Hemp Therapies Wiki / CBD Oil & Products

CBD Product Formats

CBD is sold across several distinct product formats — gummies, topicals, vapes, and capsules — and each format changes how CBD is absorbed into the body, sometimes substantially.

Gummies and Edibles

CBD gummies are chewable edibles delivering a measured CBD dose per piece. Unlike sublingual oil, gummies pass through the digestive tract before reaching the bloodstream, where cannabinoids are broken down and routed through the hepatic portal system to the liver and metabolized into more than 100 different compounds — a process that takes longer to reach peak concentration than sublingual absorption. Oral CBD bioavailability is reported as low, with figures across research ranging from roughly 6% to 19%, attributed to CBD’s negligible water solubility (around 12.6 mg/L) combined with extensive first-pass liver metabolism, which eliminates roughly 75% of an orally absorbed dose before it reaches systemic circulation. Taking CBD with a high-fat meal can increase oral bioavailability by up to four-fold; in one study, a 1,500 mg dose taken with a fatty meal reached a peak plasma concentration of 1,628 ng/mL within three hours. CBD is metabolized primarily by the liver enzymes CYP3A4 and CYP2C19, forming the active metabolite 7-OH-CBD, and shows high plasma protein binding — reported at 97.4% to albumin and 84.0% to gamma-globulin.

Topicals

Topical products — creams, lotions, balms, salves, and patches — are applied directly to the skin and designed to act locally rather than enter the bloodstream in significant amounts. The stratum corneum, the skin’s outermost layer, is the primary barrier CBD must cross to reach deeper tissue. In one study testing five commercial topical formats, three (lotion, cream, gel) achieved measurable transdermal CBD delivery into the bloodstream, while two (balm, patch) did not, despite all products containing permeation enhancers such as vitamin E, DMSO, terpenes, menthol, or ethanol. Peak blood CBD concentrations from topical products in that study reached a maximum of about 2 ng/mL — substantially lower than concentrations measured from oral (13.7 ng/mL) or vaporized (104.6 ng/mL at a 100 mg dose) routes in the same comparison. Commercial topical CBD concentrations tested ranged from 0.48% to 9.52% CBD, with THC concentrations ranging from 0.03% to 0.19%.

Vapes

CBD vape products are not regulated by the FDA, and there is no standardized way to confirm whether a vaping product’s oil is pure CBD or also contains other compounds. Vitamin E acetate is strongly linked to the EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury) outbreak: it was found in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from 48 of 51 tested EVALI patients across 16 states and has not been found in the lung fluid of people without EVALI. Among THC-containing vape products tested during the EVALI investigation, 50% contained vitamin E acetate as a diluent, and 81% of patients with case numbers were linked to products containing it. CBD-containing cartridges and medical-grade vaping cartridges are not products associated with the EVALI outbreak; unregulated THC-containing vape products are linked to most EVALI cases. Thinning agents such as propylene glycol are FDA-approved as safe for oral consumption, but that approval does not extend to inhalation safety.

Capsules and Softgels

Oral CBD capsules and softgels face the same first-pass liver metabolism limits as other swallowed formats. Self-emulsifying drug delivery systems (SEDDS) — oil and surfactant mixtures that spontaneously emulsify on contact with an aqueous phase such as stomach fluid — have been studied as a way to improve this. In one crossover study, an SEDDS-based CBD formulation produced a 4.4-fold higher peak plasma concentration than a standard MCT-oil CBD reference, with 2.85-fold higher total absorption and a median time-to-peak of 1.0 hour versus 3.0 hours. Softgel capsules using lipid carriers such as MCT oil or lecithin are formulated to partially improve intestinal absorption by promoting lymphatic uptake that partly bypasses first-pass liver metabolism.

Summary

Each CBD format trades off differently between speed of onset and total absorption: sublingual and vaporized routes reach the bloodstream fastest and in the highest concentration, ingestible formats are slower and less efficient due to liver metabolism, and topicals are designed to largely stay out of the bloodstream altogether.