Indian hemp
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Indian hemp ( Cannabis indica ) |
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The Indian hemp ( Cannabis indica ) is a plant of the genus Cannabis (Cannabis) from the family of the hemp plants (Cannabaceae). Whether Indian hemp is a separate species or a subspecies of Cannabis sativa is controversial , as wild and cultivated forms of hemp are morphologically variable, which has led to ongoing disagreement about the taxonomic organization of the genus.
Occurrence
The steppes and mountainous countries of Central Asia are considered the original home of all cannabis clans. With the plants that grow wild there today, however, it is hardly possible to decide whether they are real wild plants or rewilded, former cultivated plants; under certain circumstances these can also be hybridized with one another . Spontaneous forms differ from cultivated plants mainly in the formation of a special separating tissue at the base of the ripe fruit, which means that the fruit does not remain on the plant, but is gradually scattered as it ripens. As a rule, they do not germinate evenly when sown, but rather delayed in some cases, thus building a permanent seed bank in the soil . Nikolai Wawilow and his working group of Soviet botanists have investigated the wild occurrences over decades. According to his results, it is likely that the domestication of hemp took place several times independently of one another, in different regions and from already different wild plants, this was confirmed in later studies. According to this hypothesis, Cannabis sativa s.str. (in the narrower sense) the region north of the great divide of the Hindu Kush, Pamir and Himalayas (including the Tibetan plateau) and spread from here to the west. The original home of Cannabis indica , on the other hand, would be south of these mountains, with cultivated clans mainly spreading to the south. It is possible that the division of these clans from a former, uniform parent species goes back to the wide separation of the area in the Ice Age, in which populations could have been pushed to the north and south. While Wawilow assumed two centers of domestication: west of the Himalayas (India) and east of the Himalayas (Turkestan / China), other researchers attribute the diversity of forms in these regions to early cultivated plants and only assume a southern center.
description
Whether the genus cannabis only includes a single species ( i.e. is monotypical ) or whether two, or even three, species are recognized within the genus, is still controversial between various investigators, especially since the corresponding clans can be crossed with one another in a fruitful manner. There are also different views on the delimitation of the various morphologically distinguishable clans . Not only scientific considerations play a role: In Canada a producer for drug purposes pleaded (unsuccessfully) for acquittal because he did not cultivate cannabis “ sativa ”, as expressly prohibited by law.
In the parlance of breeders and growers, the name indica refers to broad-leaved, densely branched plants with a high THC content, which are primarily cultivated for hashish and marijuana production. However, this does not coincide with the botanical description in all cases. The botanical Cannabis indica is cultivated both for drug production and as an oil plant and as a fiber plant and comprises different ecotypes, which some authors consider as subspecies .
As a distinguishing feature of Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa s.str. are indicated: plant small, up to about 120 centimeters high, more or less conical , densely branched, dark achenes , lightly spotted on the outside due to the perianth that remains , falling away from the plant when ripe due to a special separating tissue. The American researcher Karl William Hillig, who examined hundreds of plants from different regions as herbarium evidence and who cultivated some in greenhouse experiments under controlled conditions in order to be able to exclude environmental modifications, gives the following characteristics: plant growing and maturing more slowly, with the leaves of the middle nodes (i.e. in the middle of the stem) there is a tendency to have fewer partial leaflets per leaf, leaflets wider, the base of the stems often discolored reddish-brown due to peeling bark.
Plants assigned to Cannabis indica differ noticeably depending on their origin and use, these forms are sometimes only understood as varieties or cultivars, sometimes as subspecies. A distinction is made between:
- Cannabis indica subsp. chinensis . used for fiber and oil production, with broad leaflets. Grown in China, Korea, Japan and other parts of Southeast Asia.
- Cannabis indica subsp. indica . used for drug production (also feral), with narrow leaflets. Formerly in South and Southeast Asia, today cultivated worldwide.
- Cannabis indica subsp. kafiristanica . wild or overgrown, also used occasionally. Wawilow and Hill regard it as a wild stem of the species, but possibly only a descendant of feral cultivated plants. Grows on the western edge of the Himalayas, from Kashmir to Myanmar.
- Cannabis indica subsp. afghanica . used to make hashish, with broad leaflets. Grown in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In genetic analyzes, in which the allozyme of 11 plant enzymes were compared, it was possible to distinguish 65 alleles for these . When comparing the allele frequency with the breeding lines and origin, two clusters were found which corresponded to the two species sativa and indica quite well according to the morphological addresses; this supports the concept of two separate species.
Biology and ecology
Like all hemp types and varieties, Indian hemp is an annual herbaceous plant. It is dioecious , which means that male and female flowers sit on different plants (there are rare aberrations that are monoecious), pollination occurs by the wind (anemogamy). The seeds germinate in spring without human intervention (otherwise anytime). The plant initially grows vegetatively, under favorable conditions it can grow up to around 10 centimeters per day. Flowers are only formed when the length of the day falls below 12 to 14 hours in late summer. Although the species prefers full exposure, it can also thrive in partial shade. Cannabis indica prefers open, bare, well-drained and loosened, sandy to loamy soils, it does not tolerate waterlogging. Wild plants and overgrown plants grow under similar conditions to cultivated plants in ruderal vegetation . The species prefers areas with at most moderate humidity, in the permanently humid tropics it can be cultivated, but never grows wild here.
