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1801 - Adam Friedrich Wilhelm Serturner crystalizes opium and obtains morphine

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1801 - Adam Friedrich Wilhelm Serturner crystalizes opium and obtains morphine

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In the 18th century there was the synthesis of new man-made drugs but also use of herbal remedies to be used as medicine.¹ Opium was around since ancient times; however, Adam Frierich Wilhelm Serturner was the “first to successfully isolate and extract morphine crystals from the tarry poppy seed juice”.¹ Morphine was the first alkaloid extracted from opium and from a plant.¹ Serturner conducted his experiments on rats and stray dogs to determine that morphine had a sleep-inducing effect.¹

He then later determined that the drug was safe for humans and could provide pain relief.¹ He tested out the dosage on himself and a few other subjects to determine that 15 mg was the dose with the most benefits (ie: euphoria) and least number of side effects (ie: fatigue, confusion, etc..).¹

His new discovered medication had to be administered orally because the technology to take medications intravenously would not be around until 50 years later.¹

Morphine was named after “Morpium” who was the Greek god of sleep and dreams.¹

This artifact provides significant information about the isolation and extraction of morphine by Adam Friedrich Wilhelm Serturner¹

Source (1): Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar, and Ssc Chakra Rao. “The isolation of morphine by Serturner.” Indian journal of anaesthesia vol. 60,11 (2016): 861-862. doi:10.4103/0019-5049.193696

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Serturner's third publication titled, 'Ueber das Morphium als Hauptbestandteil des Opiums' was well received and recognised by the eminent French Chemist JL Gay-Lussac and also the German Mineralogical Society. The Jena University awarded Serturner an honorary doctor's degree in 1817. He received similar honours from universities at Marburg, Berlin, St.

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1827 - E. Merck & Company market morphine

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1827 - E. Merck & Company market morphine

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Friedrich Jacob Merck was the creator of the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co which began in Germany in 1668. It initially sold morphine, cocaine, and codeine as a pharmacy. Then in 1827, the company started as a manufacturer, manufacturing morphine. The company migrated to the United States in the late 19th century and opened up a manufacturing plant in New Jersey in 1902. Since then, Merck has had tremendous success, but also billions of dollars paid in lawsuits over its products.

This artifact is an image of one of the bottles of Merck & Co’s Morphine Sulphate which was sold in the 19th and 20the centuries for pain-relieving effects as well as cough and diarrhea.

Source (1): Kristin Compton. “Merck & Co - Drug Company History, Products & Lawsuits.” Drugwatch.com, 24 Sept. 2021, https://www.drugwatch.com/manufacturers/merck/.
(2): “Object Record: Merck & Co. Morphine Sulphate.” Merck & Co. Morphine Sulphate, https://onih.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/90CC583A-BB9B-4496-99C4-014230655583.

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14.0021.008 - Merck & Co. Morphine Sulphate

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Used in the 1994 exhibit “Drugs as Opiates, Drugs as Research Tools: Synthetic Opiates and Opiods.” See http://history.nih.gov/exhibits/opiates/index.html

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1832 - Jean-Pierre Robiquet isolates codeine

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1832 - Jean-Pierre Robiquet isolates codeine

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In 1832, Pierre-Jean Robiquet, who was a French chemist, isolated codeine.¹ Codeine is an alkaloid of opium that is similar to morphine; however, much less potent.1 Robiquet was able to make this discovery because he was experimenting with better alternatives of obtaining morphine from opium, besides what Adam Friedrich Wilhelm Serturner had done.¹

This artifact provides information about the isolation of codeine by Pierre-Jean Robiquet as well as other notable achievements by him including asparagine, cantharidin, and caffeine.¹

Pierre-Jean Robiquet’s experimenting on opium included evaporating opium to produce a syrup and then creating a white crystal solution that he called “narceine”.² A series of evaporation, filtration, and recrystallization techniques allowed Robiquet to study the solubility and acidity of various opium alkaloids.² He then was able to discover codeine from the residue left after evaporation which was insoluble in alkaline solutions but was different than morphine by the different colored reactions produced.² Robiquet states that codeine was beneficial for the spinal cord, as it did not paralyze the back like morphine reportedly did.²

Sources (1):
“Codeine Is Isolated by French Chemist Pierre-Jean Robiquet.” Drug History Timeline, https://drugtimeline.ca/event/codeine-opium-alkaloid-isolated-french-chemist-pie/#:~:text=Codeine%20is%20isolated%20by%20French,better%20ways%20to%20extract%20morphine.

(2): Wisniak, Jaime. “Pierre-Jean Robiquet.” Educación Química, Elsevier, 30 Mar. 2015, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0187893X13725072.

