Morphine Research Paper

Words: 1263
Pages: 6

Katherine Romero
Adrian Valadez
Aguirre
History
Period: 5
6/2/15
Morphine Morphine is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful painkiller used in the world. It's been used since the civil war and is still in use today. How can a painkiller still stand the test of time? Well that’s what we want to show you. Morphine is an opium based drug meaning it is made from opium poppy plants. The use of opium poppy plants has been known for centuries and was known for its health purposes but unfortunately has been tainted by a past of narcotic addiction. According to news-medical.net the knowledge of how addicting this plant is dated as far back 1839 when the then emperor of china had took notice of the addiction that spread throughout
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It’s a very strange statement to be true but it is. So why is it so addictive? Well from the source drug.com, the sap of the plant is actually the substance that is used for teas and smoking. This sap contains several alkaloids like morphine, codeine, thebaine and papaverine. These alkaloids can serve a medical purpose but how can it work? Well one individual asked himself the same question. Around 1805 to 1816 a pharmacist assistant named Friedrich Wilhelm Serturner was actually able to isolate the crystalline compound. The article from drug.com goes on by saying that he was able to use the isolated crystalline from the opium to make a form of painkiller. He tested it on several dogs but all died due to the large dosage. He tried a smaller amount of himself and a few little boys and they saw that it actually lowered their pain and gave them a feel of …show more content…
Morphine was already on its way as a life saver and it continued to prove it during WW1. The medication was still administered the same way but the rate of addiction continued to rise. by the end of the way over 400,000 soldiers suffered from morphine addiction. These addictions lasted long after the war was over and was very debilitating for the soldiers who had it. The need for morphine also grew due to the changing times in war. Weaponry caused a lot more damage to the body now more than ever so its no surprise that the amounts of morphine issued grew more and more since the civil war. According to The National Library of Medicine due to the high amount of wounded in world war there was a greater need for surgical equipment and painkillers. About 10 times more morphine was issued to the countries at war compared to its use in the civil