Drug and ingredients
Intoxicating cannabis products like marijuana , hashish and, less commonly, hash oil are obtained from the mature, dried female inflorescences of the hemp plant. Most of the clans (understood as different species, lines, cultivars, or varieties) that are grown for fiber are Cannabis sativa s. st. and have very little or no intoxicating effects. Users of hemp as an intoxicant often differentiate between the cultivated plants “ sativa ” and “ indica ” varieties.
The active ingredients of the cannabinoid class belonging to the cannabis genus are stored in glandular hairs that occur on all parts of the female plants but are concentrated in the area of the inflorescences. A distinction is made between around 60 different cannabinoids, some of which are presumably only degradation products or artifacts generated during analysis. The various cannabis clans differ noticeably in their cannabinoid profile. On the plant, the cannabinoids are in an acidic (carboxylated) form, which are only converted into the psychoactive, decarboxylated form by heating; Fresh material therefore has no intoxicating effect. The starting point for the herbal synthesis of almost all cannabinoids is the non-psychoactive cannabigerol itself . Different cannabinoids are synthesized from it through synthetic pathways that differ from variety to variety. Among these, cannabidiol (abbreviated: CBD), cannabichromene and tetrahydrocannabinol (abbreviated: THC) are important. Other quantitatively important cannabinoids are propyl phytocannabinoids, i. H. Cannabinoids that contain a propyl group . These are provided with the suffix - varin , especially cannabigerovarin and compounds derived from it. The THC content is decisive for the desired intoxicating effect, but tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) is also similarly psychoactive. In addition to the absolute levels, relative levels, especially the ratio of THC to CBD, are used to characterize the plants.
The available data suggests a model in which the plants with high THC content differ from those with very low content mainly in one particular enzyme , which occurs in two variants ( isoforms ). The plants so differentiated differ in a gene variant (technically called allele ) of this enzyme. It was found that all plants that have high THC levels and the associated allele of the enzyme belong to plants that could be assigned to Cannabis indica . This also applies to varieties, especially those from China, that are used for fiber or oil production. These differ mainly in the absolute THC content.
In addition, cannabis contains 113 other cannabinoids , some of which are weakly psychoactive , as well as resins , flavonoids and essential oils .
use
Throughout human history, cannabis has served as a food source of fiber and fats and has also been cultivated for its healing, pain relieving and intoxicating properties. Selective breeding has resulted in cannabis plants optimized for various uses, both varieties with a high content of active substances and varieties specifically for fiber and seed production .
In the medicine
Due to the higher cannabidiol (CBD) content of cannabis indica , it is preferred for diseases (see also cannabis and cannabinoids as medicines ) where the anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic effect of this active ingredient is desired.
Injections made from hemp extract from Indian hemp have a soothing effect, according to Weiss, in the case of severe pain from injured muscle parts and tendons.
As an intoxicant
Cannabis indica has a stronger sedative effect than Cannabis sativa , which has a more psychedelic and stimulating effect.
In addition to the wild form, various cultivated forms have been developed. Today indica strains are bred all over the world, centered around the Netherlands , Canada and the USA . In commercial production, preference is given to plants that contain high levels of THC resin and often produce female heirs.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Harm van Bakel, Jake M Stout, Atina G Cote, Carling M Tallon, Andrew G Sharpe, Timothy R Hughes, Jonathan E Page: The draft genome and transcriptome of Cannabis sativa. 2011, (PDF) .
- ↑ Nikolai Iwanovitch Vavilov, Vladimir Filimonovich Dorofeev: Origin and Geography of Cultivated Plants. New edition. Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-40427-4 translated from Russian by Doris Love.
- ^ A b Robert R. Clarke, Mark D. Merlin: Cannabis - Evolution and Ethnobotany . University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 2013, ISBN 978-0-520-27048-0 .
- ↑ Lucas Laursen: The cultivation of weed. In: Nature. 525, 2015, pp. S4 – S5 doi: 10.1038 / 525S4a (online)
- ↑ Victor Robinson: Concerning Cannabis Indica. 1946, (PDF) ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ^ Richard Evans Schultes, William M. Klein, Timothy Plowman, Tom E. Lockwood: Cannabis: An example of taxonomic neglect. In: Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University. 23 (9), 1974, pp. 337-367. (online at JSTOR)
- ^ Karl W. Hillig: A multivariate analysis of phenotypic variation in Cannabis. In: Karl W. Hillig: A Systematic Investigation in Cannabis. Thesis for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Biology, Indiana University, March 2005, Chapter 3. doi: 10.13140 / RG.2.1.2648.3680 .
- ↑ Table 1 in: Robert R. Clarke, Mark D. Merlin: Cannabis - Evolution and Ethnobotany . University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 2013, ISBN 978-0-520-27048-0 .
- ^ Karl W. Hillig: Genetic evidence for speciation in Cannabis (Cannabaceae). In: Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. 52 (2), 2005, pp. 161-180. doi: 10.1007 / s10722-003-4452-y
- ↑ KW Hillig, PG Mahlberg: A chemotaxonomic analysis of cannabinoid variation in Cannabis (Cannabaceae). In: American Journal of Botany. 91 (6), 2004, pp. 966-975. doi: 10.3732 / ajb.91.6.966
- ^ Marguerite Louise Baur: Recherches sur l'histoire de l'anesthésie avant 1846. Leiden 1927, pp. 220-223.
- ^ Rudolf Fritz Weiss: Textbook of Phytotherapy. 5th edition. Stuttgart 1982, p. 382 f.
literature
- Christian Rätsch: Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants. 8th edition. AT Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-03800-352-6 .
- Karl Hiller, Matthias F. Melzig: Lexicon of medicinal plants and drugs . 2 volumes, approved special edition for area Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-89996-682-1 .
