Story about hemp

Hemp (cultivated hemp, lat. Cannabis) is a genus of plants, with the only species Cannabis sativa, which has 3 subspecies, and belongs to the hemp family. Hemp is one of the first plants in the world that man began to use for purposes other than food.

Previously, this genus was divided into three separate types of hemp, while according to new knowledge, the genus consists of only one species, (Cannabis sativa), which appears in three subspecies:

Seed hemp or industrial hemp Cannabis sativa subsp. sativa – (“useful” sativa), see also Industrial hemp
Indian hemp, Cannabis sativa subsp. indica (Lam.) E. Small & A. Cronquist
Ruderal hemp, Cannabis sativa var. ruderalis (Janisch.) S.Z. Liou – Russian hemp, or wild hemp

Depending on the purpose, there is a difference between psychoactive or medicinal hemp with a THC content of more than 0.2% in the plant, and industrial (useful) or decorative hemp, where the THCa content is below 0.2%.

In open areas, hemp, depending on the subspecies, can grow from 50 cm to 8 m. In Europe, it can grow up to about 4 m, but a plant height of 2 m can be considered realistic.

Hemp is one of the first plants in the world that man began to use for fiber production 50,000 years ago, along with bamboo it is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. Hemp seeds have been used as a food for at least 2000 years and contain all 11 essential amino acids. It was used in China at least 10,000 years ago, they used the seeds as food, “Ma”, as the Chinese call hemp, gave them very tasty and nutritious seeds, and very early they learned to use the almost indestructible fiber obtained from its stems.

Even in “Shen nung pen Ts’ao king”, a book of Chinese medical and agricultural instructions, probably written sometime after Christ, the author describes how to use hemp as a remedy against malaria, rheumatism and a number of other health problems.

Under appropriate soil conditions, hemp roots can penetrate up to 140 cm deep, which is significantly deeper than the roots of other comparable “useful” plants. This was the reason that in the past, hemp was very often sown on exhausted, “compacted” soils in order to loosen them and, if possible, prepare them for the later cultivation of more demanding plants, such as cereals. Hemp was also used in areas of the steppe threatened by desertification to not only loosen the soil, but also shade it at the same time. Other plants were sown only after the sowing of hemp would have improved the quality of the soil.

A plant that could be used in so many ways, grows fast and has leaves that look like a palm, it was thought that it could only be of divine origin. That is why it is not unusual that hemp is used in Hindu rituals as a protection against evil. According to belief, the Buddha ate only hemp seeds on his way to enlightenment.

Through India and ancient cultures in the territory of today’s Iraq, hemp came to other parts of the known world at that time. The oldest finds of hemp in Europe are about 5,500 years old, and come from the area of Germany, while seeds from around 2,500 years BC were found in the area of today’s Lithuania. BC, and hemp fiber from about 2,300 years BC. Kr. Herodotus (450 BC) mentions that the Greeks, like their neighbors the Egyptians, wore clothes made of hemp cloth. Hemp and flax have long been the most important source of fiber in Europe. However, hemp cookies were also known to cause “relaxation and joy” (Greek physician Galenos, 200). Pliny the Elder as well as some other authors mention the use of hemp for pain relief.

The Scythians cultivated ruderal hemp in the area of today’s southern Russia for food, but also for the production and export of ropes from it around 700 BC. Kr. In the tents, they burned hemp for ritual purposes, and in the process inhaled the resulting vapors.

The use of this versatile herb has continued for centuries. Thus, the Merovingian queen Adelheid, who died in 565, was buried in hemp clothing, and King Charlemagne passed the first law on hemp around 800. All subjects were obliged to grow this raw material, very important both in peace and in war.

Many medieval weapons, such as the long bow whose string was made of hemp, could not be made without the very strong and almost indestructible hemp fibers.

In the 13th century, another way of using hemp, paper production, arrived in Europe via Spain. At that time, the technology of producing paper from wood had not yet been mastered, so hemp, along with old rags, which themselves were most often made of hemp fiber, were the most important ingredient in paper production. The famous Gutenberg Bible was printed on such paper in 1455, and the American Declaration of Independence from 1776 has been preserved to this day in its original form because it was written on permanent hemp paper.

In seafaring, hemp ropes and sails were very important. Hemp fiber is much more resistant to salt water, and absorbs much less water than, for example, cotton fabrics. The cotton sails would absorb half as much water from the rain and thus make it heavier, so the masts could break. And linen sails were not a good substitute, because in contact with water, unlike hemp sails, they string within a few months. Venice achieved the role of a very important trade center in the Middle Ages, among other things, by the high quality of its ropes.

The appearance of more economically profitable crops in Europe, as well as new fibers (sisal, synthetic fibers) until around the middle of the 20th century, displaced hemp from a number of areas where it dominated until then, and after World War II, its cultivation was made illegal. Today, only the cultivation of hemp with less than 0.2% THC substance in the plant is allowed, thanks to technology today it can be used for various products, some of which are: paper, ropes, clothes, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food, livestock food.

Thanks to recent research on the potential benefits of cannabinoids, primarily in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as benefits in other industries, we are witnessing a resurgence of hemp cultivation on an industrial level.