Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
February,  1896.  j 
Chemistry  of  Indian  Hemp. 
US 
an  anti-spasmodic  in  tetanus,  etc.,  one  of  its  most  marked  characters 
being  its  peculiar  action  on  the  brain. 
The  experiments  of  T.  and  H.  Smith,  in  1846,  showed  that  the 
soporific  and  other  properties  of  the  drug  were  contained  in  the 
resin,  and,  during  the  last  fifty  years,  no  further  information  of  prac- 
tical value  on  the  subject  has  been  forthcoming.  In  1876,  Preo- 
brensky  obtained  from  Indian  hemp  a  volatile  alkaloid,  supposed  to 
be  identical  with  nicotine,  but  Dragendorff  suggested  that  this  was 
due  to  tobacco  mixed  with  the  drug,  the  two  being  often  smoked 
together.  In  1 881 ,  Siebold  and  Bradbury  extracted  a  volatile  alka- 
loid, in  very  minute  quantity,  to  which  the  name  cannabinine  was 
given,  and  in  1883,  Matthew  Hay  obtained,  in  minute  quantity,  a 
crystalline  alkaloid  which  possessed  a  tetanic  action.  This  was 
called  tetano-cannabine,  and  was  stated  by  Jahns,  in  1889,  to  be 
identical  with  choline.  In  1891,  H.  T.  Smith  extracted  an  alkaloid 
of  varnish-like  consistence,  with  an  odor  resembling  that  of  coniine, 
and  forming  a  sulphate  that  could  be  crystallized  from  alcohol.  The 
cannabin  tannate  of  Merck  (1889),  the  pure  cannabin  of  Bombelan, 
and  the  cannabindine  of  Kobert,  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  pure 
active  principles. 
The  chemistry  of  this  remarkable  and  powerful  drug  still  remains 
to  be  elucidated,  therefore,  and  the  active  principles  to  which  its 
complex  action  is  due  yet  await  isolation.  It  may,  perhaps,  serve 
as  a  hint  to  investigators,  to  recall  a  statement  which  appears  in 
Schlimmer's  (Persian)  "Pharmacopoeia"  (p.  102),  from  which  it 
appears  that  the  dervishes  make  an  extremely  somniferous  prepara- 
tion by  boiling  the  tops  of  Indian  hemp  in  fresh  butter  or  oil  of 
almonds.  "  Of  this  a  sufficiently  minute  quantity  introduced  into 
an  ordinary  culinary  preparation  will  cause  an  entire  family  to  sleep 
for  twenty-four  or  seventy-two  hours,  without  the  taste  of  cannabis 
being  detected."  Assuming  the  intoxicant  action  and  the  odor  of 
Indian  hemp  to  be  due  to  a  volatile  constituent  likely  to  be  driven 
off  by  the  boiling  process,  the  use  of  oil  as  a  solvent  might  serve  to 
separate  the  most  important  active  principle,  and  another  might  be 
separated  by  distillation.  Hitherto  most  of  the  processes  adopted 
appear  to  have  yielded  products  incapable  of  causing  the  character- 
istic action  of  the  drug..  It  may  be  pointed  out,  by  the  way,  that 
the  Bengal  drug,  in  rounded  or  rolled  pieces,  is  much  richer  in 
resin,  and  three  or  four  times  more  powerful  than  the  ordinary  drug. 
