AM-2232.

AM-2232 belongs to the naphthoylindoles: an indole nucleus acylated by a 1-naphthoyl group, the indole nitrogen carrying a butyl chain ending in a nitrile, where JWH-018 carries a methyl and AM-2201 a fluorine. It binds to both cannabinoid receptors with no clear selectivity, and the published affinities span several orders of magnitude depending on the assay system (from 0.28 nM at rat CB1 in the original patent to 14.5 nM at human CB1 in Marusich et al., 2018); this dispersion must be pointed out rather than hidden. At human CB1, the maximal effect in [35S]GTPγS stimulation exceeds that of the reference CP55,940, and inhibition of cyclic AMP reaches 100% of the response of CP55,940 where Δ9-THC plateaus at 72% (Zagzoog et al., 2021): it is a full agonist on this criterion, whereas THC is only a partial agonist. The synthetic cannabinoid agonists characterised to date mostly behave as full agonists, and high potency and full agonism are considered to drive the toxicity of the class (Mercier et al., 2025). Recruitment of βarrestin2 is negligible at CB1 (EC50 above 10,000 nM), hence a described bias towards the G protein. In mice, the molecule fully substitutes for THC in a discrimination test, with a potency about nine times higher, and full substitution at the 1.0 mg/kg dose is accompanied by a fall in response rate, a marker of behavioural depression. At CB2, stimulation of [35S]GTPγS remains weak (31.3%). No activity is documented at TRPV1, GPR55, PPARγ or 5-HT1A, no dedicated metabolism study was found, and human data are lacking.

Source

An entirely synthetic molecule, absent from hemp and from any living organism. It comes from the medicinal chemistry work of Alexandros Makriyannis and Hongfeng Deng at the University of Connecticut, who were exploring cannabimimetic indoles as probes of the CB1 receptor. It was later found in consumer products: smoking herbal mixtures analysed in Germany in the autumn of 2012, where a single mixture could contain up to five different synthetic cannabinoids (Langer et al., 2014), and illegal products in Japan (Uchiyama et al., 2013).

No biological pathway: the molecule is produced by no living organism and results from no enzymatic reaction. It belongs solely to synthetic chemistry. The nitrile is not a motif that plant cannabinoid biosynthesis can form: its presence alone signals a laboratory origin.

European Union

The substance is not listed in the Annex to Council Framework Decision 2004/757/JHA (consolidated version of 12 January 2026), which lists the new psychoactive substances controlled at European Union level; control is a matter for national law. It appears in the lists of the EUDA and of UNODC recording the synthetic cannabinoids reported (Zangani et al., 2020), which is monitoring and not control. It does not appear in the schedules of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances (green list of the INCB, 35th and 36th editions).

France

AM-2232 is named in no entry of the consolidated ANSM list (updated 16 February 2026), where its neighbours AM-2201, MAM-2201, AM-2233, AM-694 and AM-679 do appear. The clause covering tetrahydrocannabinols, their esters, ethers and salts (annex III since the decision of 6 February 2026) does not apply: the molecule has no structural kinship with THC. What remains is the generic family of the « indol-3-yl methanones » in annex IV, introduced by the decree of 31 March 2017 (JORF of 6 April 2017), which covers the naphthoylindoles: it targets a substituent on the indole nitrogen of the alkyl, haloalkyl, halobenzyl, alkenyl, cycloalkylmethyl, cycloalkylethyl, methyl-oxane, 1-(N-methylpiperidin-2-yl)methyl or 2-(4-morpholinyl)ethyl type. The 4-cyanobutyl chain of AM-2232 is mentioned in none of these categories; the text of the family does not say whether an alkyl bearing a nitrile is included. Its attachment to that family is therefore not established, and the molecule is not classified by name as a narcotic; the question remains to be confirmed by the ANSM or a lawyer. This makes it neither lawful to sell nor fit for consumption, and the ANSM supplements its list several times a year.

