Balant Manica, Garnatje Teresa, Vitales Daniel, Oganesian Marine, Vallès Joan, Stepanyan-Gandilyan Nina, Gras Airy
Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB), CSIC-CMCNB, Passeig del Migdia s/n, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08038, Spain.
Laboratori de Botànica (UB), Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l'Alimentació-Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Unitat Associada al CSIC, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Joan XXIII 27-31, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain.
J Cannabis Res. 2025 Jan 30;7(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s42238-025-00259-x.
Cannabis sativa L. (Cannabaceae) has been widely used by humans throughout its history for a variety of purposes (medicinal, alimentary and other uses). Armenia, with its rich cultural history and diverse ecosystems, offers a unique context for ethnobotanical research about traditional uses of Cannabis. The present work aims to study and preserve the local traditional knowledge about Cannabis in Armenia by conducting interviews with informants and through a literature review.
The first part of the dataset was gathered with ethnobotanical surveys, through questionnaires conducted with 27 informants. The second part of the data was obtained from a comprehensive bibliographic search in English, Armenian and Russian language. Since the data acquisition was different, the quantitative analyses (calculation of the number of use reports and percentages) were performed separately.
During the interviews 52 use reports and 3 vernacular names were recorded, while the bibliographic data from 20 references, provided us with 56 use reports and 17 Cannabis vernacular names, from the 5th century to 2020. Our results indicate that medicinal applications, particularly for human ailments, and fibre use have markedly dwindled, contrasting with earlier epochs. However, the Cannabis seeds continue to be consumed in celebrative and symbolic dishes such as aghandz and tolma.
The recent decline in the medicinal use of Cannabis contrasts with earlier periods when access to pharmacological remedies was limited, and societal views of the plant were more positive. This shift can be partly attributed to the impact of legal restrictions. In contrast, the use of Cannabis seeds for alimentary purposed is importantly maintained nowadays. As medicinal use, fibre use has also declined, largely due to the availability of more competitive modern products. The loss of vernacular names over time, as detected in this study, also reflects the erosion of traditional knowledge, which correlates with diminishing use. Despite the small sample size and limited geographic scope, the combination of two approaches-information from contemporary informants and a systematic bibliographic review-has provided valuable insights into the changes in the traditional use of Cannabis in Armenia, that has not been explored in this way before.
大麻（大麻科）在人类历史上已被广泛用于各种目的（药用、食用及其他用途）。亚美尼亚拥有丰富的文化历史和多样的生态系统，为关于大麻传统用途的民族植物学研究提供了独特背景。本研究旨在通过对信息提供者进行访谈并开展文献综述，来研究和保存亚美尼亚当地关于大麻的传统知识。
数据集的第一部分通过民族植物学调查收集，对27位信息提供者进行问卷调查。数据的第二部分来自对英文、亚美尼亚文和俄文文献的全面检索。由于数据获取方式不同，定量分析（使用报告数量和百分比的计算）分别进行。
访谈期间记录了52条使用报告和3个方言名称，而从20篇参考文献中获取的文献数据，为我们提供了从公元5世纪到2020年的56条使用报告和17个大麻方言名称。我们的结果表明，与早期相比，药用应用，尤其是用于人类疾病的应用以及纤维用途已显著减少。然而，大麻籽仍继续用于制作如阿汉兹和托尔马等庆祝性和象征性菜肴中。
大麻药用的近期减少与早期形成对比，当时获得药理疗法的途径有限，且社会对该植物的看法更为积极。这种转变部分可归因于法律限制的影响。相比之下，如今大麻籽用于食用目的的情况仍重要地保留着。作为药用，纤维用途也已减少，主要是由于有更具竞争力的现代产品。如本研究中所发现的，随着时间推移方言名称的丢失也反映了传统知识的流失，这与使用的减少相关。尽管样本量小且地理范围有限，但当代信息提供者的信息与系统文献综述这两种方法的结合，为亚美尼亚大麻传统用途的变化提供了有价值的见解，而此前尚未以这种方式进行过探索。
