MORPHINE

Morphine

Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic drug that is used to relieve severe pain. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, which is generally believed to be the first ever isolation of a natural plant alkaloid in history. It was first distributed by him in 1817; and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more widely used after the invention of the hypodermic needle in 1857. Sertürner originally named the substance morphium after the Greek god of dreams Morpheus for its tendency to cause sleep.

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morphine

Noun

  1. A crystalline alkaloid (7,8-didehydro-4,5-epoxy-17-methyl-morphinan-3,6-diol), extracted from opium, the salts of which are soluble in water and are used as analgesics, anaesthetics and sedatives; it is one of a group of morphine alkaloids.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: morphine
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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