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Pierre-Jean Robiquet (1780-1840), a French pharmacist, made important contributions in the areas of mineral chemistry, mineral and vegetable pigments,…

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1898 - Bayer Drug Company markets heroin as nonaddicting cough medicine

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1898 - Bayer Drug Company markets heroin as nonaddicting cough medicine

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Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine, was seen as a “wonder drug” in the 20th century.¹ Heroin, another alkaloid from opium, is created by boiling anhydrous morphine with acetic anhydride for a long period of time.¹ After numerous investigators reporting strong positive effects of diacetylmorphine, the Bayer Company in Germany started manufacturing and producing this drug in 1898.¹ The compound was named “Heroin” which is likely from the name “heroisch” which means “large, powerful, extreme one” in German.1 This was symbolic of the effects of the drug as being powerful even in small amounts.¹

In addition to being prescribed when morphine and codeine was prescribed, heroin was also used to help patients overcome addiction from the prior opium alkaloids.1 As claimed by Congress at German Naturalists and Physicians in 1989, “heroin was ten times as effective as codeine in the treatment of respiratory disease, [however] he estimated that it had only one-tenth of the toxic effects”.¹ This was a huge finding as there was a significant need for an effective and non-addictive treatment for a variety of diseases.¹

Based on a review done in 1900, out of 341 respiratory cases, less than 8% of patients became addicted.¹

It took almost 20 years after this point before physicians realized the negative effects of heroin, and the Public Health Service Hospitals in the US shut down dispensaries of heroin.¹ In June 1924, congressional law prohibited manufacturing heroin.¹

This artifact provides numerous different writings that were published and distributed about heroin in the late 19th century.1

Source (1): “UNODC - Bulletin on Narcotics - 1953 Issue 2 - 003.” United Nations : Office on Drugs and Crime, 1 Jan. 1953, https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1953-01-01_2_page004.html.

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Bringing it all together: The Brain on Opioids

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Bringing it all together: The Brain on Opioids

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After learning about the synthesis of various different types of opioids throughout the 19th and 20th centuries thus far, let's now learn about the mechanism of opioids in the brain. Opioids bind to receptors in the brain to block neurotransmission, causing inhibition, thus helping to reduce pain signals.¹ There are 3 major receptors: mu, kappa, and delta.¹ The Mu receptor is important because it causes a lot of the negative side effects of opioids including decreased respiration, the elimination of pain, and the feeling of euphoria throughout the entire body.¹

The mu-receptors turn off GABAergic neurons to then flood the pleasure pathway with dopamine in the nucleus accumbens.¹ Opioids cause increased tolerance which leads to withdrawal and dependence on the drug.¹

This artifact is a video that describes the effects of various opioid derivatives. One part of the video that really stood out to me was when they said “the potency of opioids becomes diminished over time if you abuse them. Your pain becomes linked with the emotional and physical toil of opioid withdrawal”.1 This shows how truly addictive and dangerous opioids can be.

Source (1): PBSNewsHour. “Why the Human Brain Loves Opioids.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Oct. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdXlB89QOA.

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Modern Day: First Responders Using Naloxone to Reverse Overdoses 

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Modern Day: First Responders Using Naloxone to Reverse Overdoses 

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Although the initial discoveries of morphine, codeine, and heroin in the 19th centuries were quite revolutionary and were thought to have much potential at treating pain and other diseases, the reality of these drugs turned out to label them as dangerous and strongly addictive drugs.¹ While physicians still prescribe opioids like hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine, it is imperative for physicians and their patients as well as people taking these drugs illegally to take safe doses so they do not overdose.¹ As of 2014, emergency personnel including firefighters, EMT, and law enforcement officers, now carry naloxone, a medication used to reverse an opioid overdose.¹

Naloxone can be administered via the muscle (intramuscularly), through one's veins (intravenously), or in someone's nose (intranasally).¹ By providing first responders with this medication, individuals who have overdosed have a stronger likelihood of surviving.1

This artifact is an image of how to properly administer naloxone via injection, which is only one of three routes of potential administration.² By having people aware of this process and trained to use naloxone, we can significantly reduce the number of deaths via overdose of opioids.

Source (1): Davis, Corey S et al. “Expanded access to naloxone among firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians in Massachusetts.” American journal of public health vol. 104,8 (2014): e7-9. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302062
(2) https://drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/images/DPS_Infographic-1-Final-72DPI2.jpg

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Jean-Pierre Robiquet is the best person to lead you through this exhibit about the various synthesis of alkaloids of opioids, including morphine, codeine, and heroin due to his expertise and numerous meticulous experiments with opium alkaloids.¹ Robiquet was born in France, on January 13th, 1780 and grew up during a revolutionary scientific era.¹ He started as an apprentice at various pharmacies in France, including in Rennes and Paris.¹ He then worked in the military as a chemist and was able to attend lectures conducted by Volta and Scarpa, who were legendary scientists in that era.¹ Following the military and other work in private labs, Robiquet started his own pharmacy and he became a professor of the natural history of drugs.¹ Robiquet has significant exposure to the laboratory techniques necessary to extract and isolate various drugs.¹

Due to Robiquet’s extensive history, he would be the best person to fully explain this exhibit and the revolutionary ideas during the 19th century surrounding opioids.¹

This artifact is an image of Jean-Pierre Robiquet.²

Source (1): “Robiquet, Pierre-Jean.” Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/robiquet-pierre-jean.
(2): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Pierre-Jean_Robiquet_vers_1830.jpg