Identified the source of the cannabis plant?

Researchers believe that marijuana may have developed millions of years ago.

Documents dating back to medieval times suggest that humans have hypothesized the geographical origins of marijuana from Saudi Arabia, India or China from 930 AD.

"Although there is a massive document emerging over the past three decades, the classification of cannabis and its origin center is still being debated," explained John McPartland , a researcher from the University of Vermont. a new report.

Marijuana plants have quite mysterious origins.

To overcome the lack of fossil evidence, scientists turned to marijuana pollen; These pollen grains were first studied in the 1930s to help find the long history of plants.

Many studies of fossil pollen have been done for decades since then, helping to identify ancient records of crops across Asia and elsewhere, including noting where to grow. the best.

"Cannabis thrives in the steppe - an open living environment , " the researchers wrote.

In the new study, McPartland and his team screened 155 fossil pollen studies currently concentrated in Asia. One of the difficulties with the data is that many studies show that marijuana pollen with seeds from Humulus genus looks the same, since the two separated from it about 28 million years ago.

To address identification issues, researchers used a special statistical technique in which they clearly distinguished pollen grains based on other common plant species in the area.

Based on the evidence, the results show the most likely geographical origin of marijuana. The team said that marijuana spread westward, to Russia and Europe about 6 million years ago and to the east, bringing it to eastern China about 1.2 million years ago .

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