_Cannabis Indica_; _Indian Hemp_; F. _Chanvre Indien_; G. _Hanfkraut_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Cannabis sativa_ L., Common Hemp, an annual
diœcious plant, native of Western and Central Asia, cultivated in
temperate as well as in tropical countries.
It grows wild luxuriantly on the banks of the lower Ural and Volga
near the Caspian Sea, extending thence to Persia, the Altai range, and
Northern and Western China. It is found in Kashmir and on the Himalaya,
growing 10 to 12 feet high, and thriving vigorously at an elevation
of 6000 to 10,000 feet. It likewise occurs in Tropical Africa, on the
eastern and western coasts as well as in the central tracts watered
by the Congo and Zambesi, but whether truly indigenous is doubtful.
It has been naturalized in Brazil, north of Rio de Janeiro, the seeds
having been brought thither by the negroes from Western Africa. The
cultivation of hemp is carried on in many parts of continental Europe,
but especially in Central and Southern Russia.
The hemp plant grown in India exhibits certain differences as
contrasted with that cultivated in Europe, which were noticed by
Rumphius in the 17th century, and which (about A.D. 1790), induced
Lamarck to claim for the former plant the rank of a distinct species,
under the name of _Cannabis indica_. But the variations observed in the
two plants are of so little botanical importance and are so inconstant,
that the maintenance of _C. indica_ as distinct from _C. sativa_ has
been abandoned by general consent.
[2022] The fig excepted, which is much more saccharine than any.
In a medicinal point of view, there is a wide dissimilarity between
hemp grown in India and that produced in Europe, the former being
vastly more potent. Yet even in India there is much variation, for,
according to Jameson, the plant grown at altitudes of 6000 to 8000 feet
affords the resin known as _Charas_, which cannot be obtained from that
cultivated on the plains.[2023]
=History=—Hemp has been propagated on account of its textile fibre and
oily seeds from a remote period.
The ancient Chinese herbal called _Rh-ya_, written about the 5th
century B.C., notices the fact that the hemp plant is of two kinds, the
one producing seeds, the other flowers only.[2024] In Susruta, Charaka
and other early works on Hindu medicine, hemp (_B’hanga_) is mentioned
as a remedy. Herodotus states that hemp grows in Scythia both wild and
cultivated, and that the Thracians made garments from it which can
hardly be distinguished from linen. He also describes how the Scythians
expose themselves as in a bath to the vapour of the seeds thrown on hot
coals.[2025]
The Greeks and Romans appear to have been unacquainted with the
medicinal powers of hemp, unless indeed the care-destroying Νηπενθές
should, as Royle has supposed, be referred to this plant. According to
Stanislas Julien,[2026] anæsthetic powers were ascribed by the Chinese
to preparations of hemp as early as the commencement of the 3rd century.
The employment of hemp both medical and dietetic appears to have spread
slowly through India and Persia to the Arabians, amongst whom the
plant was used in the early middle ages. The famous heretical sect of
Mahomedans, whose murderous deeds struck terror into the hearts of the
Crusaders during the 11th and 12th centuries, derived their name of
_Hashishin_, or, as it is commonly written, _assassins_, from _hashísh_
the Arabic for _hemp_,[2027] which in certain of their rites they used
as an intoxicant.[2028] In 1286 of our era, the Sultan of Egypt, Bibars
al Bondokdary, prohibited the sale of hashish, the monopoly of which
had been leased before.[2029]
The use of hemp (_bhang_) in India was particularly noticed by Garcia
de Orta[2030] (1563), and the plant was subsequently figured by Rheede,
who described the drug as largely used on the Malabar coast. It would
seem about this time to have been imported into Europe, at least
occasionally, for Berlu in his _Treasury of Drugs_, 1690, describes
it as coming from Bantam in the East Indies, and “_of an infatuating
quality and pernicious use_.“
[2023] _Journ. of the Agric. and Hortic. Soc. of India_, viii. 167.
