BHANG, an East Indian name for the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa (see HEMP), but applied specially to the leaves dried and prepared for use as a narcotic drug. In India it is recognized under the three names and forms of Bhang, Gunja or Ganja, and Churrus or Charas. Bhang consists of the dark-green, aromatic, larger leaves and capsules of the plant on which resinous matter has exuded. Bhang is prepared in the form of a cake or man jan, and is smoked, with or without tobacco, or is made into an intoxicating beverage by infusing in cold water and straining. Gunja is the flowering or fruit-bearing tops of the female plants. It is gathered in stalks of several inches in length, the tops of which form a matted mass, from the agglutination of flowers, seeds and leaflets by the abundant resinous exudation which coats them. Churrus is the crude resinous substance separated from the plant. The use of preparations of hemp among the Muslim and Hindu population of India is very general ; and the habit also obtains among the population of central Asia, the Arabs and Egyptians, extending even to the negroes of the valley of the Zambezi and the Hottentots of South Africa.