During the last 60 years the relevance for human health and disease of cannabis (
Cannabis sativa or
Cannabis indica) ingredients, like the psychoactive compound Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol, 120+ cannabinoids and 440+ non-cannabinoid compounds, has become apparent [
1]. THC was identified in 1964, and approximately 30 years later (in 1992), the molecular reasons for the biological activity of cannabis extracts were made clearer by the discovery of anandamide (
N-arachidonoylethanolamine). The latter is the first member of a new family of bioactive lipids collectively termed “endocannabinoids”, that are able to bind to the same receptors activated by THC. In addition to endocannabinoids (that include several
N-acylethanolamines and acylesters), a complex array of receptors, metabolic enzymes, transporters (transmembrane, intracellular and extracellular carriers) were discovered, and altogether they form a so-called “endocannabinoid system” that finely tunes the manifold biological activities of endocannabinoids themselves [
2].