Diamorphine diacetylmorphine drugs

Pharmacokinetics. Diamorphine (diacetylmorphine) is converted in the body within minutes to morphine and 6-monoacetylmorphine, a metabolite of both drugs the effects of diamorphine are principally due to the actions of morphine and 6-monoacetylmorphine on the p- and, to a lesser extent, the K-receptors. Diamorphine given par-enterally has a t) of 3 min. When given orally it is subject to complete presystemic or first-pass metabolism and only morphine (t) 3 h) and the metabolites reach the systemic circulation. Thus oral diamorphine is essentially a prodrug. The greater potency of diamorphine (diamorphine 1 mg = morphine 1.5 mg) may be due to the metabolite 6-acetylmorphine and to the common use of morphine as sulphate and diamorphine as hydrochloride. 

Heroin is diacetylmorphine (diamorphine hydrochloride) and is prepared by the action of acetic anhydride on morphine. It possesses four times the analgesic effect of morphine, but has considerably less depressant effect. Addiction is common, the drug being taken in the form of snuff, or by injection. 

Heroin (3,6-O-diacetylmorphine, diamorphine) was first synthesized from morphine by an English chemist, CR Wright, in 1874, and was introduced commercially as a morphine-like analgesic by the Bayer Company of Germany in 1898. Heroin was initially used as a morphine and codeine substitute for the treatment of tuberculosis and other respiratory illnesses. However, it quickly became apparent that this drug was more toxic than morphine and exhibited equivalent abuse liability and tolerance-... 

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