All you wanted to know about hemp
Let’s talk about the wonder plant in a bit more detail in this article, especially in the Indian context.
Hemp & its Usage in India
You might not immediately associate hemp and India but they actually share a long history. Traditional hemp use in India stretches back thousands of years, with its origins in Ayurveda. In fact, the Vedas (veda or plural vedas = knowledge) are ancient texts in Sanskrit language, estimated to be at least 3400 years old, refer to hemp as one of the five most sacred plants.
Traditionally, hemp in India was used for preparing natural medicines, nutritional foods and also fibre to make textiles. Hemp was associated with Ayurveda, a holistic medical system that focuses on promoting good health and preventing illness through healthy lifestyle practices and herbal remedies. It also found a home in modern medicine starting in the 19th Century.
Hemp can be used for various purposes. It can be refined and used in the manufacturing of a variety of commercial items such as pharmaceuticals, paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food, beverages, furniture, construction, personal care and animal feed. Talk about a wonder plant!
Hemp as Building Material
Industrial hemp strands are extremely strong, and some of the manufacturing methods can make them up to 200 times stronger than steel!
Most of the times though, hemp is mixed with lime to create blocks of insulation for use during construction. Not strong enough to support the structure on their own, these hemp blocks act as an insulating layer between concrete blocks.
Hemp as a nutritious food.
Hemp seeds in India are consumed to supplement protein and iron requirements. The seeds can be eaten raw, ground into a hemp meal, sprouted or made into dried sprout powder. They are delicious sprinkled on cereal, mixed into baked goods or added to a shake. Hemp seeds can also be used to make “hemp milk”, a satisfying non-dairy beverage. Not just for humans, hemp seeds have been used in animal and bird feed.
Hemp as an amazing sustainable fibre for textiles.
It is one of the oldest natural fibres known to man. Like linen (which comes from flax), hemp is a bast fibre. Bast fibres have great cooling characteristics, making them perfect for warm-weather clothing. They are also strong with good resistance, naturally lending them to the manufacture of utilitarian items like ropes and sacks. These days, bast fibres like hemp and linen are often blended with other natural and man-made fibres, including cotton, silk or polyester.
Hemp fibre can be used to make paper!
Hemp is a great choice for paper as it is more sustainable than wood. The fibres in hemp are up to five times longer than wood pulp fibres making the resulting hemp paper much stronger with higher tensile strength and tear resistance. It also has a significantly lower lignin (organic polymer in plants which makes them rigid and woody) content, making it less vulnerable to degradation over time compared to paper made from wood pulp. As a result, fine quality hemp paper is mostly used in cigarettes, banknotes and technical filter paper.
Other Uses of Hemp
Bio Fuels, Cooking Oils, Paint, Agriculture and the list goes on. Hemp oil is used for cooking, oil based paint and plastics, as a moisturizing agent in creams and in biodiesel.Industry and entrepreneurs simply need to continue to explore innovative ways of exploiting this miracle crop. And with hemp, it truly seems like the sky is the limit.
The future of Hemp in India is NOW!
