Codeine chemical name

The chemical name of codeine—methylmorphine—is rather revealing, especially for those who know organic chemistry (the study of carbon and compounds containing carbon, which are referred to as organic compounds). As with mor-... 

Metabolic studies of codeine indicate that approximately 10 percent of codeine (whose chemical name is methylmor-phine) is converted to its active metabolite, morphine it is this small fraction of morphine that provides codeine s analgesic effect. 

Meperidine hydrochloride (the full name) is a synthetic opioid. It is synthesized by the reaction of chemicals not found in opium. Specifically, meperidine hydrochloride is produced by the reaction of dichlorodi-ethyl methylamine with benzyl cyanide, to produce ethyl l-methyl-4-phenyl-isonipecotate hydrochloride (meperidine s chemical name). Some references to meperidine classify it as a totally synthetic opioid. Semi-synthetic opioids are produced by using one of the opiates as a starting material. Two examples of semi-synthetic opioids are hydrocodone and heroin. Hydrocodone is produced by the chemical modification of codeine, while heroin is made by chemically altering morphine. 

Identify by chemical name the oxygen-containing functional groups in morphine, codeine, and heroin (see Figure 17.5). 

Codeine is extracted from opium. Opium is a chemically complex drug derived from a flowering plant, the opium poppy. The scientific name for the opium poppy is Papaver somniferum, which translated from Greek means poppy that causes sleep. Opium is produced by drying the thick liquid harvested from the unripe seed capsule of the flower. It contains several different medically important chemicals known as alkaloids (non-acidic chemicals), the most important being morphine and codeine. 

Alkaloids are widespread in plants and include some very well-known poisons (notably coniine and strychnine), hallucinogens (morphine, cocaine and muscimol) and other potentially lethal compounds that are nevertheless used in medical practice (e.g. atropine, codeine, colchicine and morphine). As indicated by the preliminary snap-shot above, alkaloids typically have names ending in -ine and which are often related to the plant source or properties. Thus, morphine was named after Morpheus (the God of sleep) and coniine derives from Conium maculatum (hemlock), the plant used in the judicial murder of Socrates (399 BC). Various chemical tests for alkaloids are used as preliminary indicators of alkaloid presence in crude plant extracts. Finally, it should be noted that alkaloids can also exist as jVoxides of the alkaloid base. 

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