HARMLESS MORPHINE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19959, 17 November 1934, Page 6

HARMLESS MORPHINE

REDUCING TOXIC PROPERTIES Taming morphine to be the perfect servant of medicine, without the dangers of drug addiction and poisoning which now accompany its use, seems within the realm of possibility, as a result of co-operative work between the Universities of Michigan and Virginia, and various Government bureaus, report Drs Charles W. Edmunds and Nathan B. Eddy, of Michigan Medical School. Ridding morphine of its habit-form-ing and toxic properties is proceeding as a complicated chemical the parts of the morphine malccule. said Dr Edmunds and Dr Eddy. Like most substances of organic origin, morphine is a very complicated unicn of carbcn, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. The morphus molecule is pictured as consisting of a nucleus of pheunnthrene, a common coal-tar derh to which are attached several “chains” and “rings,” each consisting of different atoms in varying proportions. These chains and rings and their exact attachment to the nucleus furnish the chemical explanation of why morphine acts as it does in the body. Knocking seme of these chemical hangers-on from the nucleus, or “muzzling” them with other chemical groups, produces new derivatives which affect the body differently from the original product. This part of the work has been done by University of Virginia chemists, who have produced dozens of different compbunds, many of them new to chemical literatui Next, these morphine derivatives are sent to the University of Michigan, where their action is studied on animals and compared with morphine. Most striking so far is a compound which, although only three times as toxic as morphine, possesses pain relieving qualities 10 tin and 30 to 40 times the general d pr< i t .effect. This derivative, dihydrodesoxy-morphine-D. might be given in small doses with greater general effect and less toxic danger than a large dose of pure morphine. It was made by removing one of the side chains from the phenanthrene nucleus and replacing it with hydrogen. Certain of the new compounds, which have been made and which appear most promising for medical uses, are being tried out on human patients to see whether or not they possess addicting proper- , ties.