CB-52

CB-52 is a synthetic ligand of the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors, derived from resorcinol and described by Di Marzo's team in Pozzuoli. In vitro, it behaves mainly as a partial agonist at CB1 and as a neutral antagonist at CB2: it inhibits cyclic AMP in N18TG2 cells with an IC50 of 450 nM, and stimulates GTPγS binding on mouse brain membranes with an EC50 of 11 nM. In the mouse model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a 2013 study of a synthetic cannabinoid named CB52 reports that it protects oligodendrocytes in culture and reduces microglial activation, myelin loss and clinical scores, with effects reversed by a CB1 antagonist but not by a CB2 antagonist. The abstract of that study does not confirm that this CB52 is the molecule described in 2006, so these results are reported here with that reservation. In healthy rats, intraperitoneal injections produce dose-dependent nociception. No human data were found in the sources consulted, and no therapeutic indication is established.

Source

Synthetic molecule. The 2006 study presents it as a ligand derived from olivetol or resorcinol, without reporting its presence in a plant. No consulted source reports it in hemp or in any other living organism.

No biosynthetic pathway: CB-52 is a chemically synthesised compound, obtained by modifying a resorcinol ring carrying a hexyl chain, linked to an undecanoic chain ending in an N-cyclopropyl amide. Only the class of synthesis is described here.

European Union

No harmonised control measure at European Union level was found for this compound in the sources consulted, so control falls under national legislation, whose details were not verified here. It is also absent from the INCB Green List 2026, which reproduces the schedules of the 1971 Convention.

France

CB-52 is not named in any annex of the order of 22 February 1990 establishing the list of substances classified as narcotics, as consolidated by ANSM on 16 February 2026. Its structure meets none of the generic family definitions of that list: it is neither an indol-3-yl methanone, nor an indazol-3-yl methanone, nor a naphthoylpyrrole, nor a derivative of 2-(3-hydroxycyclohexyl)phenol, and it is not a tetrahydrocannabinol nor a derivative of the benzo[c]chromene nucleus. The generic families all require an indole, indazole, indene, pyrrole, pyrrolopyridine, thiazole or cyclohexyl ring, which CB-52 lacks. It is therefore not classified in France in this version of the list, updated on 16 February 2026. This status does not amount to an authorisation.

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

1. 1Cascio MG et coll., Pharmacologie in vitro et in vivo de ligands cannabinoïdes synthétiques dérivés de l'olivétol ou de la résorcine, British Journal of Pharmacology, 2006 (new tab)PMID 16953186
2. 2Ribeiro R et coll., Potentiel thérapeutique du cannabinoïde CB52 dans le modèle murin d'encéphalomyélite auto-immune expérimentale, Neuroscience, 2013 (new tab)PMID 24036373
3. 3PubChem, notice du composé CB-52 (CID 11495398) (new tab)
4. 4ANSM, liste consolidée des substances classées comme stupéfiants, mise à jour du 16 février 2026 (new tab)
5. 5INCB, Green List 2026 (tableaux de la Convention de 1971) (new tab)

SMILES

CCCCCCC1=C(C=C(C=C1)O)OCCCCCCCCCCC(=O)NC2CC2

InChIKey

BHJRHOCTESKVMJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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