Hemp makes more than CBD. The plant produces over a hundred different cannabinoids, and our flower at Wholesale Hemp Farms in Wilmore, Kentucky tests for half a dozen of them on every COA we publish. If you've seen "CBG," "CBN," "CBC," or "THCa" on a label and weren't sure what each one is, this is the plain version of the types of cannabinoids found in hemp, written from the side of the fence that grows the plant. For background on the flower itself, our CBD hemp flower guide covers the strains we run and what to look for in a bud.
What Are Cannabinoids?
Cannabinoids are chemical compounds the hemp plant produces in tiny resin glands called trichomes. Those are the sticky, frosty-looking dots you can see on a fresh flower. Hemp produces over a hundred of them. The ones we measure on our lab reports are the ones present in meaningful amounts: CBD, CBG, CBN, CBC, THCa, and Delta-9 THC. The compounds the plant makes are called phytocannabinoids, "phyto" meaning plant. Your body produces its own, called endocannabinoids. They're related, and they speak roughly the same chemical language.
Most cannabinoids start out as CBGa inside the plant. As the flower matures in our Kentucky fields through the summer, enzymes convert that precursor into the cannabinoids we test for at harvest. Strain genetics decide which path the conversion takes. A high-CBD strain like Hawaiian Haze pushes most of its CBGa toward CBD. Our Mothership strain pushes more toward CBG. The COA at the end of the season shows the result.
How Cannabinoids Interact with the Endocannabinoid System
The endocannabinoid system, ECS for short, is a regulatory network in your body. Two main receptor types do most of the talking. CB1 sits mostly in the brain and central nervous system. CB2 lives in immune tissue and the periphery. Your body produces its own compounds, anandamide being the best known, that bind to those receptors and help keep things in balance.
Phytocannabinoids from hemp interact with the same ECS, each one differently. CBD doesn't bind directly to CB1 or CB2 in any strong way. It works more sideways, influencing how other signals move through the system. THC binds directly to CB1, which is why it's intoxicating at marijuana-level concentrations. The 2018 Farm Bill caps hemp at 0.3% Delta-9 THC by dry weight, which is why our products are non-intoxicating.
The Major Cannabinoids Found in Hemp
CBD (Cannabidiol): The Most Researched
CBD is the cannabinoid you've already heard of. It's the headline number on most of our COAs and the dominant compound in nearly every strain we grow. A high-CBD flower like our Hawaiian Haze typically tests in the 12% to 18% CBD range by dry weight, with everything else (CBG, CBC, trace THC, terpenes) filling out the rest of the cannabinoid panel.
CBD is non-intoxicating. People reach for CBD cannabinoids in oils, tinctures, gummies, topicals, and flower for general wellness contexts. We don't make therapeutic claims about it. The FDA hasn't approved CBD for any condition outside of one prescription drug for rare seizure disorders, and our products are not drugs. What CBD is, is the most studied compound in the hemp plant outside of THC, with the most batch-by-batch testing data behind it.
CBG (Cannabigerol): The Mother Cannabinoid
CBG gets called the "mother cannabinoid" because every other cannabinoid in the plant starts as the acid form of CBG. As the flower matures, most of that CBGa converts into CBDa, THCa, or CBCa. Whatever's left at harvest stays as CBG.
That's why CBG percentages are usually low in standard hemp varieties. To get a flower that tests high in CBG, you have to grow a strain bred for it and harvest before full conversion is complete. Our Mothership flower is one of those, bred specifically for CBG expression. Reported CBG benefits center on focus and a steady, balanced feel, rather than the calm associated with CBD. Research on CBG is real but early, and we don't make claims about what it treats.
CBN (Cannabinol): The Sleep Cannabinoid
CBN forms when THC ages. Heat, light, and time slowly oxidize THCa and Delta-9 THC into CBN. That's why older flower, or flower stored poorly, often tests higher in CBN than freshly cured flower from the same strain. CBN is a degradation product, not something the live plant produces in real quantity.
People use CBN-forward products in nighttime contexts. The reported CBN benefits lean sedative rather than alerting, the opposite of how CBG is usually described. If you're comparing options, our CBN vs CBD for sleep post breaks down what each cannabinoid does in evening formulas and how the two get blended together. Hemp-derived CBN is Farm Bill compliant the same as any other hemp cannabinoid under the 0.3% Delta-9 THC threshold.
CBC (Cannabichromene): The Emerging Compound
CBC is one of the four cannabinoids that show up on most full-panel hemp COAs alongside CBD, CBG, and THC. It's almost always present at low percentages, usually under 1%, and it's non-intoxicating. CBC interacts with the ECS differently from CBD and CBG. It has weaker affinity for CB1 and CB2 directly but appears to influence other receptor families that handle pain signaling and inflammation in lab studies.
