2500 year old tombs suggest hybridization to increase THC

from the June/July Issue:

Cannabis is one of the oldest cultivated plants in Eastern Asia,where it has been grown for grain, fiber, medical, recreational, and ritual purposes for thousands of years.

In June the American Association for the Advancement of Science published a paper authored by Meng Ren, Zihua Tang, Xinhua Wu, Robert Spengler, Hongen Jiang, Yimin Yang, and Nicole Boivin. The paper details an analysis of an archeological site where ten wooden braziers, containing stones with obvious burning traces, were exhumed from eight tombs at the Quman Cemetery (also known as Jirzankal Cemetery) on the Pamir Plateau in Central Asia.

The cemetery itself dates to approximately 2500 years ago and contains material culture that links the occupants to indigenous peoples further west in the foothills of the mountains.

Wild cannabis grows freely across many of the cooler mountain foothills from the Caucasus to western China, but cannabinol (CBN) levels in most wild plant populations are low.

An approximately 20-mg sample of wood was collected from each fragment of the wooden braziers, the outside was used as a control and contained no signs of interaction with the cannabis plant.

The burnt residue inside the braziers was tested separately. According to the researchers that made the discovery, relatively equivalent amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) would be expected for wild cannabis plants, but were not detected in the burning residues.

Instead, the cannabinoids detected on the wooden braziers are mainly CBN, showing a much higher level of THC and little to no CBD presence. This suggests that the cannabis used in the Quman Cemetery samples may have been domesticated and hybridized to maximize the desired traits in the plant.

Researchers stated that while other recent discoveries from burials in the Turpan Basin in northwest China, suggest medicinal uses these discoveries do not reveal how the cannabis plant was used.