Flavonoids are a large family of polyphenols built on a C6-C3-C6 skeleton. Plants use them as pigments, UV screens and defence compounds. In cannabis the main ones are flavones and flavonols (apigenin, luteolin, kaempferol, quercetin glycosides), the prenylated cannflavins, and anthocyanins, which give purple and red colour.
In practice
Flavonoids sit mostly in leaves and bracts rather than trichome heads, typically in the region of 1% of dry leaf weight or lessbeing reviewed. They are rarely tested on commercial COAs. Growers meet them as colour: purple bud is anthocyanin expression, set by genetics and brought out by cool temperatures.
Don't confuse with
- Terpenes: aroma compounds; flavonoids add little aroma.
- Anthocyanins: one flavonoid subclass, responsible for purple.
- Cannabinoids: a separate class made in trichomes.
Myth check
House position: bag appeal is not quality. Purple and frost don't mean potency, and cold nights bring out colour in cultivars that carry it but have no proven effect on terpenes or resin. See Mythbusters.
A water-soluble flavonoid pigment stored in cell vacuoles that colours leaves, stems and flowers red, purple or blue, set by genetics and enhanced by cool temperatures.In cannabis, the small leaf-like sheath (perigonal bract) that wraps each female flower's ovary and carries the densest capitate-stalked trichomes.Trichome heads are the bulbous resin-filled tops of capitate glandular trichomes, where cannabis makes and stores nearly all its cannabinoids and terpenes; they are the raw material of hash.Terpenes are volatile hydrocarbon compounds built from five-carbon isoprene units; in cannabis they are made in the trichome heads and are a major part of aroma and flavour.A cannabinoid is any compound that binds the body's cannabinoid receptors or shares the typical cannabis terpenophenolic structure; the plant-made ones are phytocannabinoids such as THCA and CBDA.A hair-like outgrowth of the plant's skin; in cannabis the glandular types make and store the resin holding cannabinoids and terpenes.Bag appeal is how good flower looks in the bag or jar, frost, colour, density and trim, which sells cannabis but does not measure its quality.Cold nights are deliberately low night temperatures in late flower; they can bring out purple colour in cultivars that carry it, but don't raise terpenes or resin.Cannflavins are prenylated flavones (A, B and C) that are characteristic of cannabis, first isolated in 1985 and found mainly in leaves and bracts at low levels.
