Analgesic agents, pharmaceutical industry

The isolation of the alkaloid morphine from commercial opium and its subsequent introduction into therapeutics in the mid-nineteenth century as a pure, so-called specific analgesic agent, was a notable scientific milestone — not only because of the substantial improvement it represented in the treatment of severe and terminal pain, but also because the subsequent scientific study of morphine by medicinal chemists and pharmacologists has yielded many hundreds of active, useful derivatives of morphine, serving as models for the countless other pursuits and successes of the pharmaceutical industry during the last century. 

Eugenol has been used since the nineteenth century as a flavoring agent in a variety of foods and pharmaceutical products. It has found use as a mild rubefacient in dentifrices, and as an obtundent for hypersensitive dentine, caries, or exposed pulp. Additional uses are in dental cement preparations, analgesics and anesthetics, and temporary dental filling when mixed with zinc oxide. The substance is also used in the perfumery or flavor industries, and also as insect attractant [1, 3, 4]. 

It is responsible for almost all heart drugs, drugs for the CNS, anti-ulcer drugs, analgesics and anti-histamines. Many pharmaceuticals are made simply from readily available bulk chemicals. For example, the non-steroid antiinflammatory agent, ibuprofen, is made from toluene and propylene, two of the seven basic building blocks of the petrochemical industry. Chemical synthesis is also used to modify materials made from other sources, and chemical methods of extraction are used in the downstream processing of products from other sources. 

Microencapsulated solid preparations are widely used in pharmaceutical, chemical, and other industries to protect various substances from environmental impact, as well as for extending their action [137], In the pharmaceutical field, in particular, these preparations are mainly used to get controlled release drug kinetics, to minimize side effects, to reduce gastric irritations, and to mask the unpleasant taste of the contained drug [137-142]. Indeed, many different active components are microencapsulated analgesics, antibiotics, antihistamine, cardiovascular agents, iron salts, antipsychot-ics [143], vitamins, peptides [144], proteins [145], antiasthma [140,146], broncodilators, diuretics, anticancerogens, tranquilizers, and antihypertensives [137],... 

A small proportion of caffeine finds application in pharmaceuticals for the treatment of migraine, pain and fever. It is occasionally administered in combination with analgesics, since caffeine augments their activity. The cosmetics industry uses caffeine as a blood-circulation-enhancing agent for skin preparations. Caffeine is needed for the production of copier paper ( Diazopaper ). The lion s share however accounts for sodas and energy drinks (Coca-Cola , PepsiCola , Red BulP), but also a host of other caffeinated food products, which has already attracted the FDA s attention. 

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