# Hemp (Cannabis sativa)

**Cannabis**

**Known today as.** *Cannabis sativa*.

Kind: Plant

> **Caution.** Psychoactive; a controlled drug in many places.

## What was it used for?

The seed and its juice for earache and to dry up seed; the fiber for cloth and rope.

## What does modern science say?

Its cannabinoids are psychoactive; purified cannabidiol is an approved medicine for some childhood epilepsies.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **tetrahydrocannabinol**: THC
- **cannabidiol**: CBD

**Mechanism.** THC is a partial agonist at the CB1 receptors of the brain. CBD does not activate CB1 but modulates it negatively, and acts at GPR55 and the capsaicin receptor TRPV1; it is not intoxicating.

**Dose.** No recorded fatal dose of THC; psychosis in the vulnerable.

**Standing.** Cannabidiol is licensed for two childhood epilepsies; THC preparations for nausea and spasticity in many countries.

## What lore surrounds it?

In Hindu tradition cannabis belongs to Shiva, called for this reason the Lord of Bhang; myth holds that he produced the plant from his own body to purify the amrita, the elixir of immortality churned from the cosmic ocean. Bhang is still drunk ritually at Holi and Maha Shivratri and sometimes offered in temples as prasad, on the belief that, taken by proper rite, it cleanses sin rather than causing it.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Herodotus.** Describes the Scythians throwing hemp seed on hot stones inside their felt tents and howling with joy in the vapor.

**Dioscorides.** Gives the juice of the green seed for earache.

## Sources

- Herodotus, *Histories* IV.
- Dioscorides, *De materia medica*.
- Wikipedia, “Cannabis and religion.”
- Devinsky, O., et al. (2017). “Trial of cannabidiol for drug-resistant seizures in the Dravet syndrome.” *New England Journal of Medicine* 376.

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*Hemp.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/hemp

Historical description, not medical advice.