|
CANNABIS. U. S.
(Br.) CANNABIS Cannab.
Cannabis is the dried
flowering tops of the pistillate plants of Cannabis sativa Linne.
(Fam. Moraceae). Cannabis, in the form of the fluid extract, administered by
the mouth to dogs in doses not exceeding 0.1 cc. for each kilogram of body
weight of dog, produces a degree of incoordination equivalent to that caused
by the same dose of the standard fluid extract of cannabis, prepared
as directed below.
It contains not more than 10 per cent. of its fruits, large foliage
leaves, stems over 3 mm in diameter, and not more than 2 per cent. of other
foreign organic matter. It yields not more than 5 per cent. of
acid-insoluble ash, and not less than 8 per cent. of alcohol-soluble
extractive.
U S.: Indian Hemp consists of the dried flowering or
fruiting tops of the pistillate plant of Cannabis sativa, Linn., grown in
India; from which the resin has not been removed..
Cannabis Indicae, Br.:
Hemp, Indian Hemp: Guaza, Ganja,.Herba Cannabis Indicae;
chanvre, Chanvre de l'lnde,
Fr, Indischer Hant, G.
Canamo,
Sp.:
Marihuana,
Mex.
For many years the official cannabis was restricted to the drug which was
used for centuries in India. The reason for this was that the Indian
cannabis was more uniformly active. Recently the Indian Government has
placed a high tax on every pound of the drug grown, The result has been that
other markets have been sought and the hemp plant has been grown in
other parts of Asia, Africa and America.
While, of course, much of this material is not equal to that grown in India
yet the fact that it can be grown, as shown by experiments, in the United
States (see Hamilton,
J. .A. Ph. .A., 1913, ii;1915, iv, 389) of a very high quality has caused
the framers of the U. S, Pharmacopeia to permit the use of a cannabis, no
matter where it may be grown, provided it comes up to the biological
standard as given in the definition.
Physiologically active cannabis is obtained at the present time not only
from. India, but Africa,
Turkey, Turkestan, Asia Minor, Italy, Spain and the United States.
The cannabis sativa, or hemp plant, is a tall, rough annual, from four to
sixteen feet or more in height, with erect, branching, angular stem. The
leaves are alternate or opposite, and palmately-compound, with five to seven
linear lanceolate, coarsely serrated leaflets. The stipules are subulate.
The flowers are axillary and greenish; the staminate in long,
branched, drooping panicles; the pistillate in erect, simple catkins. The
stamens are five, with long pendulous anthers; the pistils two, with long,
filiform, glandular stigmas, The fruit is an ovate achene.
The whole plant is covered with a fine pubescence, scarcely visible to
the naked eye, and somewhat viscid to the touch. The hemp plant of India has
been considered by some as a distinct species, and named Cannabis indica;
but the most observant botanists, upon comparing it with our
cultivated plant, have been unable to discover any specific difference. It
is now, therefore, regarded merely as a variety.
Pereira states that in the female plant the flowers are somewhat more
crowded than in the common hemp, but that the male plants in the two
varieties are in all respects the same. a. sativa is a native of the
Caucasus, Persia, and the hilly regions in Northern India. It is
cultivated in many parts of Europe and Asia, and largely in our
Western States.
The most important commercial varieties of cannabis are the India,
American and African. Indian cannabis is obtained from plants grown in
various districts of India, chiefly north of Calcutta. The flowering
tops are collected when they have taken on a brownish color, the fruits
shaken out and the herbage allowed to wilt and then subjected to the rolling
and treading process in order to work resinous matter from the stems into
the inflorescences.
There are two commercial grades of Indian cannabis, viz.: round and
flat. The round is prepared by kneading each branch into a cylindrical or
rounded mass. The flat grade is kneaded into a compressed flattened form.
The color is grayish-brown. The commercial supplies of this variety
are imported into the United States from Bombay, India. American cannabis is
yielded by Cannabis sativa plants cultivated in various sections of the
United States. It occurs on the market in the form of broken segments of the
inflorescences and more or less crumpled and broken leaves, varying in
color from brownish-green to light brown.
