264 
Active  Principle  of  Indian  Hemp. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I       May,  1885. 
THE  ACTIVE  PRINCIPLE  OF  INDIAN  HEMP.^  | 
By  Surgeons  Warden  and  Waddee,  1 
Bengal  Medical  Service.  i 
One  of  the  most  serious  drawbacks  to  the  medicinal  use  of  this  powerful  • 
drug  {Can7iab is  Indica)  is  that  we  cannot  depend  upon  its  preparations 
being  possessed  of  activity  ;  moreover,  the  large  amount  of  resin  in  each  ,': 
dose  is  often  productive  of  gastric  disturbance.    These  objections  would  at 
once  be  overcome  were  we  able  to  extract  from  the  resin  its  active  prin-  J 
ciple.  j 
Since  1839,  when  Sir  W.  O'Shaughnessy,  of  Calcutta,  brought  the  pecu-  ] 
liar  properties  of  Indian  hemp  prominently  to  the  notice  of  the  medical  j 
world, 2  several  attempts  have  been  made  to  isolate  the  active  principle  of  j 
the  plant  with  remarkably  conflicting  results.  "i 
In  1846,  Smith^  separated  a  resin  which  he  called  "  caunabin,"  and  which  [ 
he  believed  to  be  the  active  principle  ;  and  said  that  it  possessed  nmch  nar-  ,| 
eotic  activity.    No  subsequent  observers,  however,  have  been  able  to  obtain  ' 
by  the  process  employed  by  Smith,  any  bodj'  which  fully  answers  to  the  ! 
description  of  Smith's  "cannabin."  ■ 
In  1857,  Personne*  resolved  the  volatile  oil,  obtained  by  distillation  of  the  | 
l^lant,  with  water,  into  cannabene  (CisH.20),  a  light  hydro-carbon,  and  a  1 
solid  crystalline  hydride  of  canmibene  (CVsHj.,).    He  states  that  inhalation  ? 
of  the  vapor  of  cannabene  produces  a  powerfid  physiological  effect,  and  he  ^ 
claims  it  as  being  the  sole  active  principle  of  Indian  hemp.  | 
In  1876,  Preobraschensky,^  operating  on  "  hashisli  "  got  from  Turkestan,  j 
asserted  that  the  active  |)rinciple  was  not  a  resin,  but  an  alkaloidal  body,  \ 
which  he  recognized  as  nicotine,  the  volatile  liquid  alkaloid  of  tobacco.  It  '; 
has  been  suggested  that  the  presence  of  nicotine  might  be  due  to  the  hemp 
having  been  mixed,  as  it  sometimes  is  in  the  bazaars,  with  tobacco,  but  * 
Preobraschensky  states  that  he  obtained  this  nicotine  from  the  flowering  ' 
tops  of  the  plants  as  well  as  from  the  commercial  resin. 
ISIerck,  of  Darmstadt,  applies  the  term  "cannabin  tannin  "  to  a  glucoside 
contained  in  Indian  hemp  which  he  has  combined  with  tannin.  This 
preparation  is  not  possessed  of  powerful  activity,  and  frequently  is  inactive.  ■ 
By  treating  this  tannin  compound  with  zinc  oxide  Herr  Bombelon  obtained  j 
a  substance  which  he  named  "  cannabinum,"  as  a  greenish-l)rown  powder 
not  agglutinating  upon  exposure  to  the  air  and  volatilizing  without  residue  ■ 
on  platinum  foil.* 
In  1881,  Siebold  and  Bradbury  reported  to  the  British  I^harmaceutical 
Conference  that  Indian  hemp  does  contain  a  volatile  alkaloid  which,  how"-  : 
1  From  tlie  Indian  Meiiical  Gazette 
2  "Oil  Indian  Hemp  or  Ganjah,"  Calcutta,  1S39;  also  "  Bengal  Dispf^nsatory,"' Cal- 
cutta, 1842,  pp.  579-601.  I 
3  I>harm.  Journ.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  171.   In  Ph.  Jour.  April  18, 1885,  Thos.  Smith  describes  the 
effects  upon  himself  of  his  cannabin,  and  states  that  it  was  not  a  simple  principle 
and  after  keeping  for  three  years,  had  become  inert.  i 
4  Journal  de  Pharm,,  xxxix.,  p.  48. 
^  Pharm.  Zeitsch.f.  Riissland,  p.  705. 
6  Pharm.  ZeiL,  May  10, 1884.  { 
