Morphine main properties

Opium contains over 40 different alkaloids, all of which will be exuacted from opium by the procedure just described. It then remains to separate morphine from this mixture. Of the main opium alkaloids, only morphine displays some acidic properties as well as basic properties. Although a tertiary amine, morphine also contains a... 

Morphine and cocaine Morphine is medically the most important alkaloid present in opium. Opium itself consists of the dried milky exudate extracted from unripe capsules of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), which is grown mainly in Asia, but also in some parts of India and China. Morphine is a powerful analgesic and has been used to treat severe pain. However, its addictive properties complicate its long-term medical use and it is also a drug of abuse. In addition to morphine, opium also contains codeine, which has similar, but weaker, actions. 

Pharmacokinetic properties Codeine (Sindrup and Brosen, 1995) has a good oral bioavailability. The compound is extensively metabolized by O- and N-demethylation followed by glucuronidation. The main metabolites are norcodeine, morphine and hydrocodeine and their glucuronides. There are indications (Yue et al., 1997), that the analgesic effect is reduced in persons with low CYP2D6 activity (poor metabolizers). 

Many substances of widely different chemical structure abolish the excitability of nerve fibers on local application in concentrations that do not cause permanent injury and that may not affect other tissues. Sensory nerve fibers are most susceptible, so that these agents produce a selective sensory paralysis, which is utilized especially to suppress the pain of surgical operation. This property was first discovered in cocaine, but because of its toxicity and addiction liability, it has been largely displaced by synthetic chemicals. The oldest of these, procaine (novocaine), is still the most widely used. Its relatively low toxicity renders it especially useful for injections, but it is not readily absorbed from intact mucous membranes and is therefore not very effective for them. Many of its chemical derivatives are also used. They differ in penetration, toxicity, irritation, and local injury as well as in duration of action and potency. Absolute potency is not so important for practical use as is its balance with the other qualities. If cocaine is absorbed in sufficient quantity, it produces complex systemic actions, involving stimulation and paralysis of various parts of the CNS. These are mainly of toxicological and scientific interest. Its continued use leads to the formation of a habit, resembling morphinism. This is not the case with the other local anesthetics. 

Methadone is an MOR(OP3, i) receptor agonist with pharmacological properties similar to those of morphine. It is an attractive alternative MOR opioid receptor analgesic, because of its lack of neuroactive metabolites, a clearance that is independent of renal function, good oral systemic availability, a longer half-life with fewer doses needed per day, and extremely low cost. It is mainly metabolized by CYP3A4. 

By the early part of the nineteenth century the main constituent, morphine, had been isolated by Wilhelm Serturner in Germany and shown to be a powerful analgesic and narcotic, able to induce sleep. He called it morphine after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. The invention of the hypodermic syringe allowed morphine to be injected which made it more rapidly effective but also increased its addictive properties. 

Since for general clinical use morphine has a number of disadvantages the main one of which is its addictive property, many attempts have been made to modify the structure by semi-synthesis even before the structure had been fully established (ref.64). In parallel with the use of morphine and thebaine as natural intermediates many compounds having a simple structural resemblance to morphine have been studied for their potential analgesic activity without addictive and other side effects (ref.65), a search which continues to this day. 

In modem medicine, mily the purified opium alkaloids and their derivatives are commonly employed. Although the ripe poppy capsule can contain up to 0.5 % total alkaloids, opium represents a much concentrated form and up to 25 % of its mass is composed of alkaloids. Of the many (>40) alkaloids identified, some six represent almost all of the total alkaloid content. Actual amounts vary widely, e.g., morphine (4-21 %), codeine (0.8-2.5 %), thebaine (0.5-2.0 %), papaverine (0.5-2.5 %), noscapine (narcotine) (4—8 %), and narceine (0.1-2 %). A t3q>ical commercial sample of opium would probably have a morphine content of about 12 %. Powdered opium is standardized to contain 10 % of anhydrous morphine, usually by dilution with an approved diluent, e.g., lactose or cocoa husk powder. The alkaloids are largely combined in salt form with meconic acid, opium containing some 3-5 % of this material. Meconic acid is invariably found in opium but, apart from its presence in other Papaver species, has not been detected elsewhere. It gives a deep red-colored complex with ferric chloride, and this has thus been used as a rapid and reasonably specific test for opium. Of the main opium alkaloids, only morphine and narceine display acidic properties, as well as the basic properties due to the tertiary amine. Narceine has a carboxylic acid function, while morphine is acidic due to its phenolic hydroxyl. This acidity can be exploited for the preferential extraction of these alkaloids (principally morphine) from an organic solvent by partitioning with aqueous base (Table 15.6). 

Methadone Methadone was first synthesized as a morphine substitute and possesses many of that drag s pharmacological properties. It is mainly excreted in mine in imchanged form (5%-50% of a dose) or is metabolized by A-demethylation with spontaneoirs cycfization of the resirlting metabolite to 2-ethyfidene-l,5-dimethyl-3,3-dipher5flpyrrofidine (EDDP) (3%-25% of a dose). 

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