Recent Study Finds That CBD Decontaminates Soil

CBD seems to be shaking the earth with its continually-emerging benefits. Now, one study is even suggesting that its mother plant, hemp, has oddly resilient properties that prove successful in removing toxins from even the most damaged of Earth’s soil. Not only this, but it actually produces more cannabinoids (like CBD) when it is placed in a stressful environment.

In a recent study published in August of 2019 by Pennsylvania State University, hemp (specifically, its Cannabis sativa L. strain) grown on the land of abandoned mines in Pennsylvania demonstrated Phytoremediative properties. Hemp is a non-psychoactive strain of Sativa.

Phytoremediation is a constructed process of removing toxins or obliterating contaminants from tainted soil with plants or organisms, such as fungi and - now - strains of Cannabis. Phytoremediation is a way for plants to protect themselves from the toxicity of their environment and - somehow - mature to blossom into a self void of the dangerous contaminants in which it was grown.

Phytoremediation is a type of Bioremediation, which The Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO) defines as “Processes that use living organisms (usually naturally occurring) such as plants, bacteria, yeast, and fungi to break down hazardous substances into less toxic or nontoxic substances.”

Essentially, the scientists mentioned in the study above were practicing Phytoremediation with hemp plants - something that they notably did not think was going to be a successful endeavor. However, when these hemp plants were grown in highly toxic beds of soil filled with harmful metals and chemicals, their flowers sprouting free of THC - all to the scientists’ confusion.

Toxins from rainfall, unfortunately, leak into the soil of the earth in many areas and can affect the land we walk on and grow our food in. The contaminants in this soil can damage plants, inhibit their growth, and even indirectly make its way into human systems through what we eat. Somehow, however, hemp plants grown in the tainted soil were able to produce a flower that did not contain any amount of the dangerous materials it was grown in.

This is not the first successful exhibit of hemp’s resilience or planet-healing properties. In fact, scientists once began growing hemp around the site of Chernobyl in the 1990s in order to “[act] as a vacuum cleaner for toxic substances found in soil.”, according to Cannvas.me.

To be capable of sustaining its life in an environment of such strong toxins that existed in this minefield, hemp is undoubtedly an extraordinary plant. Although its uses are still controversial, extracting quality CBD oil from it (and now even simply planting it) might prove beneficial for the human race.

Sustainable means of healing our planet are in high demand as climate change presses forward at frightening speeds. Although it could sound too good to be true, CBD, along with all of its other health-related benefits, might actually be able to help clean the earth, too. More studies must be conducted on this subject to reach further, more solid conclusions. However, the results of Penn State’s studies are surely thought-provoking and might spark collateral inspiration to perform further studies.

This is a guest blog entry.