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

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

naphthoylindole

Verification

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

Wikipedia (English)

AM-2232 (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. 1Makriyannis A, Deng H. Cannabimimetic indole derivatives. US patent 7241799 B2, University of Connecticut, priority of 18 October 1999, granted 10 July 2007 (AM-2232: Ki CB1 0.28 nM, Ki CB2 1.48 nM). (new tab)
2. 2Marusich JA, Wiley JL, Lefever TW, Patel PR, Thomas BF. Finding order in chemical chaos: continuing characterization of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists. Neuropharmacology. 2018;134(Pt A):73-81. (new tab)PMID 29113898
3. 3Zagzoog A, Brandt AL, Black T, et al. Assessment of select synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist bias and selectivity between the type 1 and type 2 cannabinoid receptor. Sci Rep. 2021;11:10611 (AM 2232, table 1: binding, cAMP, βarrestin2, CHO cells). (new tab)PMID 34012003
4. 4Mercier G, Mohamed KA, Zagzoog A, et al. In vitro pharmacological activity of twenty-eight synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists at the type 1 and 2 cannabinoid receptors. Neurochem Int. 2025;106039 (abstract: full agonism and high potency of the synthetic agonists, THC a partial agonist). (new tab)PMID 40876783
5. 5Zaitsu K, Nakayama H, Yamanaka M, et al. High-resolution mass spectrometric determination of the synthetic cannabinoids MAM-2201, AM-1220, AM-2232, and their metabolites in postmortem plasma and urine by LC/Q-TOFMS. Int J Legal Med. 2015;129(6):1233-45. (new tab)PMID 26349566
6. 6Erratum to the title of Zaitsu et al. 2015: the third compound in the autopsy case is AM-1220, not AM-2201. Int J Legal Med. 2016;130(2):563. (new tab)PMID 26718839
7. 7Uchiyama N, Kawamura M, Kikura-Hanajiri R, Goda Y. URB-754: a new class of designer drug and 12 synthetic cannabinoids detected in illegal products. Forensic Sci Int. 2013;227(1-3):21-32 (AM-2232 among the compounds newly distributed in Japan). (new tab)PMID 23063179
8. 8Langer N, Lindigkeit R, Schiebel HM, Ernst L, Beuerle T. Identification and quantification of synthetic cannabinoids in 'spice-like' herbal mixtures: a snapshot of the German situation in the autumn of 2012. Drug Test Anal. 2014;6(1-2):59-71 (AM-2232 identified in German mixtures). (new tab)PMID 23723183
9. 9Rodrigues WC, Catbagan P, Rana S, Wang G, Moore C. Detection of synthetic cannabinoids in oral fluid using ELISA and LC-MS-MS. J Anal Toxicol. 2013;37(8):526-33 (oral-fluid immunoassay detecting AM-2232, cut-off 0.25 ng/mL). (new tab)PMID 23946452
10. 10Zangani C et al. The e-Psychonauts' 'Spiced' World: assessment of the synthetic cannabinoids' information available online. Curr Neuropharmacol. 2020 (AM-2232 in the UNODC, EUDA and NPSFinder lists). (new tab)PMID 32116194
11. 11ANSM. Consolidated list of substances classified as narcotics, updated 16 February 2026 (AM-2232 not named; generic definition of the indol-3-yl methanone family). (new tab)
12. 12Order of 31 March 2017 amending the order of 22 February 1990 setting the list of substances classified as narcotics, JORF of 6 April 2017 (« indol-3-yl methanone » family). (new tab)
13. 13International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). Green List, 35th edition, 2024: list of psychotropic substances under international control (AM-2232 absent; JWH-018 and AM-2201 listed in Schedule II). (new tab)

SMILES

C1=CC=C2C(=C1)C=CC=C2C(=O)C3=CN(C4=CC=CC=C43)CCCCC#N

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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