Cannabis Seed Pills

Howdy there little Buckaroos!
Don't let anyone tell you that there hasn't been enough research on cannabis to use it as medicine. It has been used as medicine since the dawn of time. The earliest written reference to the use of cannabis as medicine occurred in China around 2,800 BC, in the medical text known as the Pen Ts'ao of the legendary Emperor Shen-Nung.

The whole plant is useful from the leaves and flowers to the roots. Even the seeds have medicinal properties. The seeds, made into a paste and used as an unguent, is a folk remedy for tumors and cancerous ulcers.

 The Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica calls for the use of hemp seeds as treatment for:

• Intestinal problems
• Aftermath of colds (febrile diseases)
• Post partum
• Blood (nutritional) deficiency
• Promotes healing of sores and ulcerations

Now here's some real Old Time Medicine. This preparation was used in China in the year 220 AD!

Medical author Zhang Zhongjing gives us his cure for constipation and Spleen Restriction.

        Pills of Fructus Cannabis (Maziren Wan)
        Fructus Cannabis 2 sheng
        Radix Paeoniae 0.5 jin
        Fructus Aurantii Immaturua 1 jin
        Radix et Rhizoma Rhei 1 jin
        Semen Armeniacae Amarum 1 sheng

    Pound the drugs into powder, and form pills the size of Chinese Parasol seeds with honey. Take ten pills three times a day. Gradually increase dosage until normal defecation is observed.

I've taken the liberty to update the units of measure and ingredients to something that folks are familiar with today.

Pills of Fructus Cannabis (Maziren Wan)

Cannabis Seed                   2000 grams

Peony Root                          250 grams

Immature Bitter Orange      500 grams

Rhubarb Root                      500 grams

Bitter Apricot Kernel           1000 grams

Pound the drugs into powder, and form pills the size of a pea with honey.
Take ten pills three times a day.

Fenner's Complete Formulary and Handbook (1888)

Back before the advent of the huge pharmaceutical industry that we have today medicines were compounded right behind the counter by your local pharmacist. As late as the 1940's 50% of prescriptions were compounded by a pharmacist rather than manufactured in a factory. Fenner's Complete Formulary is a handbook published in 1888 that shows the techniques and ingedients used to compound the various remedies.

Fenner's was basically a recipe book for pharmacists preparing products for their pharmacies. There are instructions for making everything that could be found in a well stocked pharmacy in the late 1800's.

Many of us are trying to formulate our own medicinal cannabis preparations through trial and error. Fenner's shows us the methods used when cannabis was a medicine that was valuable and accepted by mainstream health providers.

By following these procedures your 'homemade' medicine will be identical to the pharmaceutical preparations of yesteryear.

Fenner's Complete Formulary contains;

Official and Unofficial Preparations Generally Used or Required In The Practice of Pharmacy and the Business of the Chemist, Manufacturing Pharmacist, Manufacturer of Proprietary Medicine, Physician, Perfumer, Etc.

If you do a search for "cannabis" you will see several methods used to prepare it as medicine back when it was a valued ingredient in the American Materia Medica.

The Southwest School of Botanical Medicine has made this resource available on their website as a free download, along with numerous other herbal manuals, eclectic texts, ethno-botanical works, and a massive image repository.

Here are the links to Fenner's Complete Formulary and Handbook:

PART I and PART II - Introductory material; Part 1, Drugs and medicinal substances defined, Part II, methods of preparation described - 53 pages, 7 illustrations, bookmarked Acrobat (.pdf) file - 300K (1/05)

Part IIIA- WORKING FORMULA - Abstracts, alkaloids, waters, balsams, waxes, cerates, papers, colors, confections, cordials, decoctions, elixirs, plasters, emulsions, essences, extracts, distilled extracts, and fluid extracts - over 1,000 formulae in this first section alone. 242 pages, bookmarked Acrobat (.pdf) file - 1M (7/05)

Part IIIB- WORKING FORMULA - Glycerites, infusions, linaments, mucilages, oils (fixed, animal, vegetable, volatile, mixed), oleoresins, pills, pitch, powders, resins, resinoids, sugars, soaps, teas, spirits, juices, suppositories, syrups, tinctures, homeopathic preparations, triturations, troches, ointments, wines - over 1,500 formulae in this second section. 272 pages, bookmarked Acrobat (.pdf) file - 1M (12/05) 

PART IV. - THE STANDARD REMEDIES AND PROPRIETARY MEDICINES. "The following formulas are designed for making a complete line of Standard Proprietary Remedies, which may be prepared and put up by druggists, or others, for local trade or for the market." - 118 pages, 236 formulae and recipes, bookmarked Acrobat (.pdf) file - 250K (1/05)

PART V. TOILET PREPARATIONS AND PERFUMES. Cosmetics, mouth products, hair products, lip salves, perfumes, colognes, sachets, etc. - 43 pages, 190 recipes, bookmarked Acrobat (.pdf) file - 130K (1/05)

PART VI. MISCELLANEOUS FORMULA. Adhesives, baking powder, inks, polishes, wines, real and artificial, varnishes, etc. - 45 pages, 180 recipes, bookmarked Acrobat (.pdf) file - 140K (1/05)