Page 77 - Pharmacognosy-II (06-PG 303)

taken in the form of an electuary made by digestion with melted butter.

3. Charas or churrus or Hashish (Arabic) is the crude resin. This is obtained by rubbing the tops
between the hands, beating them on cloths or carpets, or by natives who wear leather aprons walking
among the growing plants. The resin is scraped off and forms an ingredient of numerous smoking
mixtures. Like bhang, it is also used with butter.
4. In America and Europe the dried leaves and flowering tops without compression is known as
marihuana or marijuana.

Macroscopical characters:

Cannabis occurs in agglutinated flattened masses of a dull green or greenish- brown colour, brittle and
resinous to touch.
The flowering tops consists of: short stems, upper leaves, bracts, bracteoles and female flowers with
few fruits.
Odour: is faint characteristic, which is very marked in the fresh sample
Taste: is slightly bitter.

Microscopical characters:

The resin is secreted by numerous glandular hairs. The head is usually 8-16 celled and the pedicel
multiseriate. To differentiate these from similar trichomes (e.g. those of the Labiatae) specific stains
can be used. These include Fast Blue Salt B and a reagent (consisting of vanillin in ethanolic sulphuric
acid) which stains the cannabis glands a deep reddish purple.
It is possible to analyse individual trichomes by GLC by which means it has been shown that the glands
represent a dynamic system in the cannabinoid synthetic activity of the plant. In addition, abundant
conical, curved, unicellular hairs, are also found, many having cystoliths of calcium carbonate in their
enlarged bases. Cluster crystals of calcium oxalate are abundant, particularly in the bracteoles.

Constituents:

More than 400 different compounds have been isolated from cannabis.
1- The most commonly described is the narcotic resin (about 15-20 %) which is brown,
amorphous and semi-solid.
The resin contains over 60 compounds called Cannabinoids.

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