FLAX AND HEMP

Len i Konopie

Both flax and hemp are among the oldest plants cultivated by humans. Interestingly, both species originally became famous as a textile raw material for making clothes or ropes. Today, they are mostly known for their oily properties. This is precisely the first reason why these plants are so unusual. On the one hand, they are natural fibers, like cotton, but what sets them apart from typical fibrous raw materials, including those of animal origin, like silk or wool, is that they are also oily – both their fibers and seeds are extremely valuable.

They have been known since the time of the earliest civilizations. It is only worth mentioning that the oldest known records of hemp cultivation go back 5,000 years in China. In the United States alone, 80% of all textiles were made from hemp until the 1820s, when the cotton gin was introduced.

Flax and hemp are again gaining interest from farmers, processors and industries – in Poland and around the world. This is due to the extremely versatile use of the harvested raw materials, which is attractive to the textile, food, pharmaceutical, energy, construction and automotive industries.

The ongoing changes in civilization and new technologies have made it possible to significantly increase the use of flax and hemp, which are no longer associated only with fiber, textiles and cooking oil.

The popularity of these plants

Popularność tych roślin

should translate into an even greater effort on the part of producers and distributors of goods, so as to select raw materials only from those crops that guarantee the preservation of the amazing properties of flax and hemp to the greatest possible extent. Products from such crops we offer you. But this is not the end to the journey – we take a close look at the manufacture process of these plants, as it may drastically deteriorate the flax and hemp properties.

Countless texts and studies have been written about the properties of flax and hemp.

However, a few interesting facts are worth mentioning:

FLAX

    • Flax is one of the richest natural sources of omega 3 fatty acids, with concentrations several times higher than those of, for example, walnuts, canola, soybeans and olives

 

    • Flax fibers have biomedical properties – they have anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects. Combined with hygroscopic properties, flax fiber products are irreplaceable in the care of hard-to-heal wounds.

HEMP

    • Hemp seeds are a wealth of beneficial nutrients, just to mention fiber, vitamins B and E, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, iron and unsaturated fatty acids (omega 3 and 6).

 

    • What is stronger than steel? It takes twice the pressure of steel to crack and break hemp fibers. Hemp is also six times more resistant to bending.

 

    • It was on hemp canvas that Rembrandt and Van Gogh painted their paintings.

 

Something beautiful!

Both species are used in handicrafts and even gardening! You’ve probably thought of macrames and flax dries in glass vases. Probably somewhere you have seen owls and teddy bears knitted from hemp or flax strings. That’s not all. The use of these products in the art and floral industry is very wide.

Flowering flax

is a palette of colors (mainly shades of blue) on tall, stiff and thin stems covered with oblong leaves. An ideal addition to a flower meadow

In turn, the so-called flax or hemp bundles

are a great material for hair for dolls, mascots, decorative figures