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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
The active ingredient, was found to be 10 times as potent as opium. Sertürner originally named the substance morphium after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus, for its tendency to cause sleep.[14][15] Merck began marketing it commercially in 1827.[16] Morphine's clinical significance was not recognized by the greater medical community until 1831, when Sertürner was recognized for his contribution and granted the French equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Other alkaloids were later identified from the opium plant, one of these thirty such alkaloids later became codeine. Codeine from the ancient Greek, κώδεια, means cup shaped like a poppyhead.[17] Morphine use was spearheaded by Dr. Alexander Wood's invention the hypodermic syringe in 1853.[16][14] However, it wasn't until the American Civil War in 1861, the Prussian-Austrian War in 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 that morphine saw widespread use as part of military medicine. It wasn't until after these military conflicts that morphine habituation gained a reputation as the "soldier's disease" or the "army disease". With the addictive and habit forming properties of morphine now known the medical establishment was on the lookout for a less addictive alternative to morphine. This came in the form of diacetylmorphine or as it was later marketed, Heroin. Although it was later learned that heroin was not less addictive than codeine and in fact the contrary. The first chemical structure of morphine was proposed by Robinson and colleagues in 1923 then confirmed in 1927.[18][19][20] The total chemical synthesis of morphine occurred in 1952 by Gates and Tschudi.[21]The primary source of morphine is isolated from the poppy straw of the opium poppy.[22] In 2013 an estimated 523,000 kilograms of morphine were produced.[23] About 45,000 kilograms were used directly for pain, an increase over the last twenty years of four times.[23] Most use for this purpose was in the developed world.[24] About 70% of morphine is used to make other opioids such as hydromorphone, oxycodone and heroin.[25][26][27]ChemistryMorphine, a benzylisoquinoline alkaloid, is an opiate of the morphinan class. Morphine and other molecules of this class contain a polycyclic core of three benzene rings fused in a zig-zag pattern called phenanthrene. A fourth nitrogen containing ring is fused to the phenanthrene at R9 and R13 with the nitrogen member looking at R17 of the combined structure. This structure is called morphinan. Morphine (along with other morphinans) contain an ether bridge between two of its rings, connecting R4 and R5 through an oxygen group. It contains two hydroxy groups (OH-), bound at R6 and R3, and a methyl group located on the nitrogen atom at R17. Morphine is a precursor for many morphinan drugs, it is used to synthesize codeine through methylation of its R3 hydroxy group, and heroin through acetylation. Other closely related opioids include hydrocodone, oxycodone, and dihydrocodeine. The chemical structure of morphine is the basis of hundreds of opioid derivatives with a wide range of effects.PharmacologyMorphine exerts its effects by binding to and activating three known opioid receptors including: the κ-opioid (KOP), μ-opioid (MOP), and δ-opioid (DOP)
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