PHYSIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE FRACTIONS OF INDIAN HEMP

Abstract

IN spite of nearly fifty years of intensive study, the chemistry of hemp resin is still obscure. Earlier workers reported that the active ingredient of Indian hemp was not an alkaloid¹ but a resin^1,2 with boiling point 265° C. and a chemical composition represented by C^l8H²⁴O²('crude cannabinol' of Cahn⁸). Wood, Spivey and Easterfield³ showed that the highboiling resin was a mixture of at least two compounds and isolated from it a pure crypto-phenol, cannabinol, C²¹H²⁶O², d^D = -108°, which formed a crystalline acetyl derivative, melting point 75° C. Later investigators^4,5,6,7 obtained apparently constant boiling resins to which they assigned the formulae C²¹H³⁰O² or C²⁰H³⁰O². Work by Cahn⁹ has confirmed the findings of Wood, Spivey and Easterfield (loe. cit.). Myttenaere¹⁰, on the other hand, believes that cannabinol is not a pure entity but contains several isomeric compounds, some of which are soluble in dilute alkalis, whereas others are insoluble in them. The possibility of spontaneous conversion of the alkali-soluble compounds to alkali-insoluble ones by heat or at room temperature has also been suggested. The active constituents of Indian cannabis resin, according to the present state of our knowledge, are: (1) cannabinol^3,8, C²¹H²⁵O²a, d^D = -108°, which forms a crystalline acetyl derivative of melting point 75° C. ; (2) cannabol¹¹, which is isomeric with 'cannabidiol ; (3) cannabidiol¹² (possibly in traces in Indian hemp), C²¹H³⁰O², (L)²= - 125°, melting point 66-67° C., found in both Egyptian and American hemp.