African cannabis from Cannabis sativa plants growing in various districts of
Africa, comes into the market as broken leaves and flowering tops of a
greenish-brown color.
The fruits
or " so-called " seeds, though not now official, have been used in medicine.
They are from three to five millimeters long and about two millimeters
broad, roundish-ovate, somewhat compressed, of a shining ash-gray
color, and of a disagreeable, oily, sweetish taste. For a
comprehensive monograph on the morphology of cannabis fruits, as well
as their history and chemical composition, see Tschirch, II Handbuch
der Pharmakognosie," p. 555. They yield by expression about 20 per
cent. of a fixed oil, which has the drying property, and is used in
the arts. They contain also uncrystallizable sugar and albumen, and
when rubbed with water form an emulsion, which may be used advantageously in
inflammations of the mucous membrane, though without narcotic
properties.
The seeds
are much used as food for birds, as they are fond of them. They are
generally believed to be no degree poisonous; but Michaud relates the case
of a child in whom serious symptoms of narcotic poisoning occurred after
taking a quantity of them. It is probable that some of the fruit eaten by
the child was unripe, as in this state it would be more likely to partake of
the peculiar qualities of the plant.
In Hindostan, Persia, and other parts of the East, hemp has
long been habitually employed as an intoxicating agent. The parts are the
tops of the plant, and a resinous product obtained from it. Bhang is the
selected, dried and powdered leaves. Ganjah or gunjah is the tops of
cultivated female plants, cut directly after flowering, and formed
into round or flat bundles from two to four feet long by three inches
in diameter. It is stated that in the province of
Bengal great care is taken to eradicate the male
plants from the fields before fertilization of the female, and that
thereby the yield and quality of the resin is greatly increased.
In Bombay
this matter is commonly neglected,
so that Bengal ganjah is much superior to Bombay ganjah. It is
recognized in India that ganjah rapidly deteriorates on keeping, that which
is one year old being not more than one-quarter as potent as the fresh stems
into the inflorescences.
Properties.
Fresh hemp has a characteristic odor, which is much less in the dried
tops, which have a feeble bitterish taste.
Description and Physical Properties.
Unground Cannabis.-In separate tops or less agglutinated masses or
fragments, consisting of the short stems with their leaf-like bracts and
pistillate flowers or more or less developed fruits; color green to dark
green or greenish brown ; odor agreeable, somewhat heavy narcotic; taste
somewhat acrid and pungent. Leaves digitately compound, usually
broken. Leaflets when entire, linear-lanceolate, nearly sessile, margin
deeply serrate. Bracts ovate, pubescent, each enclosing lor 2
pistillate flowers or more or less developed fruits. Calyx dark green,
pubescent and somewhat folded around the ovary. Styles 2, filiform and
pubescent. Ovary with a single campylotropous ovule. Stems
cylindrical, longitudinally furrowed, light green to light brown,
strigosepubescent.
Structure of Stem.
Cortex composed of collenchyma and, in the larger stems, of numerous strands
of more or less lignified bast.fibers; strongly lignified wood with
medullary rays l-cell wide pith, often hollow; rosette aggregates of calcium
oxalate numerous.
Powdered Cannabis
Dark green; epidermis from lower surface of leaves with sinuate vertical
walls and numerous oval stomata, from upper surface with straight walls and
no stomata; non-glandular hairs numerous, unicellular, rigid, curved, with a
very slender pointed apex and an enlarged base usually containing calcium
carbonate masses; glandular hairs of two kinds, one with a short l 1
celled stalk, the other with a long multicellular, tongue-shaped stalk, the
head being globular and consisting of 8 to 16 cells; fragments of bracts and
leaves showing yellowish-brown laticiferous vessels, numerous rosette
aggregates of calcium oxalate, 0.005 to 0.030 mm. in diameter, and
strands of spiral tracheal and phloem; fragments of fruits with
palisade-like, non-lignified cells with yellowish-brown finely porous
walls usually containing air; tissues of embryo and endosperm with
numerous oil globules and aleurone grains, the latter from 0.005 to
0.010 mm. in diameter and displaying crystalloids and globoids. Diluted
hydrochloric acid added to powdered Cannabis causes effervescence visible
under the microscope." U.S.
