APICA.Also known as SDB-001

APICA is an adamantyl indole-3-carboxamide, a full agonist of the CB1 and CB2 receptors. In the functional assay published in 2013 by the Banister team, the EC50 is 34 nM at rat CB1 and 29 nM at human CB2, with maximal responses of 98% and 91% of that of WIN 55,212-2, whereas Δ9-THC reaches only 78% at CB1 in the same assay. In rats, the same study observes a fall in body temperature and a slowing of heart rate of a potency comparable to that of Δ9-THC and lower than that of JWH-018, but longer-lasting than those of Δ9-THC or JWH-018, which suggests a different pharmacokinetic profile; in mice, Cannizzaro and colleagues report hypothermia, analgesia, incoordination and impaired recognition memory at the highest dose, blocked by a CB1 antagonist and insensitive to a CB2 antagonist. Human pharmacology was not found in the sources consulted: no clinical series and no death are reported for this specific molecule. The only work on human samples concerns metabolism, where the carboxamide bridge resists cleavage and where detection relies on hydroxylated metabolites (Sobolevsky et al., 2015).

Source

An entirely synthetic molecule, absent from hemp and from any living organism. It belongs to the synthetic cannabinoid market: it was identified in 2012 in illegal products sold in Japan (Uchiyama et al., 2012), and described as an active ingredient of smoking mixtures sold in Russia since 2012 (Sobolevsky et al., 2015). No medical, food or industrial use was found for this compound.

No biological pathway: this compound comes from no plant or animal metabolism and exists only by organic synthesis.

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 cites this molecule by name in annex IV of its list.

France

The molecule is cited by name in France. The ANSM consolidated list (updated 16 February 2026) cites it in annex IV, under the entry « SDB-001 ou APICA ou 2NE1 ou N-(1-adamantyl)-1-pentylindole-3-carboxamide », as an example (« notamment ») of the generic family of the « indole-3-carboxamide derivatives »: a substituent on the nitrogen of the indole ring of the alkyl, haloalkyl, halobenzyl or related type, an indole ring substituted or not, and a carboxamide-bridge nitrogen integrated in a ring or bearing a substituent of the cumyl, naphthyl, adamantanyl or benzyl type, among others. APICA already appears in the text of annex IV resulting from the decree of 3 October 2017 (JORF of 10 October 2017). It is therefore a nominative citation as an example of a generic family, and not the generic clause alone: use, possession, transfer, acquisition and importation fall under the criminal regime for narcotics. The clause covering tetrahydrocannabinols, their esters, ethers and salts (annex III since the decision of 6 February 2026) is irrelevant here, since this compound is not a THC derivative.

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

Family

Synthetic CB receptor agonist › New psychoactive substance

Class

indole-3-carboxamide

Verification

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

Wikipedia (English)

APICA (synthetic cannabinoid drug) (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. 1Uchiyama N, Kawamura M, Kikura-Hanajiri R, Goda Y. Identification of two new-type synthetic cannabinoids, N-(1-adamantyl)-1-pentyl-1H-indole-3-carboxamide (APICA) and N-(1-adamantyl)-1-pentyl-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide (APINACA), and detection of five synthetic cannabinoids as designer drugs in illegal products. Forensic Toxicology, 2012;30:114-125: first identification. (new tab)DOI 10.1007/s11419-012-0136-7
2. 2Banister SD, Wilkinson SM, Longworth M et al. The synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of adamantane-derived indoles: cannabimimetic drugs of abuse. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2013: first synthesis and CB1 and CB2 pharmacology of SDB-001 (table 1). (new tab)PMID 23551277
3. 3Banister SD et al. Effects of bioisosteric fluorine in synthetic cannabinoid designer drugs JWH-018, AM-2201, UR-144, XLR-11, PB-22, 5F-PB-22, APICA, and STS-135. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2015: comparative potency and hypothermia in the rat. (new tab)PMID 25921407
4. 4Cannizzaro C, Malta G, Argo A et al. Behavioural and pharmacological characterization of a novel cannabimimetic adamantane-derived indole, APICA, in C57bl/6J mice. Forensic Science International, 2016: cannabinoid tetrad and reversal by the CB1 antagonist AM251. (new tab)PMID 26826846
5. 5Sobolevsky T, Prasolov I, Rodchenkov G. Study on the phase I metabolism of novel synthetic cannabinoids, APICA and its fluorinated analogue. Drug Testing and Analysis, 2015: metabolism and urinary markers. (new tab)PMID 25428705
6. 6Asada A, Doi T, Tagami T, Takeda A, Sawabe Y. Isomeric discrimination of synthetic cannabinoids by GC-EI-MS: 1-adamantyl and 2-adamantyl isomers of N-adamantyl carboxamides. Drug Testing and Analysis, 2017: discrimination of the adamantyl isomers. (new tab)PMID 27770510
7. 7Mercier 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 (abstract: class toxicities) (new tab)PMID 40876783
8. 8Zangani C et al. The e-Psychonauts' 'Spiced' World: assessment of the synthetic cannabinoids' information available online. Curr Neuropharmacol 2020 (APICA in the UNODC, EUDA and NPSFinder lists) (new tab)PMID 32116194
9. 9ANSM, consolidated list of substances classified as narcotics, updated 16 February 2026: entry « SDB-001 or APICA or 2NE1 » in annex IV, family of 3-carboxamide indole derivatives. (new tab)
10. 10Légifrance, order of 3 October 2017 amending the order of 22 February 1990 setting the list of substances classified as narcotics, annex IV (JORF of 10 October 2017). (new tab)
11. 11INCB, Green List of psychotropic substances under international control, 36th edition, 2025: APICA is not listed (new tab)
12. 12PubChem, compound CID 71308155 (APICA), National Library of Medicine: identifiers and synonyms. (new tab)

SMILES

CCCCCN1C=C(C2=CC=CC=C21)C(=O)NC34CC5CC(C3)CC(C5)C4

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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