[2024] Bretschneider, _On Chinese Botanical Works_, 1870. 5. 10. Part
of the _Rh-ya_ was written in the 12th cent. B.C.
[2025] Rawlinson’s translation, iii. (1859) book 4, chap. 74-5.
[2026] _Comptes Rendus_, xxviii. (1849) 195.
[2027] Hence the words _assassin_ and _assassinate_. Weil, however,
is of opinion that the word _assassin_ is more probably derived from
_sikkin_, a dagger.—_Geschichte der Chalifen_, iv. (1860) 101.
[2028] The miscreant who assassinated Justice Norman at Calcutta, 20
Sept. 1871, is said to have acted under the influence of _hashísh_.
Bellew (_Indus to the Tigris_, 1874. 218) states that the Afghan chief
who murdered Dr. Forbes in 1842, had for some days previously been more
or less intoxicated with _Charas_ or _Bhang_.
[2029] _Quatremère_, _Memoires sur l’Egypte_ ii. (1811) 504, according
to Makrisi.
[2030] _Colloquios dos simples e drogas e cousas medicinaes da India_,
ed. 2, Lisboa, 1872, 27.
It was Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt that was the means of again
calling attention to the peculiar properties of hemp, by the accounts
of De Sacy (1809) and Rouger (1810). But the introduction of the
Indian drug into European medicine is of still more recent date, and
is chiefly due to the experiments made in Calcutta by O’Shaughnessy
in 1838-39.[2031] Although the astonishing effects produced in India
by the administration of preparations of hemp are seldom witnessed in
the cooler climate of Britain, the powers of the drug are sufficiently
manifest to give it an established place in the pharmacopœia.
=Production=—Though hemp is grown in many parts of India, yet as a drug
it is chiefly produced in a limited area in the districts of Bogra and
Rājshāhi, north of Calcutta, where the plant is cultivated for the
purpose in a systematic manner. The retail sale, like that of opium and
spirits, is restricted by a license, which in 1871-2 produced to the
Government of Bengal about £120,000, while upon opium (chiefly consumed
in Assam) the amount raised was £310,000.[2032] Bhang is one of the
principal commodities imported into India from Turkestan.
=Description=—The leaves of hemp have long stalks with small stipules
at their bases, and are composed of 5 to 7 lanceolate-acuminate
leaflets, sharply serrate at the margin. The loose panicles of male
flowers, and the short spikes of female flowers, are produced on
separate plants, from the axils of the leaves. The fruits, called
_Hemp-seeds_, are small grey nuts or achenes, each containing a single
oily seed. In common with other plants of the order, hemp abounds in
silica which gives a roughness to its leaves and stems. In European
medicine, the only hemp employed is that grown in India, which occurs
in two principal forms, namely:—
1. _=Bhang=_, _Siddhī_ or _Sabzī_ (Hindustani); _Hashish_ or _Qinnaq_
(Arabic). This consists of the dried leaves and small stalks, which are
of a dark green colour, coarsely broken, and mixed with here and there
a few fruits. It has a peculiar but not unpleasant odour, and scarcely
any taste. In India, it is smoked either with or without tobacco, but
more commonly it is made up with flour and various additions into a
sweetmeat or _majun_,[2033] of a green colour. Another form of taking
it is that of an infusion, made by immersing the pounded leaves in cold
water.
