The earliest Egyptian references to the healing properties of the plant are found in the fragments of an almost 4000 year old scroll of medical instructions, known to scholars as the Papyrus Ramesseum III.

1300 years ago, the seafaring raiders, traders and explorers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden collectively known as Vikings began to sweep across Europe, the Mediterranean, North America and even the Middle East. This period of furious activity is known as “the Viking age”.

This idea was first put forward by Dr. Richard Evans Schultes, who called the plant, “one of [humanity’s] oldest domesticates, dating back back nearly to the beginning of agriculture.”