NutraCast: PureForm Global on making CBD from orange peel

“We take a naturally occurring terpene, mostly from citrus. We use a process of synthesis to take that terpene and turn it into a cannabinoid  and so we sort of start with what looks kind of like a cannabinoid, but it's a terpene and then we use a process of synthesis to get it to a pure cannabinoid. About 10% of an orange is oil, and that oil isn't usable in food or beverage. And so we take that oil and then we get the terpenes out of that oil and then we convert that into our existing starting material,”​ explained PureForm’s founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Shaun Jarvis.

While Jarvis expects to disrupt the CBD and alcoholic beverage industry, he doesn’t have the “us vs. them” mentality. 

“I like to think of us as another resource for people wanting to use CBD because at the end of the day, we will never replace CBD completely because some people want their their products from the original source --like some people only want omega-3 from salmon or some people only want to drive a Chevy with a gas combustion engine. So it's not that electric cars, for example, will replace gas combustion engines. It's that some people we'll want them and some people will want the other. Do I think we're probably ahead of the curve and I think that that synthesis will be a bigger part of the category than it is now? Absolutely, but I don't think that we displace them as much as it would seem maybe from the outside,”​ said Jarvis.

To hear more on how Jarvis wants to collaborate with other companies and the process of making CBD from orange peel, listen to the NutraCast.

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NutraCast is a podcast that focuses on insights from inside the nutrition industry. It is a production by NutraIngredients-USA. Music by Kevin Macleod.