2. _=Ganja=_ (Hindustani); _Qinnab_ (Arabic); _Guaza_[2034] of the
London drug-brokers. These are the flowering or fruiting shoots of
the female plant, and consist in some samples of straight, stiff,
woody stems some inches long, surrounded by the upward branching
flower-stalks; in others of more succulent and much shorter shoots, 2
to 3 inches long, and of less regular form. In either case, the shoots
have a compressed and glutinous appearance, are very brittle, and of
a brownish-green hue. In odour and in the absence of taste _ganja_
resembles _bhang_. It is said that after the leaves which constitute
_bhang_ have been gathered, little shoots sprout from the stem, and
that these picked off and dried form what is called _ganja_.[2035]
[2031] For a notice of them, see O’Shaughnessy, _On the preparation of
the Indian Hemp or Gunjah_, Calcutta, 1839; also _Bengal Dispensatory_,
Calcutta, 1842. 579-604. An immense number of references to writers who
have touched on the medicinal properties of hemp, will be found in the
elaborate essay entitled _Studien über den Hanf_, by Dr. G. Martius
(Erlangen, 1855).
[2032] Blue Book quoted at p. 52, note 1.
[2033] Magi-oun is the Persian name for electuaries, of which more
than 70 are found, for instance, in the _Pharmacopœia Persica_ (see
Appendix, Angelus), p. 291 to 321.
[2034] This name is not used in India, but seems to be a corruption of
_ganja_.
[2035] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, i. (1868)
293.
=Chemical Composition=—The most interesting constituents of hemp, from
a medical point of view, are the _resin_ and _volatile oil_.
The former was first obtained in a state of comparative purity by T.
and H. Smith in 1846.[2036] It is a brown amorphous solid, burning with
a bright white flame and leaving no ash. It has a very potent action
when taken internally, two-thirds of a grain acting as a powerful
narcotic, and one grain producing complete intoxication. From the
experiments of Messrs. Smith, it seems to us impossible to doubt that
to this resin the energetic effects of cannabis are mainly due.
When water is repeatedly distilled from considerable quantities of
hemp, fresh lots of the latter being used for each operation, a
volatile oil lighter than water is obtained, together with ammonia.
This oil, according to the observations of Personne (1857), is
amber-coloured, and has an oppressive hemp-like smell. It sometimes
deposits an abundance of small crystals. With due precautions it may
be separated into two bodies, the one of which, named by Personne
_Cannabene_,[2037] is liquid and colourless, with the formula
C₁₈H₂₀; the other, which is called _Hydride of Cannabene_, is a
solid, separating from alcohol in platy crystals to which Personne
assigns the formula C₁₈H₂₂. He asserts that cannabene has indubitably
a physiological action, and even claims it as the sole active
principle of hemp. Its vapour he states to produce when breathed a
singular sensation of shuddering, a desire of locomotion, followed by
prostration and sometimes by syncope.[2038] Bohlig in 1840 observed
similar effects from the oil, which he obtained from the fresh herb,
just after flowering, to the extent of 0·3 per cent.
It remains to be proved whether an _alkaloid_ is present in hemp, as
suggested by Preobraschensky.[2039]
The other constituents of hemp are those commonly occurring in other
plants. The leaves yield nearly 20 per cent. of ash.
As to the resin of Indian hemp, Bolas and Francis in treating it
with nitric acid, converted it into _Oxycannabin_, C₂₀H₂₀N₂O₇. This
interesting substance may, they say, be obtained in large prisms from a
solution in methylic alcohol. It melts at 176° C. and then evaporates
without decomposition; it is neutral.[2040] One of us (F.) has
endeavoured to obtain it from the purified resin of charas, but without
success.
[2036] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1847) 171.
[2037] _Journ. de Pharm._ xxxix. (1857) 48; Canstatt’s _Jahresbericht_
for 1857, i. 28.
[2038] Personne, though he admits the activity of the resin prepared
by Smith’s process, contends that it is a mixed body, and that further
purification deprives it of all volatile matter and renders it inert.
This is not astonishing when one finds that the “purification” was
effected by treatment with caustic lime or soda-lime, and exposure to
a temperature of 300° C. (572° F.)! That the resin of the Edinburgh
chemists does not owe its activity to volatile matter, is proved by
their own experiment of exposing a small quantity in a very thin layer
to 82° C. for 8 hours: the medicinal action of the resin so treated was
found to be unimpaired.
