Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia.
The Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, China have recently been excavated to reveal the 2700-year-old grave of a Caucasoid shaman whose accoutrements included a large cache of cannabis, superbly preserved by climatic and burial conditions. A multidisciplinary international team demonstrated through botanical examination, phytochemical investigation, and genetic deoxyribonucleic acid analysis by polymerase chain reaction that this material contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of cannabis, its oxidative degradation product, cannabinol, other metabolites, and its synthetic enzyme, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, as well as a novel genetic variant with two single nucleotide polymorphisms. The cannabis was presumably employed by this culture as a medicinal or psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent, and contribute to the medical and archaeological record of this pre-Silk Road culture.
Russo
Ethan B
EB
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. erusso@gwpharm.com
Jiang
Hong-En
HE
Li
Xiao
X
Sutton
Alan
A
Carboni
Andrea
A
del Bianco
Francesca
F
Mandolino
Giuseppe
G
Potter
David J
DJ
Zhao
You-Xing
YX
Bera
Subir
S
Zhang
Yong-Bing
YB
Lü
En-Guo
EG
Ferguson
David K
DK
Hueber
Francis
F
Zhao
Liang-Cheng
LC
Liu
Chang-Jiang
CJ
Wang
Yu-Fei
YF
Li
Cheng-Sen
CS
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002185:Cannabidiol / Q000032:analysis; D002188:Cannabis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D002681:China; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D010940:Plant Proteins; D002185:Cannabidiol