The British Pharmacopoeia
describes Indian cannabis as follows : " In compressed, rough, dusky-green
masses, consisting of the branched upper part of the stem, bearing leaves
and pistillate flowers or fruits, matted together by a resinous
secretion. Upper leaves simple, alternate, 1-3 partite; lower leaves
opposite and digitate, consisting of five to seven linear-lanceolate
leaflets with distantly serrate margins. Fruit one-seeded and supported by
an ovate-lanceolate bract.
Both leaves and bracts bear external oleo-resin glands and one-celled curved
hairs, the bases of which are enlarged and contain crystoliths. Strong,
characteristic odor; taste slight. When a mixture of 10 grammes of finely
powdered Indian Hemp and 100 millilitres of alcohol (90 per cent.) is shaken
occasionally during twenty-four hours and then filtered, 20 millilitres of
the filtrate, evaporated in a flat-bottomed dish, yield a residue weighing,
when dried at 100 C., hot less than 0.250 gramme. Ash not more than 15
per cent." Br.
For a histological description of the leaf by A. R. L. Dohme, see Proc.
A. Ph. .A., 1897, 569.
The cannabis of the market may consist of fruiting tops and stems and
occasionally the staminate tops are admixed with it. William Beam in
Bulletin No. 4 of the chemical Section of the Welcome Tropical
Research Laboratories, Khartoum, has discovered a specific color
reaction which may be used for the detection of Cannabis indica and its
preparations. A petrolum ether extract of the suspected material is
prepared and evaporated to dryness in a test tube. To this is added a
few cc. of a reagent prepared by saturating absolute alcohol with dry
hydrogen chloride gas. In the presence of cannabis the liquid assumes a
bright cherry red color which is destroyed upon the addition of water or
alcohol. Constituents.
The activity of hemp undoubtedly resides in its resin, but the chemical
nature of the active principle is unsettled. by repeated distillation of the
same portion of water from relatively large quantities of hemp renewed at
each distillation, M. J. Personne obtained a volatile oil, of a stupefying
odor, and an action on the system such as to dispose him to think that it
was the active principle of the plant.
This oil was lighter than water, of a deep
amber color, a strong odor of hemp, and composed of two distinct oils, one
colorless, with the formula C12H20, the other a hydride of the first, C12H22, which was solid, and
separated from alcohol in plate like crystals. For the former Personne
proposes the name of cannabene. It is affirmed that when this is inhaled, or
taken into the stomach, a singular excitement is felt throughout the
system, followed by a depression, sometimes amounting to syncope, with
hallucinations which are generally disagreeable, but an action on the
whole slighter and more fugitive than that of the resin.
Cannabindon, C2H12O, is a dark red syrupy liquid obtained by Robert ( Chem.
Ztg., 1894, 741) from Cannabis indica it is soluble in alcohol, ether and
oils; it is affirmed to be narcotic in doses of from half a grain to two
grains (0.032 - 0.13 Gm. ) .As a result of a reinvestigation of
charras (churrus) from Indian hemp, Wood, Spivey, and Easterfield (J.
Chem. S., vol. Ixix, 539) have found the following principles: 1, a
terpene; boiling between 150 and 180 C ; 2, a sesquiterpene, boiling
at 258 to 259 C.;3, a crystalline paraffin of probable formula C29H60, melting at 63.5 C. ;
and 4, a red oil, boiling at 265 C to 270 C. under a pressure of 20
mm., to which they give the name cannabinol, and the formula C18H2402..
