Researchers find oldest-ever stash of marijuana 789g

[kiwi_farmer]

28/11/08

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianp...MSItURlmnGXpuvw

Copyright © 2008 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved

 

 

 

OTTAWA — Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

 

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

 

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

 

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

 

"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

 

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

 

The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.

 

The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage.

 

Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old.

 

The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.

 

"This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible," Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.

 

"It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied."

 

The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man's high social standing.

 

Russo is a full-time consultant with GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada for pain linked to multiple sclerosis and cancer.

 

The company operates a cannabis-testing laboratory at a secret location in southern England to monitor crop quality for producing Sativex, and allowed Russo use of the facility for tests on 11 grams of the tomb cannabis.

 

Researchers needed about 10 months to cut red tape barring the transfer of the cannabis to England from China, Russo said.

 

The inter-disciplinary study was published this week by the British-based botany journal, which uses independent reviewers to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of all submitted papers.

 

The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said.

 

"It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years."

 

Russo, who had a neurology practice for 20 years, has previously published studies examining the history of cannabis.

 

"I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue," he said, referring to his latest paper.

 

The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.

[Major Overgrow]

Thanks.

 

Interesting.

 

I think the largest seeded variety is an old chinese strain. Not sure if it's a drug strain though.

 

The smallest seeded variety has thousands of seeds to the gram, not sure where it's from, but it's probably weedy shit & worthless to smoke.

 

MO

[Frazz]

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Original Report and Research Paper from Oxford Journal Of Experimental Botany

http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/...ourcetype=HWCIT

 

as follows

 

The Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, China have recently been excavated to reveal the 2700-year-old grave of a Caucasoid shaman whose accoutrements included a large cache of cannabis, superbly preserved by climatic and burial conditions.

 

A multidisciplinary international team demonstrated through botanical examination, phytochemical investigation, and genetic deoxyribonucleic acid analysis by polymerase chain reaction that this material contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of cannabis, its oxidative degradation product, cannabinol, other metabolites, and its synthetic enzyme, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, as well as a novel genetic variant with two single nucleotide polymorphisms.

 

The cannabis was presumably employed by this culture as a medicinal or psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent, and contribute to the medical and archaeological record of this pre-Silk Road culture.

 

The results presented collectively point to the most probable conclusion which is that the Gushi culture cultivated cannabis for pharmaceutical, psychoactive or divinatory purposes. In examining the botanical evidence from this ‘old and cold’ site with its unique degree of preservation, the cannabis consisted of a processed (pounded) sample whose seed size, colour, and morphology, at least according to principles of Vavilov (Vavilov, 1926), suggest that it was cultivated rather than merely gathered from wild plants.

 

The considerable amount of cannabis present (789 g) without any large stalks or branches would logically imply a pooled collection rather than one from a single plant. Importantly, no obvious male cannabis plant parts (e.g. staminate flowers, not infrequently observed in Indian herbal cannabis, or bhang (Russo, 2007) were evident, implying their exclusion or possible removal by human intervention, as these are pharmacologically less psychoactive.

 

Below are some Photomicrographs of the ancient cannabis.

(A) Photograph of the whole cannabis sample being transferred in laminar flow hood.

B. Photomicrograph of leaf fragment at low power displaying non-glandular and amber sessile glandular trichomes. Note retention of chlorophyll and green colour, scale bar=100 µm.

C. Higher power photomicrograph of a single sessile glandular trichome. At least 4 of its 8 secretory cells are clearly visible on the right, and the scar of attachment to the stype cells in the centre, scale bar=25 µm.

(D) Low power photomicrograph of a cannabis achene (‘seed’) including the base with a non-concave scar of attachment visible, scale bar=1 mm.

 

 

 

Copyright Society of Experimental Biology.

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This is irrefutable proof of the journey Cannabis has made over 2700 years in company with Man and should quieten the folk who deny the historical psychoactive usefulness of Cannabis ..

and when you pull that next cone you are continuing a tradition that goes back thousands of years ...

[Major Overgrow]

When so well preserved, maybe they could do a DNA rescue & resplice~repair, then grow it to see how it smokes up

 

MO

[Chato]

Interesting read Kiwi an you have a knack for finding the news links bro

 

Look for an old article in High Times (available online but i cbf'd linking it now) about Xinjinag an the search for the "mother" plant.

 

Xinjiang is an ethnic minority in China an as such are at the bottom of the socio-economic chain. It's a region based along the old silk route linking the Middle East an Europe so it has a very unique an diverse culture. They are predominately Muslim and have an Asian/Middle Eastern look about them, very different from a typical Chinese looking peep. They are the pickpockets an street vendors, the hawkers an the shifty cunts, very much shunned by mainstream China. Why they don't let em go an run their own race is beyond me but that's also typical China. If i wanna make a Chinese taxi driver laugh I always tell em I'm from Xinjiang when they ask me where i;m from. They always do a double take an the real dumb cunts(bout 1 in 3) will actually believe me for a few minutes lmao.

 

Weed grows wild an unchecked in those parts an it's the Xinjinag Ren(people) that supply most of the expats in China with hash. It comes in varying quality but most is beaten then grinded till it becomes a golden powder, from there it;s pressed into blocks and gains a deeper brown almost black looking colour. If you have contacts and know the right peeps you can get the first run stuff which is from the freshly harvested plants being beaten against a screen an the trichs collected but it;s not common.

 

I'll whack some pics up when i can of some of the different types but i can tell ya whether it;s the first beat or older pressed stuff it definitely has a kick an decent level of potency.

 

peace

c

[Chato]

High Times online doesn't show the whole article so here's the link search for the mother plant

 

peace

c

[entheofarm]

so are GW pharms trying to get some publicity?

 

isn't this the same story that was published in 2006?

 

http://www.brothersformercy.org/

[Frazz]

yea good spotting entheofarm it does appear to just be re-hashed news