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)

Ananda Munakka or Rockets

Happiness @ One Rupee

It looked like an ordinary pack of gutka or paan masala. But "Ananda Munakka" was different. A Dutch tourist handed a packet to me with the words: "You have one of these in the morning and you are happy the whole day." She wanted to know what it contained. I told her that "ananda" meant "happiness".

The contents of the packet were listed in Hindi, which she could not read. Nor could I, for the lettering was too small. She got me a huge magnifying glass.

As I scanned the list of ingredients, I found the words "Shudh Bhang – 15%". Trust a Dutch woman to find it! I told her it contained 15 percent pure cannabis. She was overjoyed. I read out the other ingredients:

Munakka – 40% (crushed dates)
Mishri – 40% (natural sugar crystals)
Jeera – 1% (cumin seeds)
Dalchini – 1% (cinnamon)
Lavang – 1% (cloves)
Kali Mirch – 1% (black pepper)
Heeng – 1% (asafoetida)
And, of course:
Bhang (shudh) – 15%

When I first heard about this candy (thanks Fat Freddy) I wanted to try it out. But since I don't have the cash to go overseas and get the real thing I figured I'd try my hand at making it.

Munakka is usually translated as  'Sultanas or large raisins' so I'm using that in the recipe. You can still use the dates, it will be sweeter.

This is what I came up with;


Rockets

7 oz. Sultanas or large raisins   
7 oz. natural sugar crystals
2 1/2 oz. cannabis   
1 tsp.cumin seeds    
1 tsp. cinnamon       
1 tsp. cloves       
1 tsp. black pepper   
1 tsp. asafoetida  *     

Place cannabis in a 300 deg. F oven for 15 minutes. Let cool.

Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until blended.

Roll into 5 gram balls.

Mix it in milk and get Thandai (literally - coolness), the enhanced version of a popular Indian drink.

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* asafoetida

It has recently come to my attention that asafoetida should not be used by the following people;
Children, pregnant or breast-feeding women, people with bleeding disorders,
epileptics or those with a history of convulsions, those with stomach and intestinal (gastrointestinal, GI) problems, and people with high blood pressure (hypertension) or low blood pressure (hypotension).

As with any herbal preparation consult your physician before use.