Discovery of morphine by Friedrich Sertürner

The use of a wide of variety of opium alkaloids, obtained from the dried sap of Papaver somniferum, has been reported ins several cultures. The potential of opium was known and used in ancient Greece, Rome as well as Arab cultures.

Morphine, which is the benzylisoquinoline alkaloid, occurs in significant amounts in opium.

Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner (1783-1855) was a German pharmacist who discovered and isolated morphine from opium in 1804. He named the compound morphine, after Morpheus, the Greek god of dream.

Morhium or morphine is generally accepted as being the first medicinal alkaloid isolated from any plant.

The achievement was the most important ‘quantum leap’ in the history of pharmacology and represents the beginning of the true chemical investigation of plants.

Joseph Caventou (1795-1877) and Pierre Pelletier (1788-1842) were French pharmacist who applied the methods of Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner and were among the first to isolate a number of extremely toxic, yet medicinally important alkaloids  including emetine in 1817, strychnine in 1818, quinine 1820 and veratrine in 1821.

With the invention of the hypodermic needle in 1853, morphine’s use became widespread. Decades alter, heroin was synthesized by Dresser by diacetylating morphine.
Discovery of morphine by Friedrich Sertürner

History of morphine

Morphine is one of the principle ingredients of opium. It is one of the most powerful natural pain relievers known and has become the standard against which other opiates, natural and synthetic are judged. Morphine and opium belong to a larger family of drugs named the opiates, which are known for producing a wide range of effects from sedation to constipation.

Opium was used sparingly in Europe during the middle ages, but its popularity increased during the Renaissance. By the dawn of the 19th century, opium addiction was a major problem.

The most of the earlier references to the poppy plant and opium from Sumerian, Greece, Roman, and Arab texts indicate that people were keenly aware of the therapeutic benefits of this drug early in history.

The Sumerian used the words hul, meaning ‘joy’ and gil meaning ‘plant’, when referring to the poppy plant.

In early 1850s, Alexander Wood, a Scottish physician, reasoned that the best way to relieve painful extremity injuries would be to inject morphine directly into the nerves that supplied the painful area.

In 1804, Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner (1783-1841) isolated morphine from raw opium and his classic paper published in 1817. He chose the name morphine for Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams.

After he tested the extract on dogs, Sertürner used himself as a guinea pig, and almost died in the process.

The drug quickly became a legal analgesic that most were able to use safely. It was only after the later introduction of the hypodermic needle, which made intravenous injections possible, that morphine became commonly associated with abuse and addiction.
History of morphine