What Are the Benefits of Botanical Terpenes?

Not only do botanical terpenes cost less and smell exactly like cannabis, but they don’t include cannabinoids like THC. Learn about the benefits of botanical terpenes and why more businesses are relying on them for their products.

Terpenes are the natural hydrocarbons produced by most plants that dictate their innate aroma, flavor, and some of their effects. While you CAN add plant matter to products to infuse them with that aroma or flavor, it’s much more practical to rely on terpenes that have been expertly extracted from plant matter. 

But what if you’re trying to infuse products with properties from the cannabis plant? Ah, that’s where botanical terpenes come into play…if you want to save yourself a lot of time, money, and legal headaches that is.

Botanical terpenes are essentially any terpenes that have been extracted from non-cannabis or hemp plants. On a molecular level, there isn’t really a difference between cannabis-derived, hemp-derived, or botanical terpenes. So…what are the benefits of botanical terpenes? Read on for all the details

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Botanical Terpenes Taste and Smell Exactly Like the Real Thing

For cannabis businesses in particular, creating products that deliver on promised aromas, flavors, and effects is essential. For example, if a consumer is led to believe that a product will have the scent and taste of Blue Dream…they’re going to expect the product to deliver on that advertisement. 

As we mentioned earlier though, once terpenes have been isolated, there’s no difference between cannabis-derived and botanical terpenes. Even though botanical terpenes have been extracted from everyday plants and spices, we can use them to authentically recreate the scent, flavors, and sensorial effects of cannabis cultivars.

Admittedly, that makes it sound a lot easier than it really is.

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Botanical Terpenes Don’t Include THC

In order to recreate the terpene profiles of cannabis cultivars, our chemists studied over 400 botanical aroma compounds via three-dimensional analysis. This allows us to name and study each and every compound within a plant so we can create collections of THC-free terpene blends. 

That means both cannabis and non-cannabis products can utilize botanical terpenes to infuse their products with the aromas and flavors of iconic cultivars. In addition, the lack of cannabinoids means botanical terpenes can easily ship worldwide without the same legal headache involved in shipping cannabis-derived terpenes. 

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Botanical Terpenes Cost Less

In addition to the legal hurdles, shipping cannabis-derived terpenes can be incredibly costly. Not only can it sometimes require expensive permits and licenses, but even something as simple as moving cannabis terpenes from one lab to another requires meticulous paperwork and documentation.

The cost savings of botanical terpenes doesn’t stop at just shipping though. Extracting terpenes from cannabis is complicated and, you guessed it, expensive. 

First, it’s important to understand that terpenes are volatile. Things like temperature, soil quality, and farming techniques can impact the way a plant expresses terpenes. To ensure that a crop creates a consistent terpene profile, growing conditions must be meticulously monitored and can sometimes require specialized equipment. The high cost of licensing and growing makes cannabis that much more expensive to source. That makes extracting terpenes from botanical sources much less expensive, and those cost savings are passed down to you.

But that does bring up another very important point. Consistency.

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Botanical Terpenes Create Consistent Products

Yes, you can add raw plant matter (whether botanical or otherwise) to products if you want to go the old-school way of infusing them with aroma and flavor. There are several issues with this though.

As we mentioned, terpenes are volatile. If you can source plant matter with consistent flavor and aroma, even things like rough handling (which is pretty common during the manufacturing process) can alter or destroy terpenes. That means the final product may not have the desired aroma or flavor. 

Expertly extracted botanical terpenes, however, will be consistent every time. That means fewer variables to contend with during product development, more control over flavor and aroma, and scalability won’t be an issue. 

Abstrax Tech Native Series Botanical Terpenes

After years of extensive research and leveraging our industry-leading technology, we’ve identified and extracted the compounds native to cannabis that impart the gassy, dank, skunky aroma to create THC-free terpene blends that are authentic, affordable, consistent, and available to ship internationally.

The botanically-derived terpenes included in our Native Series reproduce the aroma, flavor, and sensorial effects of iconic cultivars with unwavering consistency and purity. 

Interested in infusing your products with one of our Native Series profiles? Contact us and let’s talk about leveraging terpene science in your products today.

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