Origin of medicinal Cannabis sativa and its early spread
10.7501/j.issn.0253-2670.2019.20.033
- Author:
Yun-Jun BAI
1
Author Information
1. National Resource Center for Chinese Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Cannabis sativa L.;
Early spread;
Medicinal origin;
Psychoactive substance;
Traditional ritual
- From:
Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs
2019;50(20):5071-5079
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
As the most widely used narcotics in the world, Cannabis sativa is also regarded as one of the earliest drugs that used by humans. Exploring the origin and early dissemination of C. sativa as medicine can shed light on the safe and effective usages of marijuana-derived drugs and the scientific development of the new medicinal value of C. sativa, which are of important social and ethical significances. Bencao archaeology and herbal textual research are dual evidence for herbalism studies. By integrating the evidence from archaeological remains and references of the early civilizations of the world, this study revealed the medicinal origin of C. sativa and its early expansion, and then in the context of the human cultural background, explored the factors driving the original spread of C. sativa as a medicine in Eurasia. The results showed that the medicinal origin of C. sativa was likely rooted in the original utilization of its psychoactive substance by ancient humans in traditional rituals, by inhaling the smoke from the burning of the psychoactive substance of C. sativa, which was likely to be the original mode of the use of C. sativa as a medicine. Also, based on the existing archaeological remains, the Yamnaya populations from early East Europe (3000 BC) were supposed to be the earliest human beings employing C. sativa for medical purposes. After originating from East Europe, medicinal C. sativa probably dispersed into the West Asia and Central Asia. Afterwards, it has spread into South Asia southward and into North Asia and East Asia northward with the Central Asia as the diffusion center. Indo-European populations were supposed to be the main human beings using the psychoactive substance of C. sativa, and there was a high degree of similarity between the routes of the expansion of the Indo-European language family and the course of early spread of C. sativa. In terms of the above two understandings, we suggested that the dispersal of the Indo-European populations probably have driven the early spread of C. sativa as medicine across Eurasia.
