It has lengthy been identified that resinous hashish flower tops are infused with sturdy therapeutic properties. However there are additionally pharmacologically energetic elements in different elements of the plant that shouldn’t be ignored when assessing the well being advantages of hashish.
The earliest reference to the therapeutic use of hashish dates again to 2700 BC in historic China, “the land of hemp and mulberry.” Hashish (“Ma”) was subsequently included within the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, humankind’s first pharmacopeia, which had been assembled by Emperor Shen Nung, the legendary father of conventional Chinese language medication, who’s credited with introducing the customized of consuming tea. Ma was advisable for greater than 100 illnesses, together with gout, rheumatism, malaria, constipation, beri-beri, and absent-mindedness.
The Shennong Ben Cao Jing known as Ma one of many “Supreme Elixirs of Immortality.” It was stated to confer longevity and good well being. If consumed over a protracted time frame, Ma might “allow one to speak with the spirit gentle and make the physique gentle. It primarily dietary supplements the middle and boosts the qi [chi]. Protracted taking might make one fats, robust, and by no means senile.”1
When consumed in extra, nevertheless, “it could make one behold ghosts and frenetically run about.”
Seeds of Well being
In conventional Chinese language medication, protein-rich hashish seeds figured prominently each as a meals supply and a treatment — apparently extra so than resinous hashish flower tops. The seeds don’t comprise CBD, THC, or every other cannabinoids. However trendy science confirms that hashish seeds are a superb supply of omega 3 fatty acids, that are indispensable biochemical constructing blocks for a wholesome endocannabinoid system.
A 2011 research printed in Nature Neuroscience states: “Dietary omega-3 deficiency abolishes endocannabinoid-mediated neuronal features.”2 Low ranges of omega-3 fatty acids have been linked to neuropsychiatric ailments and impaired emotional habits.
Our endocannabinoids — the “marijuana-like” compounds that bind to the cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, in addition to different receptors within the mind and physique — are literally derivatives or byproducts of omega 3 and omega 6 omega fatty acids. These are known as “important” fatty acids as a result of they’ll’t be produced by the physique in enough quantities and subsequently should be ingested.
However the typical Western food plan skews closely towards corn, wheat, and different cereal grains, that are excessive in omega 6, whereas at present we eat a lot much less meals — fish, nuts, leafy greens — that’s wealthy in omega 3. This dietary imbalance is a significant factor that contributes to many persistent ailments. It seems that hashish seeds (commercially obtainable as hempseed oil, hemp hearts or hempseed protein powder) are gifted with a superb stability of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids.
The Root of the Matter
Practitioners of conventional Chinese language medication additionally used an extract from uncooked hashish roots to deal with infections and to assist ladies throughout childbirth. A decoction made by boiling the roots could possibly be consumed orally as a tincture or juice or utilized topically as a poultice.
Herbalists and healers have employed hashish root preparations to deal with a variety of maladies not solely in China however in different elements of the world. The primary reference to the therapeutic properties of hashish roots in Western medication is discovered within the Pure Histories (77 AD) by Pliny the Elder. The Latin naturalist wrote that “the roots [of the cannabis plant] boiled in water ease cramped joints, gout too, and comparable violent ache.”
As is the case with hashish seeds, the roots don’t comprise THC or CBD or any of the so-called minor cannabinoids. Nor are fragrant important oils (which give hashish flower its full of life perfume) current within the roots. As an alternative, the roots are endowed with different medicinal elements which have analgesic and anti inflammatory properties. Varied alkaloids and sterols distinctive to hashish roots are noteworthy antioxidants. Friedelin, a triterpenoid compound present in algae and lichen, in addition to in hashish roots, is understood to scale back fevers.
A twelfth century Persian medical textual content cited the antipyretic (fever-reducing) motion of hashish roots. And in 1542 the German doctor Leonard Fuchs famous {that a} compress made with hemp root extract can soothe infected pores and skin: “The uncooked root, pounded and wrapped, is nice for the burn.” 100 years later, English botanist John Parkinson advisable a decoction of hemp root “to chill irritation of the pinnacle or every other half.” And Nicholas Culpepper’s Compleat Natural, printed in 1653, additionally mentions hemp roots as a treatment for irritation.3
However understand that hashish is a bioaccumulator, which means that its roots can draw heavy metals and different toxins from the soil. Whereas that’s a fantastic asset for cleansing up a contaminated ecosystem, it’s not what you need when rising an herb for human consumption. The place and the way hashish is cultivated are essential components that should be thought-about to keep away from publicity to dangerous materials and to maximise the well being advantages of the plant.
