Skip to content

Batch information on every product pageTHC < 0.3%Shipped from France10% off when you sign up

Synthetic

JWH-081

A synthetic cannabinoid of the naphthoylindole family, a potent CB1 agonist, classified as a narcotic.

Narcotic: named in schedule
Level of detail

Harm-reduction warning

No characterised human dose: animal / in vitro data only. Effect profile, safety margin and acute toxicity are not documented in human clinical practice. Extremely potent compound: severe effects, seizures and deaths reported in the literature.

C₂₅H₂₅NO₂

CAS 210179-46-7

Family
Synthetic CB receptor agonistNew psychoactive substance
Molar mass
371.50 g/mol

Updated on

In plain terms

JWH-081 is a molecule made in a laboratory, which does not exist in hemp and has nothing to do with CBD. It has been sprayed onto plants sold as smoking mixtures, and it binds to the same brain receptors as THC with a much higher affinity in laboratory tests. It is scheduled as a narcotic in France and is found in no legal product.

Receptors and activity

Target network

CB1AgonistKi = 1.2 nM · not specified (compiled value)CB1 receptor binding (value from Huffman and Padgett 2005 reproduced by Wiley 2016)
  • Activates

The lower the cited value, the closer the target sits to JWH-081: one ring per factor of 100. A target with no measured value stays on the edge.

Where these targets live

Where each target has been found in humans, according to the cited studies. The map shows the target, not an effect of JWH-081.

Brain, side view
Body, front view
Blood

CB1CB1 found in 7 regions of the body

  1. Basal gangliadenseMost dense in basal ganglia outflow nuclei1
  2. CerebellumdenseVery dense in the cerebellum1
  3. HippocampusdenseVery high concentrations in the hippocampus2
  4. AmygdaladenseHigh concentrations in the amygdala2
  5. CortexpresentPresent throughout the neocortex2
  6. Adipose tissuepresentExpressed in adipose tissue3
  7. GutpresentColonic epithelium, smooth muscle and plexus4

Map sources

  1. Herkenham M et al. Cannabinoid receptor localization in brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 1990 (new tab)
  2. Glass M et al. Cannabinoid receptors in the human brain: a detailed anatomical and quantitative autoradiographic study in the fetal, neonatal and adult human brain. Neuroscience, 1997 (new tab)
  3. Engeli S et al. Activation of the peripheral endocannabinoid system in human obesity. Diabetes, 2005 (new tab)
  4. Wright K et al. Differential expression of cannabinoid receptors in the human colon: cannabinoids promote epithelial wound healing. Gastroenterology, 2005 (new tab)

Cited values

  1. CB1AgonistKi = 1.2 nM · not specified (compiled value)82 out of 100

    Wiley et al. 2016, Neuropharmacology (values from Huffman and Padgett 2005 reproduced in table 1) (new tab) · CB1 receptor binding (value from Huffman and Padgett 2005 reproduced by Wiley 2016)

  2. CB2AgonistKi = 12 nM · not specified (compiled value)65 out of 100

    Wiley et al. 2016, Neuropharmacology (values from Huffman and Padgett 2005 reproduced in table 1) (new tab) · CB2 receptor binding (value from Huffman and Padgett 2005 reproduced by Wiley 2016)

Bar length follows the measured value (Ki, Kd, EC50 or IC50), on one scale shared by every entry, from 100 µM to 0.1 nM. A target with no cited value has no bar.

Pharmacology

JWH-081 is a cannabinoid receptor agonist belonging to the naphthoylindole family, structurally foreign to the cannabinoids of hemp. It binds to the CB1 receptor with an affinity of the order of a nanomolar (Ki of 1.2 nM, against 41 nM for THC in the same compilation) and retains a good affinity for the CB2 receptor (12 nM). THC is only a partial agonist; the efficacy of JWH-081 itself is not documented in the sources consulted, whereas that of its close relative JWH-073 equals that of a reference full agonist. Work in mice establishes that the impairment of recognition memory, the reduction of hippocampal long-term potentiation and the drop in CaMKIV and CREB phosphorylation do depend on the CB1 receptor, since they vanish in animals lacking it. What the literature does not establish matters just as much: human data are lacking, no controlled study of dose, kinetics or safety is cited, and any action at TRPV1, GPR55 or PPARγ is not documented for this molecule.

Key sources.

History

Source
A strictly synthetic molecule, absent from cannabis and from any living organism. Coming from university research, it was diverted to the market for smoking plant mixtures sold under names such as Spice or K2, where it is sprayed onto plant material (Basavarajappa 2014). In 2012 it was among the seven synthetic cannabinoids then most common in these mixtures (Hutter 2012).

Origin

Laboratory synthesis

No biological pathway exists for this molecule: JWH-081 is produced neither by hemp, nor by any plant, nor by the human body. It comes from organic synthesis, described here only by its chemical class, the naphthoylindoles. Its presence in a plant product always results from impregnation after harvest.

Classification

Family, origin and source verification

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)

JWH-081 (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.

References

  1. Huffman et al., Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 2005: structure-activity relationships of 1-alkyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indoles at CB1 and CB2 receptors (new tab)PMID 15582455
  2. Wiley et al., Neuropharmacology, 2016: affinities of JWH-081 for cannabinoid receptors (Ki of 1.2 and 12 nM) and for non-cannabinoid receptors, assays in mice (new tab)PMID 27449567
  3. Basavarajappa and Subbanna, Hippocampus, 2014: the synaptic, learning and memory deficits induced by JWH-081 depend on the CB1 receptor (wild-type and knock-out mice) (new tab)PMID 24123667
  4. Cha et al., Biomolecules and Therapeutics, 2015: neurotoxicity of JWH-081 and JWH-210 in mice (new tab)PMID 26535086
  5. Hutter et al., Journal of Mass Spectrometry, 2012: major urinary metabolites of seven aminoalkylindole-type synthetic cannabinoids, including JWH-081 (new tab)PMID 22282090
  6. ANSM, consolidated list of substances classified as narcotics, updated 16 February 2026, annex IV, entry JWH-081 (new tab)
  7. Order of 19 May 2015 amending the Order of 22 February 1990 setting the list of substances classified as narcotics (text cited by the ANSM list for this block of cannabinoids), Légifrance (new tab)
  8. INCB, Green List of psychotropic substances under international control, 35th edition, 2024 (Schedule II: JWH-081 absent) (new tab)
  9. PubChem, JWH-081, CID 10547208, National Library of Medicine (new tab)

Identifiers

Names

IUPAC name
(4-methoxynaphthalen-1-yl)-(1-pentylindol-3-yl)methanone
Other names
JWH 081 · 1-pentyl-3-(4-methoxy-1-naphthoyl)indole

Identifiers

Formula
C₂₅H₂₅NO₂
CAS
210179-46-7
PubChem CID
10547208(new tab)
InChIKey
UBMPKJKGUQDHRM-UHFFFAOYSA-N
SMILES
CCCCCN1C=C(C2=CC=CC=C21)C(=O)C3=CC=C(C4=CC=CC=C43)OC

Machine-readable entry (JSON)

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