Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(d)
Smart drugs
: Substances with psychotropic effects similar to those of overt
drugs of abuse, but which overcome the legal checks and can be usually legally
sold in
smart shops
.
(e)
Eco drugs
: So called due to their natural origin.
(f)
Date rape drugs
: This class includes those substances whose consumption has
been associated with violence or sexual crimes.
(g)
Designer drugs
: The term was first adopted in California by Henderson in the
early 1980s [
7
]. This definition refers to a class of psychotropic substances
which arise from the creativity of the chemist who, starting from basic struc-
tures, produces new ones. These compounds maintain the properties and effects
of drugs banned by law but, because of their different chemical structure, are
not included in tables and evade controls.
3
Opiates
The term opiate describes the class of molecules structurally and pharmacologically
related to morphine, the main alkaloid of opium, which is a product of
Papaver
somniferum
, a plant illegally cultivated in Asia, whose effects have been recognized
since 4000 BC by the Sumers.
There are at least 25 alkaloids of opium belonging to different chemical classes:
morphine (about 10 % of opium), noscapine or narcotine (about 5 %), papaverine
(1 %), codeine (0.4 %), tebaine (0.4 %), narceine (0.2 %), but not all of these pos-
sess psychotropic effects. The illicit opiates may be natural molecules, such as mor-
phine and codeine, and semisynthetic, such as heroin. Methadone and meperidine
represent a group of totally synthetic molecules with opiate psychotropic effects.
3.1
Morphine
In 1803 Friedrich Serturner isolated morphine from opium, but the chemical struc-
ture (Fig.
1
) was identified by Gulland and Robinson in 1925 and then confirmed by
X-ray analysis in 1952 by Gates and Tschudi [
8
] . Only the
l
isomer is psychoactive,
while the
d
form is totally inactive. It has low solubility in water and high solubility
in organic solvents.
3.2
Codeine
Codeine is the methylic ether of morphine (3-methylmorphine) and can be isolated from
opium during the extraction of morphine, but is usually prepared by the methylation
of morphine. Codeine is used in medicine as an antitussive drug and furthermore it has
analgesic properties. It may cause addiction, but less than morphine.
