JWH-171 is an analgesic

Analgesic

An analgesic is any member of the group of drugs used to relieve pain . The word analgesic derives from Greek an- and algos ....

 drug which acts as a cannabinoid receptor agonist. Its binding affinity at the CB₁ receptor is only 51.0nM, making it slightly less potent than THC

THC

THC commonly refers to tetrahydrocannabinol, the main active chemical compound in Cannabis.THC may also refer to:* Tan Holdings Corporation...

 itself, however JWH-171 is particularly notable in that it is a hydrocarbon

Hydrocarbon

In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups, called hydrocarbyls....

 containing no heteroatom

Heteroatom

In organic chemistry, a heteroatom is any atom that is not carbon or hydrogen. Usually, the term is used to indicate that non-carbon atoms have replaced carbon in the backbone of the molecular structure...

s. This demonstrates that reasonably high-affinity cannabinoid binding and agonist effects can be produced by compounds with no hydrogen bonding capacity at all, relying merely on Van der Waals

Van der Waals force

In physical chemistry, the van der Waals force , named after Dutch scientist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, is the sum of the attractive or repulsive forces between molecules other than those due to covalent bonds or to the electrostatic interaction of ions with one another or with neutral...

 interactions to bind to the receptor. It was discovered by, and named after, Dr. John W. Huffman

John W. Huffman

John William Huffman is a professor emeritus of organic chemistry at Clemson University who first synthesised many novel cannabinoids, including JWH-007, JWH-015, JWH-018, JWH-019, JWH-030, JWH-051, JWH-073, JWH-081, JWH-122, JWH-133, JWH-147, JWH-171, JWH-182, JWH-203, JWH-210, JWH-250, JWH-307,...

.