Drug info - Much a-do about Opiate Alkaloids . . .

[samuraigecko]

A Layman's Introduction to Opium and its Alkaloids.

Definition of an Alkaloid.:
An Alkaloid is a nitrogenous organic molecule that has a pharmalogical effect on humans and other animals. This means that an alkaloid must be a natural molecule derived from an organic source. There are synthetic alkaloids and semi synthetic alkaloids.

Definition of Opiate and Opioid and their differences:
An Opiate alkaloid is a naturally produced alkaloid found in Papaver Somniferum (Opium Poppy).
An Opioid is totally different, it is a semi synthetic or fully synthetic compound that mimics the action of an opiate.

An example would be as such:
Morphine is an Opiate. It is found naturally in Papaver Somniferum.
Oxycodone is an Opioid. It is a semi-synthetic alkaloid derived from Thebaine (A natural alkaloid in Papaver Somniferum).
Codeine is an Opiate. It is found naturally in Papaver Somniferum.
Hydromorphone is an Opioid. It is a semi-synthetic alkaloid derived from Morphine.

A fair number of sources will use the names Opiate and Opioid incorrectly, especially Wikipedia. It will at times say "it is an compound of the opioid class" and then go on to say it is a "true opiate and narcotic" etc. A compound cannot be both, it is either one or the other if the true definitions are used.

Common Mistakes corrected:
The following is factual information, killing many myths.

Morphine is only found in Papaver Somniferum. There have been reports of the Morphine alkaloid being found in plants other than the opium poppy but they have been proven to be incorrect.

Papaver Somniferum produces only opiate alkaloids, opioids are not found in natural organic sources.

The Opium poppy does not produce any opiate salts, the compounds found in Papaver Somniferum are opiate alkaloids. These alkaloids in raw form need to be converted into salts via extraction and processing.


The naturally occurring alkaloids in Papaver Somniferum.

1] Morphine.
Morphine is the most sort after alkaloid produced by the opium plant. It accounts for around 10% to 30% of the total alkaloid content of a plant. It has narcotic and analgesic properties. From samples taken from illicit opium, the morphine content of a standard brick of opium is around 15%. The normal lethal dose for morphine varies but is around 120mg to 250mg in non-tolerant peoples. This would be equal to about 2 grams of Opium. Orally Morphine is only 10% to 15% bioavailable depending on ones metabolism. It is much more bioavailable when given through other routes and is more suitable for smoking, snorting or injection rather than orally administered. (This alkaloid is Exclusive to Papaver Somniferum).

2] Codeine.
Codeine accounts for about 1% to 5% of the total alkaloid content. It is the most widely used of the opiate alkaloids with the majority of Morphine also going into Codeine production. Codeine content is negatively correlated with Morphine content. This means that the higher the Morphine content, the lower the Codeine content and Visa Versa. This is rather strange from a medical point of view because more people have an adverse reaction to Codeine than Morphine. For comparison to the above equation, 2 grams from an average illicit block of Opium would contain around 20mg to 100mg of Codeine. This should pose some interesting questions for theoretical scientists whom hypothetically brew opium tea. Codeine is converted into Morphine by the liver, this is known as hepatic metabolization. Around 10% of the initial dosage is converted into Morphine by the body. This means that for every 30mg of Codeine taken around 3mg of Morphine is introduced into the body. This varies with metabolism and other influences. (This alkaloid is Exclusive to Papaver Somniferum)

3] Thebaine.
Thebaine is rather toxic to the human body and is mainly used for conversion to other drugs of medical use. It is used in the synthesis of Hydrocodone, Acetyldihydrocodone, Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Buprenorphine, Nalbuphine, Naloxone, Naltrexone and etrophine. Has a similar structure to Morphine and Codeine but has a stimulatory effect. (This alkaloid is Not exclusive to Papaver Somniferum).

4] Papaverine.
Quite a number of drugs are made from Papaverine. It is thought to be a mild muscle relaxant by homeopathic medicine but is used by the medical industry to treat spasms of the gastrointestinal tract, bile ducts and ureter. As a cerebral and coronary vasiodilator. As a smooth muscle relaxant for microsurgery and even as a drug to treat erectile dysfunction. (This alkaloid is Not exclusive to Papaver Somniferum).

5] Oripavine.
Is an opiate and also the major metabolite of Thebaine. It has an analgesic potency comparable to morphine but is not clinically used due to its severe toxicity and low therapeutic index. In laboratory tests Oripavine caused tonic clonic seizures causing death in mice and rats. Can be converted rather easily into other narcotics via synthesis. (This alkaloid is Not exclusive to Papaver Somniferum).

6] Narcotine. (Noscapine)
An opiate alkaloid without any significant pain killing properties but is useful medically in other ways. It is primarily used for its cough suppressing properties (negligable) and has shown to have anti-cancer properties. (This alkaloid is Not exclusive to Papaver Somniferum).

And about 25 other opiate alkaloids which have a negligible or unknown activity in the human body.

It may be noticed here that not all opiate alkaloids belong exclusively to the opium poppy. Other varieties of Papaveracea also produce some of the opiate alkaloids but not the primary medical opiate alkaloids.

Within Papaver Somniferum there are many sub-species. All of these species produce all of the above alkaloids but can be quite different in terms of color, size, capsule size, morphine production, leaf size and flower structure. The Laciniatum Group (aka Papaver Laciniatum) is one example of a species of Papaver Somniferum carrying another name. Yet another example would be the Paeoniflorum Group also called Papaver Paeoniflorum.

There are a number of these sub-species which have almost no morphine content, being 1% or lower, notably the Norman and Przemko varieties. Although these might have a much lower morphine content the Thebaine content of these poppies are quite a lot higher making them a target species for Thebaine collection for the purpose of producing Oxycodone and other Thebaine derivitive narcotics. Most of the species which are targeted either for ornamental use or seed production are usually high morphine producing varieties with the average content being around 10%.

More to come . . . .

Peace

Reputation Comments on this post:

good info

[drug-bot]

its funny swim just wrote the wiki for opiates, literally minutes ago. good post.