INDIAN HEMP 209 



All parts of the plant, but particularly the bracts, stipules, and 

 upper leaves, bear numerous hairs and large stalked glands, the latter 

 secreting a quantity of viscid adhesive resin. 



The drug has a powerful odour, but is almost devoid of taste. 



The student should observe 



(a) The rough, dusky green masses, 



(b) The curved appressed hairs, 



(c) The linear-lanceolate leaflets. 



FIG. 109. Indian Hemp, a, young leaf, b, pistillate flower enclosed by a 

 bract and supported by a stipule, c, bract, showing glands, d, ovary, 

 cut longitudinally, e, fruit (hemp-seed). / and g, fruit in transverse and 

 longitudinal section (figures after Holmes). 



It is advisable to free the drug from resin by macerating it in spirit, 

 and then to soak it in water, when the leaves can easily be separated 

 and the flowers dissected. 



Constituents. The resin secreted by the glands is undoubtedly 

 the part of the plant that produces the narcotic effect of Indian hemp. 

 This has been separated as a soft brown substance, cannabinone, 

 from which, by distillation in vacuo, a viscous resin, cannabinol, 

 which melts to an oily liquid when warmed, has been separated (Wood, 

 Spivey, and Easterfield, 1896). Cannabinol produces a powerful 

 narcotic action and is believed to be the active constituent of the drug. 



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