Morphine

Morphine is a potent narcotic drug that directly affects the central nervous system. It is one of the main alkaloids extracted from the opium poppy. Morphine sulfate, the most common form of the drug, occurs as a white, feathery, crystalline powder. It has a pH around 7.4, which makes it highly water soluble, while pure morphine is not very water soluble. Morphine should be stored at room temperature, away from heat, light, and moisture. It is an effective pain reliever, cough suppressant, and anti-diarrheic, while it also produces euphoria. Tolerance and both physical and psychological dependence can develop rapidly with use.

Morphine was first isolated from opium around 1805 by Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner, a German pharmacist, who identified the organic alkaloid and named it “morphium” after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus. It was also known as “morphia” in the 19th century. By the 1820s Merck and other Western European pharmaceutical companies were marketing morphine. It was initially used as a narcotic analgesic and thought to be nonaddictive; it was even recommended as a cure for opium addiction. Morphine pills were widely marketed in early 19th-century Europe.

Morphine's use continued to spread rapidly and it soon displaced opium as an ingredient in many popular patent medicine cure-alls. Morphine was commonly applied directly on open wounds at the time; morphine pills were also produced. In the 1850s, the development of hypodermic syringes allowed the widespread practice of injecting morphine. Morphine was regularly used to treat soldiers during the U.S. Civil War, as well as the subsequent Franco-Austrian and Franco-Prussian Wars in Europe. These practices led to substantial expansions in the rates of opiate addiction. Morphine remained a popular drug with high rates of use until the early 20th century, when a series of laws limited its availability and criminalized its use. Today, morphine may be administered orally, intramuscularly, intravenously, rectally, epidurally, or intrathecally.

The elemental analysis of morphine was published in 1847 by the French chemist Auguste Laurent. The chemical structure of morphine was first clarified by Robert Robinson at Oxford University [Page 535]in 1925. However, the first complete synthesis of morphine was not achieved until 1952 by Marshall Gates and Gilg Tschudi.