Honokiol

Honokiol is a biphenyl neolignan found in the bark of Magnolia officinalis, where it accompanies magnolol, and in the seeds of Magnolia grandiflora. Measured by radioligand displacement, its affinity for cannabinoid receptors is modest: a Ki of 1.94 µM at CB2 and of 14.55 µM at CB1 (Pandey et al., 2023). Functional assays diverge. In cAMP assays, it behaves as a full agonist at CB1 and as an antagonist at CB2 (Rempel et al., 2013), whereas fluorescence assays reveal no specific activity at these receptors (Yip et al., 2025). The same authors report an inhibition of the T-type calcium channels CaV3.1, CaV3.2 and CaV3.3. In an animal behavioural model, an extract enriched in honokiol showed an anxiolytic-like effect whose involvement of CB1 was confirmed with an antagonist (Borgonetti et al., 2021). No human data on the endocannabinoid system are retained.

Source

Natural product of plant origin, present in the bark of Magnolia officinalis, a plant used in East Asian traditional medicine, and in the seeds of Magnolia grandiflora. It is not a cannabinoid and does not come from cannabis.

Honokiol is a plant biphenyl neolignan. Its precise biosynthetic pathway is not described in the sources retained for this record. It is present in several magnolia species, notably in the bark of Magnolia officinalis, where it accompanies magnolol, and in the seeds of Magnolia grandiflora.

European Union

No harmonised control measure at European Union level is identified in the sources consulted for this record: any control falls to the member states.

France

Honokiol is named neither on the French narcotics list published by ANSM (consolidated version of 16 February 2026) nor on the INCB Green List 2026. Its structure meets none of the generic definitions of that list: it has neither the benzo[c]chromene nucleus targeted by the ANSM decision of 22 May 2024, nor the tetrahydrocannabinol skeleton, nor that of the cyclohexylphenols, indoles, indazoles or naphthylideneindenes described in the generic families. It is therefore not classified as a narcotic in France as of the list consulted.

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

1. 1Pandey et coll., néolignanes de graines de Magnolia grandiflora face aux récepteurs cannabinoïdes et opioïdes, in vitro et in silico, Molecules 2023 (new tab)PMID 36770918
2. 2Rempel et coll., extrait de magnolia, magnolol et métabolites : activation des récepteurs CB2 et blocage de GPR55, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2013 (new tab)PMID 24900561
3. 3Yip et coll., composés apparentés aux cannabinoïdes issus de plantes non cannabiques et activité antiépileptique chez la souris, Epilepsia 2025 (new tab)PMID 39530840
4. 4Chen et coll., pharmacocinétique du honokiol chez le rat, Beijing Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban 2004 (new tab)PMID 14970886
5. 5Han et coll., nanosuspensions de honokiol : biodisponibilité orale et biodistribution, Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces 2014 (new tab)PMID 24448177
6. 6Borgonetti et coll., extrait de Magnolia officinalis enrichi en honokiol, effet anxiolytique et implication du récepteur CB1, J Pharm Pharmacol 2021 (new tab)PMID 33950239
7. 7PubChem CID 72303 : honokiol (identifiants) (new tab)
8. 8ANSM, liste consolidée des stupéfiants (mise à jour du 16 février 2026) (new tab)
9. 9INCB, Green List 2026 (Convention de 1971) (new tab)

SMILES

C=CCC1=CC(=C(C=C1)O)C2=CC(=C(C=C2)O)CC=C

InChIKey

FVYXIJYOAGAUQK-UHFFFAOYSA-N

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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