Limonene – Terpene

Description:

EFFECTS: Anti-anxiety, Anti-cancer, Anti-inflammatory, Antidepressant.
Strains containing Limonene include: ACDC, Durban Poison, Lemon Skunk and OG Kush.

Limonene is a clear, colorless liquid hydrocarbon classified as a cyclic monoterpene. Limonene has been shown to be a potent antidepressant and anti-anxiety treatment comparable to some traditional medicines. Limonene has also been inferred to be an anti-inflammatory, lowering or preventing key stages in the reaction. Limonene was elucidated in being a potential treatment for breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer.

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Effects

Anti-anxiety
Anti-cancer
Anti-inflammatory
Antidepressant

Research

Antidepressant/Anti-anxiety

Limonene demonstrated increased social interaction time and decreased immobility time, in the forced swim test using mice, indicating anxiolytic and antidepressant effects. The effects were comparable with the traditional anxiolytic diazepam and the antidepressant fluoxetine.

• Limonene attenuates anxiogenic – and depression – like effects of corticotropin – releasing factor in mice (PDF)

Anti-Inflammatory

Limonene was evaluated against human eosinophilic leukemia cells, specifically looking at reactive oxygen species (ROS), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), nuclear factor (NF) kappa B, and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase. Limonene was found to inhibit cytokine and ROS production, while inactivating eosinophil migration.

• Anti-inflammatory Effects of Limonene from Yuzu (Citrus junos Tanaka) Essential Oil on Eosinophils

Anti-Cancer

Limonene has been attributed to induction of phase I and phase II enzymes that result in carcinogen detoxification. In two prostate cancer cell lines, limonene administration resulted in higher ROS generation, depletion of GSH, accompanied by increased caspase. In addition limonene results in differentiation of cancer cells as well. Breast and pancreatic cancer cell lines were also negatively affected.

• Antitumorigenic effects of limonene and perillyl alcohol against pancreatic and breast cancer.
• Chemoprevention and therapy of cancer by d-limonene.
• d -Limonene sensitizes docetaxel-induced cytotoxicity in human prostate cancer cells: Generation of reactive oxygen species and induction of apoptosis