Pharmacographia : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin, met with in Great Britain and British India / by Friedrich A. Flückiger and Daniel Hanbury.

  • Friedrich August Flückiger
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pharmacographia : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin, met with in Great Britain and British India / by Friedrich A. Flückiger and Daniel Hanbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    that he had enriched science (we now translate his own words—“ not only with the knowledge of a remarkable new vegetable acid [MeJconsdure (meconic acid) which he had made known as Opiumsdure in 180(5], but also with the discovery of a new alkaline salifiable base, Morphium, one of the most remarkable substances and apparently related to ammonia.” Sertiirner in fact distinctly recognized the basic nature and the organic constitution of morphium (now called Morphine, Morphia, or Morphi- num) and prepared a number of its crystalline salts. He likewise de- monstrated the poisonous nature of these substances by experiments on himself and others. Lastly he pointed out, though very incorrectly, the difference between morphine and the so-called Opium-salt (Narcotine) of Derosne. It is possible that this latter chemist may have had morphine in his hands at the same time as Sertiirner, or even earlier. This honour seems also due to Sdguin whose paper “ Sur VOpium ” read at the Institute, December 24, 1804, was, strange to say, not published till 1814.1 2 To Sertiirner however undoubtedly belongs the merit of first making known the existence of organic alkalis in the vegetable king- dom,—a series of bodies practically interminable. As to opium, it still remains after nearly seventy years a nidus of new substances.3 Solutions of morphine in acids or in alkalis rotate the plane of polarization to the left. The morphine in opium is combined with meconic acid and is there- fore easily soluble in water.4 * The Narcotine is present in the free state and can be extracted by chloroform, boiling alcohol, benzol, ether, or volatile oils,6 but not by water. It dissolves in 3 parts of chloroform, in 20 of boiling alcohol, in 21 of benzol, in 40 of boiling ether. Its alkaline properties are very weak, and it does not affect vegetable colours. If we examine opium by the microscope we cannot at once detect the presence of narcotine, but if first moistened with glycerin, numerous large crystals may generally be found after the lapse of some days. If the opium has been previously exhausted with benzol or ether, in order to remove the narcotine, no such crystals will be formed. Hence it follows that narcotine pre-exists in an amorphous state. By decomposition with sulphuric acid, narcotine yields Cotarnine, an undoubted base, together with Opianic Acid and certain derivatives of the latter. The discovery of another base, Codeine, was made in 1832 by Bobi- quet. It dissolves in 17 parts of boiling water forming a highly alkaline solution which perfectly saturates acids, and exhibits in polarized light a levogyre power. Codeine is also readily soluble at ordinary temperatures in 7 parts of amylic alcohol, and in 11 of benzol. The codeine of commerce is in very large crystals containing 2 atoms = 5'6G per cent, of water. By crystallization from ether the alkaloid may be obtained in small anhydrous crystals. Since 1832 other alkaloids have been found in opium as may be seen in the following table, which includes all the sixteen now known. 1 Gilbert’s Annalendcr Physik. xxv. (1817) 57. 2 Annales de Chimie, xcii. (1814) 225. ^ 3 The Institut de France on the 27tli June, 1831, awarded to Sertiirner a prize of 2000 francs—“pour avoir reconnu la nature ulcaline de la morphine, et avoir ainsi ouvert ime voie qui a produit de grandes decou- vertes medlcales.” 4 There are exceptional cases in which it is asserted that water does not take up the whole amount of morphine. 8 In large crystals by means of oil of tur- pentine.