indole, and benzimidazole cannabinoids in rodents. Journal of Cannabis Research, 2026 (new tab)PMID 41526973
  6. Kronstrand R, Norman C, Vikingsson S, et al. The metabolism of the synthetic cannabinoids ADB-BUTINACA and ADB-4en-PINACA and their detection in forensic toxicology casework and infused papers seized in prisons. Drug Testing and Analysis, 2022 (mentions the detection of ADB-HEXINACA in the prison setting) (new tab)PMID 34811926
  7. Rock KL, Treble R, Copeland CS, Legislating novel psychoactive substances: lessons from 15 years of UK mortality data (2007-2022), Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2025: three post-mortem detections of ADB-HEXINACA, all in 2021; near-disappearance of synthetic agonists from British deaths in 2022 after the Chinese generic ban of 2021 (new tab)PMID 41695988
  8. Order of 31 March 2017 amending the order of 22 February 1990 setting the list of substances classified as narcotics (Annex IV, « Indazole-3-carboxamide derivatives » family), Légifrance (new tab)
  9. OFDT, New synthetic products: state of knowledge, focus on synthetic cannabinoids (French legal framework) (new tab)
  10. Bulgarian national focal point, new psychoactive substances identified by the national early warning system in 2022 (new tab)
  11. PubChem, ADB-HEXINACA, CID 163191674 (identifiers and structure) (new tab)

Identifiers

Names

IUPAC name
N-[(2S)-1-amino-3,3-dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl]-1-hexylindazole-3-carboxamide
Other names
ADB-HINACA

Identifiers

Formula
C₂₀H₃₀N₄O₂
PubChem CID
163191674(new tab)
InChIKey
PZMLDAGKYPJWHJ-QGZVFWFLSA-N
SMILES
O=C(N[C@@H](C(C)(C)C)C(N)=O)C1=NN(CCCCCC)C2=C1C=CC=C2

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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