Extract of Indian hemp
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| Kind | Pharmacy preparation |
|---|---|
| Part of the plant | Flower |
| Also called | Extractum Cannabis Indicae Extract of Indian Cannabis Extract of Cannabis |
| Language | English |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
|---|---|
| Recorded in | British Pharmacopoeia (1864) Pharmacopoeia of the United States (1870) British Pharmaceutical Codex (1907) |
| First recorded | 1864[1]: 222 |
| Still made | Not known |
Extract of Indian hemp (Extractum Cannabis Indicae) is the alcoholic extract of the flowering tops of Indian hemp, made in British and American pharmacy from the mid-19th century. The British Pharmacopoeia of 1864 made it by macerating a pound of Indian hemp in four pints of rectified spirit for seven days, distilling off the spirit and evaporating the rest by a water bath.[1]: 222 The extract was the base of the other official preparations: the British Pharmaceutical Codex of 1907 calls it "the basis of medicinal preparations of this drug, and from it the tincture is prepared".[2]: 203
In the pharmacopoeias
The 1864 British Pharmacopoeia entered the drug as the flowering tops of the female plant, "from which the resin has not been removed", cultivated in India, and gave the extract and a tincture as its preparations.[1]: 37 The fifth revision of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States (1870) changed the name of its extract from Extractum Cannabis, "Extract of Hemp", to Extractum Cannabis Indicae, "Extract of Indian Hemp".[3]: 350 Its extract was made by percolating twelve troyounces of Indian hemp with alcohol and evaporating the tincture by a water bath. The same page gives an extract of American hemp, made from hemp grown in North America.[3]: 135
Peter Squire's Companion to the British Pharmacopoeia (1880) describes the extract as "Most intense green", made from one part of Indian hemp to five of rectified spirit, and notes that six parts of the hemp yield one of extract.[4]: 81 The 1907 Codex warns that commercial extracts "vary considerably", that the extract deteriorates on keeping by slow oxidation and should be stored in small full jars, and that "the physiological action of different samples of the extract is very unequal, so much so that some physicians desire a specimen to be set aside for the use of one patient". It recommends physiological standardisation as "the best guarantee that the preparation is active".[2]: 377
The Dispensatory of the United States of 1918 gives the American preparation as Extractum Cannabis, the Extractum Cannabis Indicae of the eighth revision of the pharmacopoeia. The ninth revision required a biological assay: the extract had to produce incoordination in a dog at a dose of not more than 0.004 g per kilogram of body weight, and its strength was adjusted with glucose. The Dispensatory judged the American and British extracts "practically identical" and advised starting with a quarter of a grain and increasing the dose until an effect appeared.[5]
Purified extract
King's American Dispensatory (1898) gives William Procter's method for a "purified" extract, Extractum Cannabis Purificatum, made by dissolving the green extract imported from India in alcohol, filtering it and evaporating it at not more than 150 °F. King's judged the official extract "dull in color, and inferior" to this one, and wrote: "For making chlorodyne, this preparation is to be preferred to the extract made of the herb by the preceding process."[6] The 1870 American pharmacopoeia had dropped a purified extract of hemp from its list.[3]: 344
Makers
Squire wrote that W. B. O'Shaughnessy brought a quantity of Indian hemp from India, which Squire "converted into extract for him, and distributed amongst a large number of the profession".[4]: 80 The historian Martin Booth, quoted by Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli and Josep Allué Creus, writes that Squire patented it as Squire's extract.[7]
In The Hasheesh Eater (1857), Fitz Hugh Ludlow describes a row of "the various extracts prepared by Tilden & Co." on a doctor's shelf, one of them labelled Cannabis Indica: "an olive-brown extract, of the consistency of pitch, and a decided aromatic odor".[8]
Medicines made with it
Beside the official tincture, the extract went into unofficial medicines. The 1907 Codex puts it in a compound salicylic collodion for corns,[2]: 273 and the American National Formulary of 1888 in a compound mixture of chloral and bromide of potassium.[9]: 87 A formula of the proprietary hypnotic Bromidia, printed in 1911 by the American Medical Association, includes it.[10]: 429 In Spain, Riboulet-Zemouli and Allué Creus list syrups, oils, potions and pills of hemp extract in formularies used in Barcelona between 1870 and 1941, among them the Brussels pharmacist Laneau's haschischine syrup and oil.[7]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom (1864). British Pharmacopoeia. London: Spottiswoode and Co. – via Wellcome Collection.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (1907). The British Pharmaceutical Codex: an imperial dispensatory for the use of medical practitioners and pharmacists. London: Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain – via Wellcome Collection.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America (fifth decennial revision ed.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Co. 1873 – via Wellcome Collection.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Squire, Peter (1880). Companion to the Latest Edition of the British Pharmacopoeia (12th ed.). London: Churchill – via Wellcome Collection.
- ↑ Remington, Joseph P.; Wood, Horatio C.; et al., eds. (1918). "Extractum Cannabis. U. S. (Br.) Extract of Cannabis". The Dispensatory of the United States of America – via Henriette's Herbal Homepage.
- ↑ Felter, Harvey Wickes; Lloyd, John Uri (1898). "Extractum Cannabis Indicae (U. S. P.)—Extract of Indian Cannabis". King's American Dispensatory – via Henriette's Herbal Homepage.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Riboulet-Zemouli, K.; Allué Creus, J. (2024). "Hemp extract (Extractum Cannabis) in the treatment of gastrointestinal distress and dyspepsia: historical insights from Barcelona, Spain". Pharmaceuticals. 17 (12) 1585. doi:10.3390/ph17121585.
- ↑ Ludlow, Fitz Hugh (1857). "The Night Entrance". The Hasheesh Eater: being passages from the life of a Pythagorean. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 17–18 – via Wellcome Collection.
- ↑ American Pharmaceutical Association (1888). The National Formulary of Unofficial Preparations. Washington, D.C.: American Pharmaceutical Association – via Wellcome Collection.
- ↑ American Medical Association (1911). Nostrums and Quackery: articles on the nostrum evil and quackery reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago: Press of American Medical Association – via Wellcome Collection.