Hemp Oil vs CBD Oil

Hemp is one plant, but the two oils come from parts of it that have almost nothing in common. Cannabinoids like CBD are made in the sticky glandular trichomes on the flowers and the small leaves around them. Hempseed oil is pressed from the seed, which is technically a small dry fruit with a hull, and a review in the journal Nutrients reports that the seed is 25 to 35 percent oil by weight.

The same review explains that whatever cannabinoids show up in hempseed got there by contact with resin on the bracts around the seed during harvest, so they count as contamination, and how much depends on the variety and how well the seed was cleaned. That is the first reason hempseed oil is not a mild CBD oil.

A CBD oil is an extract plus a carrier. Our Partnered Proof Full Spectrum Oil, for example, starts as a full spectrum crude pulled from organic hemp with cryogenic ethanol at -60F to -90F, then goes through five stages of filtration before we blend it into certified organic MCT oil. The bottle holds 2,500mg of CBD along with the minor cannabinoids and terpenes that came out of the flower with it.

Hempseed oil is nutrition, not cannabinoids. The Nutrients review reports the oil is up to 90 percent unsaturated fat, with 70 to over 80 percent polyunsaturated fat, mostly linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3) in a ratio of about 3:1 to 5:1, plus gamma-linolenic acid and tocopherols. Those are good reasons to put it on a salad, not reasons to expect anything a CBD study measured.

A real CBD oil label gives you three things: the total milligrams of CBD in the bottle, the milligrams per serving with the serving size, and the type of extract (full spectrum, broad spectrum or isolate). Ours says 2,500mg per bottle and 1ml per serving, up to twice a day or as directed by a medical professional. If a label cannot tell you how much CBD is in one dropper, you cannot plan a serving or compare brands.

A hempseed oil label looks like any food oil: a nutrition panel, serving size in tablespoons, grams of fat. The ingredient list says "hemp seed oil" or "cannabis sativa seed oil." The tell on many online listings is a large milligram number on the front with no cannabinoid named anywhere on the back. Read the back before you believe the front. If the only ingredient is hemp seed oil, the milligrams are seed oil.

Label numbers are only promises until a lab checks them. In 2017, researchers published in JAMA the results of testing 84 CBD extracts bought online from 31 companies. About 31 percent were labeled accurately (within 10 percent of the stated CBD), roughly 43 percent contained more CBD than labeled, 26 percent contained less, and THC was detected in 18 of the 84 samples. Oils were the most accurate category, and still only 45 percent passed.

That is why every batch we make has a third-party Certificate of Analysis on our Lab Results page, searchable by the batch number on your package. The COA shows measured CBD, THC, CBG and CBN, plus pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents and microbials. A COA for a true hempseed oil would show CBD at or near zero. A COA with 2,500mg of total CBD confirms you bought what the front of the bottle claims.

A CBD tincture is mostly carrier oil by volume, with concentrated extract dissolved in it. In our post on how we make CBD oil, we describe blending the full spectrum crude with organic MCT coconut oil or organic hemp seed oil. So "hemp seed oil" in an ingredient list does not mean a product is fake. It means the maker chose it as the carrier.

The question to ask is what the carrier is carrying. If the ingredient list says hemp seed oil and hemp extract, and the label states milligrams of CBD, you have a CBD oil in a hempseed carrier. If the list says hemp seed oil and nothing else, you have hempseed oil. Partnered Proof uses certified organic MCT oil as its carrier, and the active ingredient is the full spectrum hemp extract listed above it.

In December 2018 the FDA responded to three GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) notices for hulled hemp seed, hemp seed protein powder and hemp seed oil, saying it had no questions about their use as food ingredients. GRAS Notice 778 covers hemp seed oil for general food use, excluding infant formula and USDA-regulated meat and poultry products. The FDA's cannabis Q&A adds that hemp seeds do not naturally contain THC or CBD.

CBD is a different story. The FDA has approved exactly one CBD drug, Epidiolex, for rare seizure disorders. Hemp CBD products like ours have not been evaluated by the FDA, which is why we describe what our products contain and how they are tested rather than what they will do for you. Full spectrum oils carry trace THC, and federal rules are changing: Public Law 119-37 redefines hemp by total THC and caps finished hemp products at 0.4mg of total THC per container, with most of it taking effect December 11, 2026. State laws differ, so check yours before you buy.