Written by Mike Ives; Joy Dong and Maria Kramer report.
People who feel the effects of marijuana are exposed to what scientists call “different perspectives” and can easily find a solution to a different problem. There’s one here to meditate: Where did the weed come from? No, it is not a place to buy, but the plant was home and where it was first.
Many botanists believe Cannabis sativa The plant was first grown indoors in Central Asia. But a study was published in the journal Friday Advances in Science It suggests that East Asia is a major source of vegetation, and that all existing plant species come from the “gene pool” that is represented by the wild and rich species growing in China today.
According to the authors of the study, the plant was grown about 12,000 years ago at the beginning of the Neolithic period, “primarily a multifaceted crop,” perhaps used for fiber and medicine.
About 4,000 years ago, cannabis began to spread to Europe and the Middle East, and farmers began to grow it, especially 4,000 years ago.
Previous domestic history # Cannabis It is not well understood – mostly due to legal restrictions – but new research shows that the plant has its roots in what is now northwestern China. https://t.co/5mV564TzXb pic.twitter.com/6gHcAUYiiV
– Science Advances (@ScienceAdvances) July 19, 2021
According to Michael Ugurgan, a biology professor at the University of New York, who studied the study, the common belief among the ancients was that plants were used for food. Pur Rugan, who did not participate in the research, said: “It seemed like a very urgent problem for human beings at that time – how to get food.” It is interesting to note that in the past, they were very worried about fiber and even alcohol. It begs the question of what are the priorities of these neoliberal societies.
According to a 2016 study by other scientists, the earliest records for cannabis are mostly from China and Japan, but most botanists have probably discovered this for the first time in the eastern part of West Asia, where plant species are abundant.
Gene study
According to a recent study, genetic sequences indicate that the species has “a single domestic origin” in East Asia. Arranging the genetic specimens of the plant, they found that the species were probably domesticated at the beginning of the Neolithic period. Their conclusions are based on pottery and other archaeological evidence from China, Japan, and Taiwan.
Archaeological evidence shows that the fossil, which dates back to about 7,500 years ago, is a constant source of cannabis. “I would like to see a very large study with a large sample,” he said.
For his part, Luca Fumagali, author of the study and a geneticist who specializes in genetic conservation in Switzerland, said that the concept of Central Asian origins is largely based on observations of wild specimens in the region. “Wild specimens are easy to find, but they are not,” Fumagali said. “These are plants that have escaped captivity and returned to the wild. He added: “By the way, that’s why you call it weeds because it grows everywhere.”
The study was conducted by Ren Guangpeng, a botanist at Lan Hou University in Gansu Province, western China. Ren said in an interview that he was probably the first cannabis breeder in northwestern China, and that his findings support efforts to grow new hemp varieties in the country.
Ren and his colleagues collected 82 specimens — seeds or leaves — from around the world. The specimens were developed to produce high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a selective fiber for the production of fiber and other plants from Europe and North America.
Fumagali and his colleagues then extracted the genomic DNA from the samples and ordered it in a laboratory in Switzerland. They also downloaded and reviewed sequencing data from 28 other samples. The results show that the wild species analyzed are actually “historical escapes from family forms,” and the existing species in China – both rescued and wild species – are closely related to their ancestry.
Although further sampling of wild plants is still necessary in these key geographical areas, our results based on a much larger sample of fresh wild seeds are still in place. C. Sativa They are gone. ”New research shows that hemp activity is a global source of textiles, that food and fat grains have dried up in the 20th century, and that the use of cannabis has increased with the addition of recreational drugs. But there are still “big gaps” in knowledge about the history of housing development, largely because the plant is illegal in many countries.
And it may be difficult to understand exactly how plants can thrive in the first place, says an evolutionary plant researcher at the University of Minnesota. Although scientists can make some basic predictions about how a particular plant species will differ in nature, they say that when the natural selection process is driven by humans, such predictions “go out the window.” “So, for example, when we mix different pollen or different pollen grains, we may think that different species are different,” he said. “But people are often the pollen and people have created those homes.
This article first appeared The New York Times.
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