药用大麻起源及其早期传播

Origin of medicinal Cannabis sativa and its early spread

大麻不仅是世界上使用最频繁的毒品,也是人类最早使用的药物之一。研究药用大麻的起源,可为安全有效利用大麻提供启示,具有重要的社会意义和伦理意义。综合本草考古与本草文献考证双重证据法,揭示了大麻的药用起源及其早期传播过程;并结合人类文化背景,探讨了其在欧亚大陆上传播的动力因素。结果显示,药用大麻可能起源于人类在仪式中对大麻精神活性物质的利用,方式为吸食大麻燃烧后所释放出的具有麻醉、致幻作用的烟气;公元前3千纪早期东欧Yamnaya先民是目前发现的可能最早使用大麻药用属性的人群;随后,药用大麻可能由东欧传播到西亚、中亚地区,然后以中亚为中心,分别向南传播到南亚、向北传播到北亚的西南部和东亚的西北部和西部地区。印欧语系民族与药用大麻利用、传播之间的密切关系指示了印欧人群的扩散可能是药用大麻在欧亚大陆上早期传播的主要驱动因素之一。

As the most widely used narcotics in the world,Cannabis sativa is also regarded as one of the earliest drugs that used by humans.Exploring the origin and early dissemination of C.sativa as medicine can shed light on the safe and effective usages of marijuana-derived drugs and the scientific development of the new medicinal value of C.sativa,which are of important social and ethical significances.Bencao archaeology and herbal textual research are dual evidence for herbalism studies.By integrating the evidence from archaeological remains and references of the early civilizations of the world,this study revealed the medicinal origin of C.sativa and its early expansion,and then in the context of the human cultural background,explored the factors driving the original spread of C.sativa as a medicine in Eurasia.The results showed that the medicinal origin of C.sativa was likely rooted in the original utilization of its psychoactive substance by ancient humans in traditional rituals,by inhaling the smoke from the burning of the psychoactive substance of C.sativa,which was likely to be the original mode of the use of C.sativa as a medicine.Also,based on the existing archaeological remains,the Yamnaya populations from early East Europe(3000 BC)were supposed to be the earliest human beings employing C.sativa for medical purposes.After originating from East Europe,medicinal C.sativa probably dispersed into the West Asia and Central Asia.Afterwards,it has spread into South Asia southward and into North Asia and East Asia northward with the Central Asia as the diffusion center.Indo-European populations were supposed to be the main human beings using the psychoactive substance of C.sativa,and there was a high degree of similarity between the routes of the expansion of the Indo-European language family and the course of early spread of C.sativa.In terms of the above two understandings,we suggested that the dispersal of the Indo-European populations probably have driven the early spread of C.sativa as medicine across Eurasia.