This latter constituent they consider the only active ingredient. It is
probably the same substance as the dark red syrup of Robert, mentioned above
under the name of cannlibindon. The authors found that cannabinol readily
underwent superficial oxidation, at the same time losing its toxic activity.
It is stated that cannabinol exhibits much more Powerful effects when
dissolved in a bland oil such' as olive oil.
Frankel (A. E. P. P., 1903, p. 266) claims to
have isolated the active principle of hashish as a pure and chemically
well defined body. It has the formula C21H30O2, and is a phenol aldehyde. It is of a pale yellow color and
of a thick consistency. When heated it becomes quite fluid and distils at
215 C., under a pressure of 0,5 mill. It oxidizes in the air,
acquiring a brown tint. It responds to Millon's reaction, and can be
acetylized, showing thus its phenol character. Frankel proposes that the
name cannabinol be given to it and that the term pseudo-cannabinol be
given to the substance of Wood, Spivey and Easterfield which Frankel asserts
is inert.
Assay.
Hooper (P;J. 1909,lxxxi, p. 80) describes a method for the chemical
standardization of cannabis based upon its iodine value. He finds that the
alcoholic extract of old samples has a lower iodine value than that from
repeated distillation of the same portion of water from relatively large
quantities of hemp recent specimens, and there is more or less constancy of
relation between the age and the iodine value.
The U. S. Pharmacopeia,
gives a physiological test for the standardization of Cannabis indica. Up
to the present no means have been suggested for determining, with even
approximate accuracy, the relative potency of different samples of Cannabis
indica, the physiological test simply demonstrating that the drug
possesses a certain indefinite amount of physiological action. The
official test is based on the degree of incoordination produce in the dog in
comparison with that produced by a standard preparation.
It is advisable to use the same animal for repeated tests, because the
individual susceptibility of the dog varies so greatly, and the experimenter
gradually learns the degree of reaction to be expected from a certain dog.
It is convenient to employ two dogs ( fox terriers usually react well ) to
one of which will be given the standard and to the other the drug to
be tested. Three days later the test should be repeated in reverse
order, that is the dog which at the first test received the standard, at the
second test should receive the unknown and vice versa.
A fluid extract of the specimen to be tested is either evaporated into a
soft extract and given in the form of a pill or mixed with an inert
absorbing powder and enclosed in a capsule; it must not be given
hypodermically. The symptoms caused by Cannabis indica in the dog recall
those of alcoholism in the human being. There is at first a slight loss of
control in the hind legs so that the animal staggers as he walks, later the
ataxia becomes so marked that the dog is unable to stand up without
leaning against some object, and about this time begins to show distinct
drowsiness, and may eventually pass into a heavy sleep.
Use, adult dogs which weigh less than 15
kilogrammes and which are susceptible to the action of Cannabis. The
dogs must not be fed for twelve hours before being used and
observations should be made within one hour after administration The
same animal must not be used for testing purposes at shorter intervals
than three days. Administer the fluidextract in gelatin capsules by
the mouth. U.S.
Standard Fluid extract of
Cannabis.
In order to obviate the inaccuracies due to variations in susceptibility of
the dogs, the present Pharmacopeia directs a comparison to be made
with a standard fluid extract of cannabis. This is directed to be prepared
as follows :" Prepare a composite fluid extract, representing at least ten
different lots of Cannabis, conforming to the official botanical
description, and administer this fluidextract in gelatin capsules to dogs by
the mouth. This standard fluid extract must be so adjusted that it will
produce incoordination in dogs which have been found to be susceptible
to the action of Cannabis when administered in doses of 0.03 cc. for
each kilogramme of body weight of dog."
The Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, has indicated
its willingness to supply such a standard fluidextract of cannabis for the
use of those who desire to make bio-logical assays of this drug. It
has generally been believed that cannabis deteriorates rapidly, but
Eckler and Miller(J. .A.Ph.A., 1917, vi, p. 872) found that the crude
drug showed practically no change after a year's storage but that
after two years it had lost about half of its potency; Hamilton (J. .A. Ph.
