Cannabis first domesticated 12,000 years ago: study

[bill barilko]

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-cannabis- ... years.html

Cannabis first domesticated 12,000 years ago: study

Cannabis was first domesticated around 12,000 years ago in China, researchers found, after analyzing the genomes of plants from across the world.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances on Friday, said the genomic history of cannabis domestication had been under-studied compared to other crop species, largely due to legal restrictions.

The researchers compiled 110 whole genomes covering the full spectrum of wild-growing feral plants, landraces, historical cultivars, and modern hybrids of plants used for hemp and drug purposes.

The study said it identified "the time and origin of domestication, post-domestication divergence patterns and present-day genetic diversity".

"We show that cannabis sativa was first domesticated in early Neolithic times in East Asia and that all current hemp and drug cultivars diverged from an ancestral gene pool currently represented by feral plants and landraces in China," it said.

Cannabis has been used for millennia for textiles and for its medicinal and recreational properties.

The evolution of the cannabis genome suggests the plant was cultivated for multipurpose use over several millennia.

The current highly-specialized hemp and drug varieties are thought to come from selective cultures initiated about 4,000 years ago, optimized for the production of fibers or cannabinoids.

The selection led to unbranched, tall hemp plants with more fiber in the main stem, and well-branched, short marijuana plants with more flowers, maximizing resin production.

Cannabis landraces in Qinghai province, central China.

The study was led by Luca Fumagalli of the University of Lausanne and involved scientists from Britain, China, India, Pakistan, Qatar and Switzerland.

"Our genomic dating suggests that early domesticated ancestors of hemp and drug types diverged from Basal cannabis", around 12,000 years ago, "indicating that the species had already been domesticated by early Neolithic times", it said.

"Contrary to a widely-accepted view, which associates cannabis with a Central Asian center of crop domestication, our results are consistent with a single domestication origin of cannabis sativa in East Asia, in line with early archaeological evidence."

It said that some of the wild plants currently found in China represent the closest descendants of the ancestral gene pool from which hemp and marijuana varieties have since derived.

"East Asia has been shown to be an important ancient hot spot of domestication for several crop species... our results thus add another line of evidence," the study said.

The researchers said their study offered an "unprecedented" base of genomic resources for ongoing molecular breeding and functional research, both in medicine and in agriculture.

The study, they said, also "provides new insights into the domestication and global spread of a plant with divergent structural and biochemical products at a time in which there is a resurgence of interest in its use, reflecting changing social attitudes and corresponding challenges to its legal status in many countries."

 

[Ron in Regina]

12,000 years…. That’s a crazy timeframe!! Upper North America was covered under about a mile of ice, & the oceans where about 400 feet lower then than today, and though you couldn’t walk from India to Australia at that point….there wasn’t a whole lot of water between them. Wooly Rinos & Sabre Toothed Cats both still would have been abundant & in theory, agriculture wouldn’t hit the Fertile Crescent for another 6000 years or so…& ancient asians (I’m assuming) are cultivating the wacky weed & improving strains, etc…I guess there was a priority system to that cultural development over other things of lesser importance/value at that point.

I wonder if the release of carbon monoxide and dioxide from this endeavour was the beginning of anthropomorphic global warming cooling changing etc….that we swim in today depending on who’s preaching & what their end game is at any given time?

Dope smoking caused climate change leading to the extinction event shortly afterwards, perhaps leading to a lack of woolly mammoths in our present day? Or maybe dope smoking led to the exponential jump from human like creatures idling along for hundreds of thousands of years to what we’ve seen in the last several thousand up to and including today?

 

[spaminator]

12,000 years…. That’s a crazy timeframe!! Upper North America was covered under about a mile of ice, & the oceans where about 400 feet lower then than today, and though you couldn’t walk from India to Australia at that point….there wasn’t a whole lot of water between them. Wooly Rinos & Sabre Toothed Cats both still would have been abundant & in theory, agriculture wouldn’t hit the Fertile Crescent for another 6000 years or so…& ancient asians (I’m assuming) are cultivating the wacky weed & improving strains, etc…I guess there was a priority system to that cultural development over other things of lesser importance/value at that point.

I wonder if the release of carbon monoxide and dioxide from this endeavour was the beginning of anthropomorphic global warming cooling changing etc….that we swim in today depending on who’s preaching & what their end game is at any given time?

Dope smoking caused climate change leading to the extinction event shortly afterwards, perhaps leading to a lack of woolly mammoths in our present day? Or maybe dope smoking led to the exponential jump from human like creatures idling along for hundreds of thousands of years to what we’ve seen in the last several thousand up to and including today?

stoned age.

 

[Jinentonix]

... ancient asians (I’m assuming) are cultivating the wacky weed & improving strains, etc…I guess there was a priority system to that cultural development over other things of lesser importance/value at that point.

Yeah, medicine isn't important at all.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Yeah, medicine isn't important at all.

Do you think these prehistoric peoples were cultivating marijuana with the idea of relieving pressure from glaucoma (?) or perhaps because it made them feel funny in a good way?? I’m assuming they were eating it before they were smoking it also.

Personally I’m assuming that the medicinal side effects from the wacky weed where almost accidentally discovered around it’s recreational use, but I could be wrong. That’s the way it happened in our household. I was helping my girlfriend whip up a large batch of gummy bears and my neck is kinked from standing over the stove…. And I rub the back of my hand before I swore because I realized it was covered in oil…. And within a few minutes the kink in my neck was gone. A couple of big crunches and the relief was within minutes. Total accidental discovery which led to her making CBD/THC roller balls. Serendipity.

 

[Jinentonix]

Do you think these prehistoric peoples were cultivating marijuana with the idea of relieving pressure from glaucoma (?) or perhaps because it made them feel funny in a good way?? I’m assuming they were eating it before they were smoking it also.

Personally I’m assuming that the medicinal side effects from the wacky weed where almost accidentally discovered around it’s recreational use, but I could be wrong. That’s the way it happened in our household. I was helping my girlfriend whip up a large batch of gummy bears and my neck is kinked from standing over the stove…. And I rub the back of my hand before I swore because I realized it was covered in oil…. And within a few minutes the kink in my neck was gone. A couple of big crunches and the relief was within minutes. Total accidental discovery which led to her making CBD/THC roller balls. Serendipity.

A) How good are they and B)Can you send me some? Kidding.