Flower Energy
Cultivating high-quality hashish isn’t rocket science, but it surely entails vital consideration to element. A hearty, adaptable plant that just about anybody can develop, hashish lends itself to high-tech horticulture and complex breeding strategies designed to coax desired traits into prominence and fine-tune the standard of the excessive. The complexity of gourmand ganja — an adaptogen and euphoriant with a rare vary of smells and flavors and psychoactive subtleties — has reached a stage of artistry similar to at present’s wine trade.
Rising the kindest bud finally will depend on an historic gardening ritual referred to as “sexing the crops,” a apply that entails separating female and male crops of their early levels to keep away from pollination. Referred to as sinsemilla (Spanish for “with out seeds”), the unfertilized feminine flower tops, oozing THC and CBD and a kaleidoscope of important oils, are what hashish is most well-known for. The sexually annoyed females produce greater buds with extra sticky, fragrant resin in an unrequited try to catch pollen that by no means arrives.
Carl Linnaeus, the daddy of recent botany, wrote about this in his 1753 treatise Dissertation on the Sexes of Crops. The eminent Swedish scientist describes rising Hashish sativa on his windowsill, an expertise he significantly loved:
“Within the month of April, I sowed the seeds of hemp (Hashish) in two completely different pots. The younger crops got here up plentifully . . . I positioned every by the window, however in numerous and distant compartments. In certainly one of them I permitted the female and male crops to stay collectively, to flower and bear fruit, which ripened in July . . . From the opposite, nevertheless, I eliminated all of the male crops, as quickly as they had been sufficiently old for me to tell apart them from the females. The remaining females grew very effectively, and offered their lengthy pistilla in nice abundance, these flowers persevering with a really very long time, as if in expectation of their mates . . . It was definitely a lovely and really admirable spectacle, to see the unimpregnated females protect their pistilla so lengthy inexperienced and flourishing, not allowing them to fade, until that they had been for a really appreciable time exploded, in useless, to entry the male pollen . . .”4
Hashish has been likened to a “pharmacological treasure trove.” CBD and THC are the crown jewels of this treasure trove. They’re the ability couple of hashish therapeutics. However there are additionally dozens of secondary cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids within the shimmering feminine inflorescence, every with particular therapeutic attributes, which work together synergistically in order that the therapeutic impression of complete plant hashish is bigger than the sum of its elements. From faucet root to bud, whether or not seeded or seedless, the plant is the alpha and omega of hashish medication.
References
- Shou-zhong, Y. The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica: A Translation of the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. Boulder, CO: Blue Poppy Press, 1997.
- Lafourcade M, Larrieu T, Mato S, Duffaud A, Sepers M, Matias I, De Smedt-Peyrusse V, Labrousse VF, Bretillon L, Matute C, Rodríguez-Puertas R, Layé S, Manzoni OJ. Dietary omega-3 deficiency abolishes endocannabinoid-mediated neuronal features. Nat Neurosci. 2011 Mar;14(3):345-50. doi: 10.1038/nn.2736. Epub 2011 Jan 30. PMID: 21278728.
- Ryz NR, Remillard DJ, Russo EB. Hashish Roots: A Conventional Remedy with Future Potential for Treating Irritation and Ache. Hashish Cannabinoid Res. 2017 Aug 1;2(1):210-216. doi: 10.1089/can.2017.0028. PMID: 29082318; PMCID: PMC5628559.
- A Dissertation on the Sexes of Crops. Translated from the Latin of Linnaeus by James Edward Smith, F.R.S., into English and printed 1786. Cited in Lee, Martin A. Smoke Alerts. New York: Scribners: 2012, p. 22.
Martin A. Lee is the director of Venture CBD. He’s authored and edited a number of books, together with Smoke Signals, Acid Dreams, and The Essential Guide to CBD. © Copyright, Venture CBD. Might not be reprinted with out permission.
