From rope, to clothing, to paper and beyond, hemp is one of the most versatile and useful plants available to humanity. We have been using hemp for millennia, and its use can be traced as far back as the ancient society of Mesopotamia.
Even in the United States, where it has been previously outlawed for about eighty years, hemp was the number one crop grown in the early colonies and was used as the material for the sails on Chistopher Columbus’ flotilla of ships – a testament to its durability as a textile. It is something of a self-sustaining crop, in that its bushy leaves fall off of the plant and provide its own mulch for the next generation of growth.
Understanding the Properties of Hemp
Hemp oil is non-toxic and can be made into consumables such as salad dressing, skin moisturizer, and home supplies such as long-lasting paint or furniture varnish, among even more things. Hemp seeds can be consumed as a snack similarly to pumpkin seeds, but hemp is not to be confused with its free-wheeling, psychoactive cousin known as cannabis.
Hemp and cannabis are genetically similar but far from the same. Phenotypically speaking, The hemp plant is taller and bushier than the cannabis plant and it grows faster than the cannabis plant. It’s also hardier, and can be grown almost anywhere, unlike cannabis which can be quite finicky to grow in comparison. The buds that hemp produces are typically leafier and have less of an odor than cannabis buds. But what about hemp’s healing properties that you’ve likely heard of by now?
Hemp produces a compound called cannabidiol (hereon referred to as CBD) that has a litany of beneficial healing properties. Hemp-derived CBD is said to treat pain, anxiety, and inflammation among other afflictions. CBD also has many other uses that we are only beginning to discover, but it’s important to understand the differences between hemp and cannabis because both produce cannabinoids (compounds that interact with our brains found in cannabis and hemp) such as CBD.
CBD From Hemp vs Cannabis
Hemp-derived CBD differs from cannabis-derived CBD in that hemp-derived CBD contains almost undetectable amounts of other cannabinoids, particularly THC. Thus, hemp-derived CBD has no psychoactive effects on humans.
When distilled into an oil, hemp-derived CBD can be extremely versatile, in that it can be consumed orally, mixed into drinks, or applied topically as a pain-relieving massage oil. When you buy CBD online or in stores like CVS, what you are buying is hemp-derived CBD. But not all hemp-derived CBD is created equally.
Being that hemp, unlike cannabis, is largely unregulated, unscrupulous actors sometimes sell low-quality CBD that hasn’t been tested to ensure that it’s free of contaminants such as pesticides.
If you’re a hemp producer or even a curious consumer who wants the safest hemp possible, LabPlex provides fast, accurate, easy to understand test results that can be viewed online at any time!
Contact us to get your hemp products LabPlex approved today!