A.,1918, vii, p. 117) believes that the loss must be usually much slower
because he found a sample fourteen years old to be 70 per cent. of
standard, and an extract, which had been constantly used for assay
purposes for nine years, has shown no appreciable change.
Uses
Aside from a slight local irritant effect the action of cannabis seems to
be limited almost exclusively to the higher nerve centers. In man this is
first manifested by a peculiar delirium which is accompanied with
exaltation of the imaginative function and later by a remarkable loss
of the sense of time. The delirium is often accompanied with motor weakness
and diminished reflexes and generally followed by drowsiness. In the dog the
earliest manifestation of equilibrium and later weakness of the legs and
drowsiness.
Cannabis is used in medicine to relieve pain, to encourage sleep, and to
soothe restlessness. Its action upon the nerve centers resembles opium,
although much less certain, but it does not have the deleterious effect on
the secretions. As a somnifacient it is rarely sufficient by itself, but may
at times aid the hypnotic effect of other drugs. For its analgesic action it
is used especially in pains of neuralgic origin, such as migraine, but is
occasionally of service in other types. As a general nerve sedative it is
useful in hysteria, mental depression, neurasthenia, and the like. It has
also been used in a number of other conditions, such as tetanus and
uterine hemorrhage, but with less evidence of benefit. One of the great
hindrances to the wider use of this drug is its extreme variability. We are
inclined to the opinion that one of the important reasons for the lack of
confidence in this drug has been insufficiency in dosage. Because of
the great variability in the potency of different samples of cannabis it is
well nigh impossible to approximate the proper dose of any individual sample
except by clinical trial. Because of occasional unpleasant symptoms
from unusually potent preparations, physicians have generally been
overcautious in the quantities administered. While the inclusion of a
physiological assay in the Pharmacopoeia has some what improved the
quality of drug upon the market it must be remembered that the present
method of standardisation is not quantitatively accurate; all that can be
hoped from this assay is the exclusion of inert samples.
The only way of determining the dose of an individual preparation is to give
it in ascending quantities until some effect is produced. The fluid extract
is perhaps as useful a preparation as any; one may start with two or three
minims of this three times a day, increasing one minim every dose until some
effect is produced.
According to C. R. Marshall (L. L., 1897, i, also J.A.M.A., Oct., 1898)
the deterioration of cannabis is due to the oxidation of cannabinol, which
he has found to act upon dogs and cats as the crude drug.
Dose, of cannabis, one to three grains (0.06 -
0.2 gm.).
Off. Prep.-Extractum Cannabis, U. S. (Br.) ;Fluidextractum
Cannabis, U. S.;
Tinctura Cannabis (from Extract), Br.; Collodium Salicylici Composita
(from Fluid extract), N.F. Mistura Chlorali et Potassii Bromidi
Composita
(from Extract), N. F.; Mistura Chloroformi et MorphinreComposita (from
Tincture), N.F.
The Cannabis Monograph of
Martindales Extra Pharmacopoeia. 24th Edition.
CANNABIS
Indian hemp and resins
obtained from Indian hemp and all preparations (except extract and
tincture of Indian hemp) of which such resins form the base.
Any extract or tincture of Indian hemp. Any preparation, not being a
preparation capable of external use only, made from extract or tincture of
Indian hemp.'
Cannabis (the dried flowering or fruiting tops of Cannabis sativa (Linn.)
the resin of cannabis; extracts of cannabis; tinctures of cannabis. cannabin
tannate.
Rule 10 of the Poisons Rules, 1952, exempts from the First Schedule
provisions all corn paints in which the only poison is a poison included in
the Poisons List under the heading of Cannabis
Cannabis (B.P.C.1949). Cannab.; Cannabis Indica; Indian Hemp; Ganja; Guaza;
Chanvre Indien; Hanfkraut; Marihuana; Cafiamo indiano.
Foreign Pharmacopcsias: In
Belg., Egyp., Fr., Inti., Span., and Swiss.
