Morphine Research Paper

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Recommended: Morphine chemical structure

Morphine in an opium alkaloid (naturally occurring organic nitrogen containing bases); a class of opiate which is derived from the sap secreted by the seedpods of opium poppies (Papaver somniferum). Used for both medicinal and recreational purposes for thousands of years, it was only in the past 200 years that morphine was found to be the most active substance in opium. Upon discovery, it was named morphine, after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus.
Historical developments in chemistry that led to the discovery of morphine:
The use of morphine can be traced back to 1522, when the scientist Paracelsus is reported to have used laudanum (a tincture of opium containing alkaloids such as morphine) as a pain killer. The popularity, unsurprisingly, increased despite his warnings that it should be used sparingly due to its addictive effects.
To extract the opium from the opium poppy, the unripe seed pods can be cut open, and will produced a creamy coloured sap. This contains an estimated 50 different alkaloids (molecules made from amino acids). Left to dry, the sap will turn into a yellow/brown opium paste. …show more content…

This “salt of opium” as Derosne described it in 1803, was a precipitate produced from potassium carbonate reacting with an aqueous extract of opium. It was observed that it was soluble in acid and precipitated in bases. This “salt of opium”, according to Serturner, was acid meconate of morphine (a salt of meconic acid). Establishing the formulae and constitution of morphine was not as easy as the name, however. Even today, the structure of morphine is still surrounded by

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