Opium powder

II High Yes Codeine, morphine, meperidine Same as Schedule 1 (Demerol), opium poppy, opium tincture (Laudanum), granulated opium, powdered opium, raw opium, oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet), thebaine... 

Historically, opium was an important crop as far back as 3400 B.C., when it was referred to as Hul Gil, or the joy plant. The milky liquid from the poppy seeds was dried to produce the powerful opium powder. As a commodity, the opium trade flourished in Egypt during the reigns of Thutmose IV, Akhenton, and the boy king Tutankhamen. 

Synonyms Crude opium Gum opium uc opium Raw opium Standardized opium powder... 

Take of Opium powdered, two ounces. Diluted alcohol, two pints. 

A number of medicines derived from opium are clinically very important. Morphine hydrochloride, purified from opium powder, is used as an analgesic and an anesthetic, and codeine phosphate and noscapine hydrochloride are used in cough medicines. Papaverine hydrochloride is used as a smooth muscle relaxant. 

Tablets of Aspirin with Dover s Powder, B.P.C. Contain a mixture of equal parts of aspirin with ipecacuanha and opium powder. The anhydrous morphine content is 1 62 mg per tablet.

Opium is the dried, powdered sap of the unripe seed pod of Papaver somniferum, a poppy plant indigenous to Asia minor. Theophrastus described its medical properties in the third century BC, but the Sumerians, ca BC 4000, probably perceived its utility. Arab physicians knew of the dmg, and Arab traders carried it to the Orient where it was used as a treatment for dysentery. Paracelsus is credited with repopularizing the dmg in western Europe in the early sixteenth century by formulating opium into "laudanum", which is still in use. More than 20 different alkaloids (qv) of two different classes comprise 25% of the weight of dry opium. The benzylisoquinolines, characterized by papaverine [58-74-2] (1.0%), a smooth muscle relaxant, and noscapine [128-62-1] (6.0%), an antitussive agent, do not have any analgesic effects. The phenanthrenes, the second group, are the more common and include 10% morphine (1, = R = H), 0.5% codeine [76-57-3], C gH2 N03, (1, R = H, R = CH3), and 0.2 thebaine [115-37-7], C 2H2 N03, (2). 

For use in medicine, opium is dried, powdered and standardised to a definite content of morphine, which the British Pharmacopoeia 1932 places at 10 per cent, (limits 9-5 and 10-5), and the United States Pharma-copceia (XIII) at not less than 10 or more than 10-5 per cent. 

Many alkaloids have pronounced biological properties, and a substantial number of the pharmaceutical agents used today are derived from naturally occurring amines. As a few examples, morphine, an analgesic agent, is obtained from the opium poppy Papaver somnifemm. Cocaine, both an anesthetic and a central nervous system stimulant, is obtained front the coca bush Erythroxylon coca, endemic to upland rain forest areas of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and western Brazil. Reserpine, a tranquilizer and antihypertensive, comes from powdered roots of the semitropical plant Rauwolfia serpentina. Ephedrine, a bronchodilator and decongestant, is obtained front the Chinese plant Ephedra sinica. 

Invented in 1527, laudanum, a designation for a number of products containing opium, iiquor, and a variety of other ingredients, was the most popuiar form of opium consumption in the West. Of all the laudanum products available, the most popular was a brand called Sydenham s Laudanum, which contained one pound of sherry wine, two ounces of opium, one ounce of saffron, one ounce of powder of cinnamon, and one ounce of powder of cloves. Its popularity stemmed from the sweetness of the sherry undercutting the natural bitterness of opium. For more than 400 years, this method of opium drinking remained widespread among Western nations. 

By the turn of the twentieth century, however, it was too late. Even with heroin in disrepute, it had already gained a strong foothold as a profitable worldwide commodity, and its production and trade could not be stopped. Heroin, even more so than opium, was an ideal drug for trade. Heroin, as a white powder, was lighter than opium, much more potent, and much... 

Some street names for morphine are cube juice, hard stuff, hocus, M, Miss Emma, monkey, and white stuff. Names for opium includes big O, black stuff, Chinese tobacco, Dover s powder, joy plant, and zero. Street names for heroin include dope, H, horse, junk, skag, and smack. The mixture of heroin and cocaine is termed a speedball. Names for codeine include Captain Cody, Cody, and schoolboy, and it is found in combination with glutethimide. 

Meconin is a neutral, non-nitrogenous body, which does not form salts. It is prepared by exhausting powdered Smyrna opium with boiling ether. The residue, after distilling off the ethcT, is repeatedly boiled with water,the solution evaporated,the residue dissolved in ether, decolorized with animal charcoal, evaporated, and the meconia obtained reorystallizod from water. 

Hydromorphone and its natural opioid relatives have been used to relieve pain, treat a variety of ailments, and create euphoric feelings at least as far back as the time of the ancient Greeks. In early Greek history, the priests controlled the use of opium and ascribed to it supernatural powers. In the fifth century bc, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, dismissed the supernatural attributes of opium. Hippocrates believed opium had cathartic, narcotic, hypnotic, and styptic properties. He believed that all diseases had a natural origin and could be cured by natural therapies. All of the natural opiates historically were derived from opium poppy plants. The liquid extracted from the poppy seeds was typically dried to create a concentrated powder. These extracts were then smoked, eaten, or drank. 

Morphine is an alkaloid, the chemical class to which many drugs belong. Pure morphine is a white powder, bitter to the taste. More than 1,000 tons of morphine are isolated from opium a year, although most of it is converted to codeine. Morphine comprises anywhere from 3% to 17%—usually about 10%—of the more than 20 alkaloids present in opium. 

OFFICIAL NAMES Opium, laudanum, paregoric, Dover s powder... 

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