The dried flowering or fruiting tops of the pistillate plant of Cannabis
sativa (Cannabinacere). Protect from light. The active principle of the drug
is contained in the resin (cannabinone) which contain, cannabinol. C21H26O2 which
resinifies on exposure to air and become, Inactive, though even long
storage of whole cannabis does not entirely destroy its activity.
The masses obtained in European commerce are called Guaza. Bhang consist of
specially dried leave, and flowering shoots of both male and female plants.
wild or cultivated. Ganja consists of dried flowering top, of the cultivated
hemp plant which become coated with a resinous exudation.
Charras is the name given to the resinous matter
collected from the leave, and flowering top of the plant. and constitutes
the active principle of hemp; the best quality and the maximum amount of
resin is obtained from plants grown in Yark and in Chinese Turkestan. and
the major part of the charas produced in Chinese Turkestan finds its
way into India. In S. Africa it is smoked under the name of dagga.
Toxic Effect.
Toxic doses cause vertigo and collapse but serious Poisoning is rare and
fatalities unknown since the margin between the effective and the fatal dose
is wide. Addiction does not give rise to serious physical consequence,
and, except in severe cases. withdrawal symptom, are insignificant.
Continued use of the drug may lead to mental deterioration but insanity is a
rare sequel.
The physiological activity of the hemp plant varies with the locality in
which it is grown. The minimum fatal dose by the mouth of charras, ganjah
and bhang, work out at 2 g, 8g. and 10 g. per kg. body weight
respectively.
R N. Chop'a and G.
S. Chopra, Ind Med Res. Mem No.31, 1939, pp. 1-119
A case of cannabis intoxication from the smoking of cigarettes, made
from the dried leaves and tops of plant grown in England. E. T. Baker -
Bates Lancet, i/1935. 811.
Addiction among marihuana users is unlike addiction among the users of
morphine or heroin With the latter the victim must have the drug to feel
normal. But with marihuana the addict wants to recapture the euphoric
state into which the drug lifts him. 1t is more of a psychological
condition, there is no marked physiological disturbance on withdrawal
of the drug. After long usage however a dull state supervenes in which
the victim is for all practical purposes an addict, and in which ethical and
intellectual deterioration and apathy are the outstanding factors.
W. Bromberg.
Med Rec N.Y. 1935.142.309.
Marihuana a psychlogic study. W. Bromberg
J. Am. med. Ass. 1939.113, 4
Uses: Dose, of 2 grain, or more, whether
ingested or smoked, cause euphoria, mental confusion. hallucination, and
motor excitement. The initial phase of inebriation is succeeded by
irritability and somnolence, and after some hours by a comatose sleep.
Cannabis was formerly employed in mania and nervous disorders, as a
cerebral. sedative or narcotic but. owing to the uncertainty of its action
it is now seldom used. It has occasionally been used for the relief of
migraine and of headache due to hypertension.
HERPES ZO'STER. Administration of the extract in pill form.0.25 to 0.5
grain according to age 3 times a day, quickly relieves the pain
C. E. Matthews, Brit med J
ii/1939,431.
Ext. Cannab.
(BPC. 1949) Extract of Cannabis. A soft extract
prepared by percolation with alcohol (90%) Protect from moisture
Dose : 16 to 60 mg ( 0.24
to 1 grain) It is usually given in pill form with Iycopodium.
Mist Cannab. Indic.
(Formerly Chelsea Hosp for
Women) Tincture of
cannabis 10 ml . spirit of nitrous ether 30 ml. dilute solution of ammonium
acetate 60ml mucilage q.s., camphor water to 1 fl.oz.
Tinct Cannib. (BP.C. 1949. Ind P.). Tincture of Cannabis. Extract of cannabis 5g Alcohol (90%)
to 100 ml. When dispensed in mixture, mucilage must be added to
suspend the resin
Dose: 0.3 to 1 ml. (5 to 15 minim,)
Belg P. Fr.P. and Span. P. 1 in 10.
Library
|
Cannabis sativa, L.