Hemp and marijuana: related botanically, worlds apart in practice.
CBD explained
It is the same plant species, and yet nobody would confuse hemp fibre with what is sold in a coffee shop. The difference lies in the variety, the reason it is grown and above all in one compound.
Is hemp the same as cannabis?
Botanically, yes. Both are Cannabis sativa L. The distinction we make in everyday language is one of variety and use, not of species.
Compare it with cabbage. Kale, broccoli and Brussels sprouts all come from Brassica oleracea, but nobody calls a sprout broccoli. Hemp works the same way: centuries of selecting for different properties have produced plants you would never mix up in practice.
So what is the difference?
One compound determines almost everything: THC, the compound behind the high. Hemp has been selected for a negligibly low content, marijuana for a high one.
| Hemp | Marijuana | |
|---|---|---|
| Species | Cannabis sativa L. | Cannabis sativa L. |
| THC content | At most 0.3% for approved varieties | High, and pushed further by breeding |
| Grown for | Fibre, seeds and cannabinoids such as CBD | Flower tops with a psychoactive effect |
| Appearance | Tall and thin, planted close together | Short and bushy, plenty of space per plant |
| Uses | Rope, textiles, insulation, animal feed, food, CBD extract | Recreational and medicinal cannabis use |
Farmers growing hemp in the EU may only use varieties on the common catalogue of varieties, and those varieties may contain no more than 0.3% THC. The limit has been at that level since 1 January 2023; before that it was 0.2%. It is checked during the growing season. The hemp behind Renova products comes from certified EU cultivation of this kind.
Note that this is about the plant in the field, not about the finished product. What is in a bottle is in the batch report, not in a cultivation regulation.
How CBD and THC relate to each other beyond this is on the page about CBD and THC.
Why is hemp so tall and thin?
Because fibre hemp is sown close together. The plants stretch towards the light and put all their energy into height, which gives long, strong fibres. Marijuana is given room instead, because there the energy goes into the flower tops.
Hemp for CBD extraction sits in between: it is about flowering parts with a high cannabinoid content, but from a variety that makes hardly any THC.
Hemp seed oil is not the same as CBD oil
This is the mix-up that costs most people money. In the supermarket, hemp seed oil sits among the salad oils, and it contains no significant amount of CBD. It is pressed from the seeds, and cannabinoids are mainly found in the flowers and leaves, not in the seed.
CBD oil is something else: an extract from the flowering parts of the plant, dissolved in a carrier oil. At Renova that carrier is olive oil; only the 40% softgels use hemp seed oil as a base, and even there the CBD comes from the extract, not from the seed. The page about carrier oils shows which product has which base, and how the extract is obtained is explained under CO₂ extraction.
In short: if the label only says hemp seed oil and gives no amount of CBD anywhere, you are buying salad oil.
Where does the word marijuana come from?
From Spanish, and it caught on in the United States in the early twentieth century in campaigns against cannabis. So it is not a botanical term but a culturally loaded word. We use it on this page only because English has no other everyday word for high-THC cannabis.
You can go back to the basics through the CBD overview.
Questions about hemp and cannabis
Does hemp get you high?
Does supermarket hemp seed oil contain CBD?
Which plant does Renova's CBD come from?
Curious what else is in the plant?
Besides CBD, an extract contains dozens of other compounds. Which ones, and what they do for smell and taste, is on the page about plant compounds.