Industrial hemp a possibility in Sarawak?

Over the years, the hemp plant has gotten a pretty bad rep worldwide as it is closely associated with the illicit drug marijuana.

However, the truth is, while both hemp and marijuana are from the cannabis plant family, hemp is completely different from marijuana in its function, cultivation and application.

Explaining this difference, Philip Warner, managing director of Ecolife Science Industries told BizHive Weekly that the main differentiating characteristic is that hemp has no illicit drug value.

“What makes marijuana intoxicating is it’s high content of a chemical substance called THC, but hemp plants are different in the sense as that they don’t have high THC levels so they cannot get an individual high or intoxicated.

“The threshold for how low THC levels have to be in order to be considered hemp differs from country to country, but the general consensus is that a less than one per cent THC makeup will not have any illicit drug value to anyone,” he explained.

So with no illicit drug value, what exactly is hemp and how can it benefit us?

According to Warner, hemp is an extremely useful plant that can be cultivated to produce a variety of products, from textiles and building materials to food and medicine, the application of hemp to our daily lives seem to be limitless.

“Almost every part of the plant can be used, its flowers can be used to create valuable medicine, its seeds to produce food and oil, and its leaves and stems to produce textiles and building materials.

“If you were to catch the next spaceship to mars, and they said you could only take on thing with you, what would you take?

“You’d take hemp seed because not only will it grow, propagate and reproduce itself, you can eat it, you can sue it to build your house, you can use it as medicine, you can use it as clothes, you can write with it, you can use it as fuel.

“There so many different applications for it so you’d be much better taking hemp with you than say, wheat or bananas,” he said.

Plenty of health benefits as well

Adding to this, Dr Kylie O’Brien who is the associate professor at National Institute of Integrative Medicine (NIIM) Australia states that the food component from hemp seeds is also extremely nutritious and has much promise as a functional food for the prevention and treatment of many health conditions.

“I think there is a huge number of potential health benefits in consuming hemp oil or seeds as a functional food because the research has shown very clearly that some of the main components (polyphenols, flavonols and flavonoids) of hemp seed and oil have tremendous amount of health benefits.

“For example it is antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, and research suggests that it has anticancer properties, is good against heart disease, protective against diabetes, neuro degenerative disease, skin disorders and any disorder underpinned by inflammation.

“And it’s not just preventative for diseases, the hemp seeds and oil itself is extremely nutritious as it is full essential fatty acids, high in protein, and rich in vitamins and minerals,” said Dr O’Brien.

Both Wagner and Dr O’Brien were in Sarawak recently giving talks at the International Scientific Conference on INdigenous Crops 2018.

Possible industry in Sarawak?

Hemp’s high nutritional and medicinal value has turned hemp seed and oil products to high value commodities and because of this, Warner believes that this is something that Sarawak should latch onto given the abundant landscape here.

“If you were to ask me how this region can start capitalising on hemp in their agriculture industry, I would suggest starting on food production from hemp.

“Hemp seed foods like big seeds for hemp oil that is rich in essential fatty acids like omega 3, protein, vitamins and minerals, and antioxidants.

“And after extracting the oil from the hemp seeds, the protein left in the seed can be processed to make meal, flour, breads and protein powder. All this are what is possible right now for this region,” he guided while adding that our tropical climate would very suited to growing variants of the plants whose seeds are much larger than the ones we see on the market.

“If you grow hemp for food, you can either export it to other countries as superfoods or you could use it to supplement to local diets and make the state a little more self-sufficient.

“All nations will face crises of health of their people, and it will send them broke if they use conventional foods and medicine. So, we have to change now to better foods and more complimentary medicines which are not owned by multinational giants that are only interested in making profit.

“By doing so, we can help boost the economy while saving on some hefty healthcare costs as the local population will be healthier with their enriched diets.”