[2039] Dragendorff’s _Jahresbericht_, 1876. 98.
[2040] _Chemical News_, xxiv. (1871) 77.
=Uses=—Hemp is employed as a soporific, anodyne, antispasmodic, and
as a nervous stimulant. It is used in the form of alcoholic extract,
administered either in a solid or liquid form. In the East it is
consumed to an enormous extent by Hindus and Mahomedans, who either
smoke it with tobacco, or swallow it in combination with other
substances.[2041]
Charas.
No account of hemp as a drug would be complete without some notice of
this substance, which is regarded as of great importance by Asiatic
nations.
_Charas_ or _Churrus_ is the resin which exudes in minute drops from
the yellow glands, with which the plant is provided in increasing
number according to the elevated temperature (and altitude?) of the
country where it grows. The varieties of hemp richest in resin, at
least in the Laos country in the Malayan Peninsula, scarcely attain
the height of 3 feet, and show densely curled leaves.[2042] Charas is
collected in several ways:—one is by rubbing the tops of the plants
in the hands when the seeds are ripe, and scraping from the fingers
the adhering resin. Another is thus performed:—men clothed in leather
garments walk about among growing hemp, in doing which the resin of
the plant attaches itself to the leather, whence it is from time to
time scraped off. A third method consists in collecting, with many
precautions to avoid its poisonous effects, the dust which is caused
when heaps of dry _bhang_ are stirred about.[2043]
By whichever of these processes obtained, charas is of necessity a foul
and crude drug, the use of which is properly excluded from civilized
medicine. As before remarked (p. 547) it is not obtainable from hemp
grown indiscriminately in any situation even in India, but is only to
be got from plants produced at a certain elevation on the hills.
The best charas, which is that brought from Yarkand, is a brown,
earthy-looking substance, forming compact yet friable, irregular
masses of considerable size. Examined under a strong pocket lens, it
appears to be made up of minute, transparent grains of brown resin,
agglutinated with short hairs of the plant. It has a hemp-like odour,
with but little taste even in alcoholic solution. A second and a third
quality of Yarkand charas represent the substance in a less pure state.
Charas viewed under the microscope exhibits a crystalline structure,
due to inorganic matter. It yields from ¼ to ⅓ of its weight of an
amorphous resin, which is readily dissolved by bisulphide of carbon or
spirit of wine. The resin does not redden litmus, nor is it soluble in
caustic potash. It has a dark brown colour, which we have not succeeded
in removing by animal charcoal. The residual part of charas yields to
water a little chloride of sodium, and consists in large proportion
of carbonate of calcium and peroxide of iron. These results have been
obtained in examining samples from Yarkand.[2044] Other specimens which
we have also examined, have the aspect of a compact dark resin.
Charas is exported from Yarkand[2045] and Kashgar, the first of which
places exported during 1867, 1830 _maunds_ (146,400 lb.) to Lê, whence
the commodity is carried to the Punjab and Kashmir. Smaller quantities
are annually imported from Kandahar and Samarkand;[2046] some charas
appears also (1876) to be exported from Mandshuria to China. The drug
is mostly consumed by smoking with tobacco; it is not found in European
commerce.
[2041] For further information, consult Cooke’s _Seven Sisters of
Sleep_, Lond., chap. xv.-xvii; also _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and
Husemann, 1872. 600.
[2042] Garnier, _Voyage d’Exploration en Indo-Chine_, ii. (1873) 410.
[2043] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, 1868. 293.
[2044] Obtained by Colonel H. Strachey, and now in the Kew Museum. It
is by no means evident by what process they were collected.
[2045] Forsyth, _Correspondence on Mission to Yarkand_, ordered by the
House of Commons to be printed, Feb. 28, 1871; also Henderson and Hume,
_Lahore to Yarkand_, Lond. 1873. 334.
[2046] Stewart, _Punjab Plants_, Lahore, 1869. 216.