The honest position: CBC is real, it's measurable, and the research on it is still thin. We test for it on every batch. If a future product features CBC at meaningful percentages, we'll say so on the page and the COA will back it up. We don't pad sales copy with cannabinoids that aren't actually in the bottle.
THCa: Non-Intoxicating Precursor
THCa is the acid form of THC. It's what the live and freshly harvested plant produces. THCa itself is not intoxicating. You'd have to apply heat (combust it, vape it, or bake it) to convert THCa to Delta-9 THC, the compound that is intoxicating.
This matters for COA reading. A hemp flower COA will list both THCa and Delta-9 THC. The Farm Bill compliance test in most states uses "total THC," calculated as Delta-9 plus a fraction of THCa adjusted for the conversion that happens with heat. Our flower is bred and tested to stay under the 0.3% total THC line by dry weight. THCa percentages in CBD-dominant hemp strains are typically very low.
Full-Spectrum vs. Broad-Spectrum vs. Isolate
Three terms come up over and over on hemp product labels.
Full-spectrum means the product contains the full range of cannabinoids and terpenes that came out of the plant, including the trace Delta-9 THC under the 0.3% Farm Bill limit. Most of our flower-derived products are full-spectrum. The argument for full-spectrum is the entourage effect: the idea that the cannabinoids and terpenes work together in ways the isolated compounds don't.
Broad-spectrum strips the THC specifically while keeping CBD, CBG, CBC, and the other minor cannabinoids. This format suits buyers who want the broader cannabinoid profile but want zero THC, including the trace amount allowed under the Farm Bill.
Isolate is one cannabinoid only, usually CBD, refined to 99%+ purity. No terpenes, no minors, nothing else. Predictable. Useful for measuring exact doses and for buyers who don't want any other compounds in the picture.
The right pick depends on what you're after. Our choosing the right hemp product guide walks through the format question in more detail.
How WHF's USDA Organic Hemp Produces Rich Cannabinoid Profiles
We've farmed hemp in Wilmore, Kentucky since 2018 on USDA Organic certified ground. That certification is a federal audit of our soil, our inputs, and our process. No synthetic pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, no prohibited substances anywhere in the rotation.
Cannabinoid expression is partly genetics and partly growing conditions. A stressed plant, fed wrong, or sprayed with whatever, can still produce cannabinoids, but it can also concentrate residues that show up on a contamination panel. Organic ground gives the plant a clean substrate. Kentucky's growing season, with the day-length our latitude gives in late summer, lines up well with how most of the strains we run prefer to mature. We hand-trim each batch after harvest in October, then slow-dry it in our barns over two to three weeks, which preserves the terpene fraction that buyers can actually smell.
Cannabinoid percentages still vary batch to batch. Our organic CBD vs non-organic post goes deeper on what the organic certification actually changes in the finished product. The COAs show the result.
How to Read a COA for Cannabinoid Content
COA stands for Certificate of Analysis. It's the third-party lab document that says what's in a hemp product. Every batch we ship has one, and they're all public on our Third-Party Labs page at wholesalehempfarms.com.
Here's what to look at:
- The cannabinoid panel. The table that lists CBD, CBG, CBN, CBC, THCa, and Delta-9 THC with percentages or milligrams. Confirm the number on the label matches the lab.
- Total THC. The Delta-9 line should read under 0.3% by dry weight. For finished products, the milligrams per serving should match the package.
- Date of analysis. Old COAs are a flag. Cannabinoid content shifts over time, especially THC to CBN, so the COA should be dated reasonably close to the batch's manufacture.
- Lab name and accreditation. Look for an ISO 17025 accredited lab.
- Contamination panels. A full COA includes pesticides, heavy metals, microbials, and residual solvents. Pass on all four.
- Batch ID. Match the batch ID on the package to the COA.
If a brand can't show you a COA for the specific batch you're buying, the cannabinoid numbers on the label aren't verified.
Knowing your cannabinoids starts with knowing your source. The names on a lab report, CBD, CBG, CBN, CBC, THCa, only mean something if the report is real and the farm behind it can answer for what's in the field. Ours is in Wilmore, Kentucky, and the COAs are at wholesalehempfarms.com on the Third-Party Labs page.
Disclaimer
All products contain less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis and are compliant with the 2018 US Farm Bill, or products sold on this site contain 0% THC. All our hemp derived products are U.S. grown non-intoxicating cannabinoids.
FDA Disclaimer: The statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA-approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. These products should not be used if you are pregnant or nursing. No statements are offering medical advice. Please consult a healthcare professional before use of any of our products.
