Hempseed Oil

Therapeutic Hemp Oil
by Andrew Weil, M.D.

The nutritional composition of oil from the marijuana plant
could be beneficial to your health.

To most people, cannabis sativa is synonymous
with marijuana, but the plant's Latin name means
the "useful hemp."
Species designated sativa (useful) are usually
among the most important of all crops.
In fact, the utility of hemp is manifold: the plant
has provided human beings with fiber, edible seeds,
anedible oil, and medicine, not just
a notorious mind-altering drug.

In our part of the world, these other uses of hemp
are no longer familiar.
We rarely use hemp fiber and know little
about hemp medicine.
(Some cancer patients have found it to be a superior
remedy for the nausea caused by chemotherapy,
and some people with multiple sclerosis are grateful
for its relaxant effects on spastic muscles.)
Hemp seed is sometimes an ingredient in bird food;
otherwise, edible products from cannabis sativa
are virtually unknown.

This may all change.
In many parts of the country, promoters of hemp cultivation
are working to educate people about the immense potential
of this plant and to reintroduce it into commerce.
They champion hemp as a renewable source of pulp
for the manufacture of paper, as a superior fiber
for making cloth, and as a new food that can be processed
into everything from a milk substitute to a kind of tofu.

Hemp seeds contain 25% high quality protein and 40% fat
in the form of an excellent quality oil.
Hemp oil is just now coming on the market.
Produced by the Ohio Hempery in Athens, Ohio,
it will be sold through natural food stores in small,
opaque bottles to be kept under refrigeration.
It has a remarkable fatty acid profile, being high
in the desirable omega-3's and also delivering some
GLA (gamma-linolenic acid)
that is absent from the fats we normally eat.
Nutritionally oriented doctors believe all
of these compounds to be beneficial to health.

Hemp oil contains 57% linoleic (LA)
and 19% linolenic (LNA) acids,
in the three-to-one ratio that matches our nutritional needs.
These are the essential fatty acids (EFA's)
-so called because the body cannot make them and must
get them from external sources.
The best sources are oils from freshly ground grains
and whole seeds, but EFA's are fragile and quickly
lost in processing.
EFA's are the building blocks of longer chain fats,
such as eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid
(DHA) that occur naturally in the fat of cold-water fish like;
sardines, mackerel, salmon. bluefish,
herring and to a lesser extent, tuna.

Adding these foods to the diet seems to lower risks
of heart attacks because omega-3 fatty acids reduce
the clotting tendency of the blood and improve
cholesterol profiles.
They also have a natural anti-inflammatory effect that makes
them useful for people with arthritis
and autoimmune disorders.

Health food stores stock many brands
of EPA/DHA supplements in the form of fish oil capsules.
I usually do not recommend them because I think it's better
to get your essential fatty acids in foods, and I worry
about toxic contaminants in fish oil supplements.
But what can you do if you choose, for one reason
or another, not to eat fish?
You can get some omega-3's in expeller pressed canola oil,
the only common vegetable oil that contains them.

A much richer source is flax oil.

Hemp oil contains more
EFA's than flax and actually tastes good.
It is nutty and free from the objectionable
undertones of flax oil.
I use it on salads, baked potatoes, and other
foods and would not consider putting it in capsules.

Like flax oil, hemp oil should be stored
in the refrigerator, used quickly, and never heated.
Unlike flax oil, hemp oil also provides 1.7%
gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).
There is controversy about the value of adding
this fatty acid to the diet, but many people take supplements
of it in the form of capsules; evening primrose oil,
black currant oil and borage oil.

My experience is that it simulates growth of hair and nails,
improves the health of the skin, and can
reduce inflammation.
I like the idea of having one good oil that supplies both
omega-3's and GLA, without the need to take more capsules.

One of the questions that people are sure to ask
about hemp oil is whether it has any psychoactivity.
The answer is no.
Intoxicating properties of cannabis sativa reside in a sticky
resin produced most abundantly in the flowering tops
of female plants before the seeds mature.
The main psychoactive compound
in this resin is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Strains of hemp grown for oil production have a low
resin content to begin with, and by the time the seeds are
ready for harvest, resin production
has dropped even further.
Finally, the seeds must be cleaned and washed
before they are pressed.
As a result, no THC is found in the final product.

A second question that people may ask is,
"Is hemp oil illegal?" The oil itself is perfectly legal.
Hemp seeds are allowed in commerce if they have been
sterilized in some way to prevent germination.
This is usually done by subjecting them to heat.
At the moment, the Ohio Hempery is importing
sterilized seeds from Canada and extracting the oil here,
but it hopes to get some sort of exemption
from this requirement in order to be able
to use the freshest seeds possible in the future.

Obviously, there is a political dimension
to the appearance of this product.
For many years, cannabis sativa has been stigmatized
as a satanic plant and its cultivation has been prohibited.
As an ethnobotanist interested in the relationships
between plants and human beings,
I have always felt that making plants illegal was stupid,
especially when the objects of these actions
are supremely useful plants like hemp.
The plant is not responsible for human misuse of it.

The efforts of the Ohio Hempery and other groups
to promote hemp cultivation are part of a campaign
to rehabilitate this plant and change society's view of it.

Whether or not you wish to join that campaign,
it must seem counter productive to deny ourselves
access to the many benefits that hemp offers.
Of those, the gift of an edible oil with superior
nutritional and therapeutic properties
is one of the most important.

If you have a chance to try hemp oil,
a long forgotten, newly rediscovered food,
I think you will see why I am enthusiastic about it.


Special Thanks
Andrew Weil teaches
at the University of Arizona College of Medicine,
has a private medical practice, and is the author
of Natural Health, Natural Medicine.

From: Natural Health, March/April 1993
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What a long, strange trip it's been...
Jerry Garcia {1942-95}
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GreenWitchGarden
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