The endless story of the hemp plant

From the history of the first evidence of use to highlights of recent decades around the valuable and versatile hemp ingredients

The historical and prehistoric importance of the raw material hemp is mainly based on the use of the fibre. By now, hundreds of essential components in the hemp plant have been identified. Besides terpenes, flavonoids, and other plant substances, the plant cannabinoids such as cannabidiol enjoy particularly high interest. So far, more than 100 plant cannabinoids have been detected in the hemp plant. The best known among them are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabidiol is obtained from the hemp plant. Other plant cannabinoids have also increasingly come into the focus of many scientific studies in recent years.

First mentions and archaeological finds

Already between 8,000 and 10,000 before Christ, first written mentions and relevant archaeological finds prove the use of hemp as a raw material for clothing. Thus, even then, the hemp plant was among the most widespread and popular fibre plants. Many scholars of that time were also already concerned with various pharmacological uses of the plant and products derived from it.

First hemp - heyday of ocean-going shipping

Due to the rapidly increasing seafaring in the Middle Ages, hemp gained great importance as a fibre plant, marking its first heyday. This is partly due to its durability in use for sails and ropes in seafaring, but also to its spread through seafaring itself. From the 13th century, hemp was considered the primary raw material in paper production. In 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was printed on hemp paper. In 1776, the American Declaration of Independence was also drafted on hemp paper. The first Levi's jeans were also made from hemp and not – as might be assumed – from cotton. Hemp textiles have a much longer lifespan compared to cotton due to their fibre quality.

Innovation and mechanization of industrialization lead to a temporary decline

After this longer hemp heyday, the decline began with the dawn of modern times. Synthetic fibres, but also extensive technical advances and mechanization beyond seafaring, as well as the paper industry based on wood, led many in agriculture to turn to other, more productive plants. Thus, hemp lost importance in many regions of the world by the turn of the century.

The low point in the history of hemp was finally reached in 1937 in the USA, where the Marihuana Tax Act of 1927 was legally anchored. From 1937 onwards, all manufacturers and traders of hemp were burdened with a high tax, and finally, hemp cultivation was completely banned.

CBD was first isolated and identified in 1940 by the American chemist Roger Adams.

The hemp renaissance and second heyday from 1990

From the 1990s onwards, the rediscovery of the hemp plant began in Europe. Many countries ended their existing bans on the cultivation of industrial hemp. Since 1995, the cultivation of hemp as a useful plant has been permitted again in the European Union. Since then, industrial hemp can be cultivated again in the respective member countries according to national laws.

In 1992, in cooperation with the Israeli cannabis research authority Raphael Mechoulam and the research team led by William Devane and Lumir Hanus at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA), the endocannabinoid system (ECS) was discovered.

With the ongoing legalization debate of cannabis in many countries, the hemp plant is experiencing a societal high probably never seen before. This is also thanks to increasingly intensive scientific research of the plant and its health-promoting ingredients.

This gives hope for the near and medium future that the hemp plant will not soon disappear again from public discourse and our everyday lives.