JWH-079

JWH-079, or (4-methoxynaphthalen-1-yl)(1-propylindol-3-yl)methanone, belongs to the series of 1-alkyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indoles developed by the team of John W. Huffman at Clemson University (Huffman et al., 2005). It differs from JWH-081 only by an N-propyl chain instead of an N-pentyl chain. In the modelling study by De Freitas et al. (2009), its Ki is 63.1 nM at CB1 and 31.99 nM at human CB2, similar affinities of a few tens of nanomolar. Its functional efficacy was not measured in the consulted sources, and no human, pharmacokinetic or toxicological data were found. The compound is not named in the French list of narcotics, but it falls under the generic clause of the indol-3-yl methanones.

Source

Synthetic laboratory molecule of the JWH series, designed for the study of cannabinoid receptors. No consulted source reports it in a plant, in hemp or in a living organism.

No biosynthetic pathway: JWH-079 is an organic synthetic compound of the naphthoylindole class, with no known equivalent in living organisms.

European Union

There is no harmonised control measure at European Union level for this compound, as far as the consulted sources show: control is national. JWH-079 is not listed in the 2026 Green List of the International Narcotics Control Board, which lists the substances placed under control under the 1971 Convention.

France

Not named in the consolidated list of narcotics published by the ANSM (updated 16 February 2026), JWH-079 nevertheless falls under the generic family of indol-3-yl methanones in annex IV of that list. That definition covers any molecule bearing on the indole nitrogen an alkyl-type substituent and, on the carbon of the methanone bridge, a naphthyl group, substituted or not. JWH-079 carries a propyl group on the nitrogen and a 4-methoxynaphthyl group on the bridge: it meets both conditions point by point, hence a classification through a generic clause and not through a listing by name. JWH-081, whose only difference from JWH-079 is a pentyl group in place of the propyl group, is cited by name among the examples of this family, in the same annex. JWH-079 is therefore classed as a narcotic under this clause.

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

1. 1De Freitas GB et coll., modèles CoMFA et CoMSIA de l'affinité et de la sélectivité des ligands indoliques pour les récepteurs CB1 et CB2, Eur J Med Chem, 2009 (new tab)PMID 19249138
2. 2Huffman JW et coll., relations structure-activité des 1-alkyl-3-(1-naphtoyl)indoles sur les récepteurs CB1 et CB2, Bioorg Med Chem, 2005 (new tab)PMID 15582455
3. 3Aung MM et coll., influence de la longueur de la chaîne alkyle en N-1 des indoles cannabimimétiques sur la liaison CB1 et CB2, Drug Alcohol Depend, 2000 (new tab)PMID 10940540
4. 4ANSM, liste consolidée des substances classées comme stupéfiants, mise à jour du 16 février 2026, annexe IV, famille des indol-3-yl méthanones (entrée JWH-081) (new tab)
5. 5Organe international de contrôle des stupéfiants, Liste verte 2026 des substances psychotropes sous contrôle international (new tab)
6. 6PubChem, Compound Summary CID 10831231, JWH-079 (new tab)
7. 7ChEMBL, fiche composé CHEMBL561349 (JWH-079), mesures de déplacement de [3H]CP-55940 (new tab)

SMILES

CCCN1C=C(C2=CC=CC=C21)C(=O)C3=CC=C(C4=CC=CC=C43)OC

InChIKey

SKDUHKSZHNFWML-UHFFFAOYSA-N

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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