Sertiirner, Friedrich

Figure 1. Contemporary scheme of morphine. Friedrich Sertiirner, who first isolated this alkaloid in an impure form in 1805, did know that it was converted from the pathway of tyrosine, Tyr. The correct morphine structure was determined by Gulland and Robinson in 1923. Moreover, even 200 years after Sertiirner s isolation, scientists are still discussing the synthesis of this alkaloid from a molecular point of view. This is a good example of the scientific evolution of knowledge of alkaloids.

Morphine is self-administered by Friedrich Wilhelm Sertiirner and is named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams, after he experiences its narcotic effects. 

The first alkaloid to be obtained in the pure crystaUine state was morphine. Friedrich Wilhelm Sertiirner (1783-1841) isolated morphine in 1805. He recognized that the material possessed basic character and he, therefore, classified it as a vegetable alkali (that is, a base with its origin in the plant kingdom). Thus, compounds with similar properties ultimately became known as alkaloids. The term"alkaloid"was introduced for the first time by an apothecary, Meissner, in Halle in 1819. 

Morphine was isolated at roughly the same time byJean-Francois Derosne, Armand Seguin and Friedrich Wilhelm Serturner, but as Sertiirner s work was publicized by Gay-Lussac, he usually gets the credit. People thought that morphine was less addictive than opium and so could replace it. But it was found that morphine was not too effective orally (we now know that it is rapidly metabolized in the liver and intestine). 

Linnaeus C (1753) Species Plantarum. Impensis Laurentii Salvii, Holmiae, vol I, pp 508-509 Lockcmann G (1924) Friedrich Wilhelm Sertiirner. Ein Beitrag zu seiner wissenschaftlichen Wurdigung. Z Angew Chem 37 525-532... 

Lockemann G (1951) Friedrich Wilhelm Sertiirner, the discoverer of morphine (translated by RE Oespei). J (Them Educ 28 277-279... 

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