Evolución histórica de la clasificación taxonómica del cáñamo

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a plant which is widely spread throughout the world. It is one of the oldest sources of textile fibres, but it has also stood out for its medicinal and food uses. The domestication process carried out by humans, focused on obtaining different products, has brought with it a biological evolution from the anatomical, morphological, physiological and chemical points of view. Furthermore, hybridization has also largely conditioned the evolutionary process of hemp. This has made the taxonomic classification of hemp extremely difficult, which has been highly controversial. During the Early Modern Period, some authors considered that there were different species, while others affirmed that all the specimens corresponded to a single species. The chemical characterization of cannabinoids, the most characteristic compounds of the secondary metabolism of hemp, took place in the 20th century. Because of this, the content of some of these compounds was included as a classification criterion. However, the discrepancies between the authors on whether the Cannabis genus was monotypic or polytypic were not resolved. In the 21st century, the taxonomic classification of hemp continues under study because of the absence of consensus.