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What’s The Difference Between Morphine And Heroine?
It’s for a report at school. I know morphine is a pain killer and heroine is a drug, but the other differences I don’t know. So if you could help me out, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Comments
You should google this one, but here’s an interesting part
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin
Manufacturing
Heroin is produced for the black market through opium refinement processes. Unlike drugs such as LSD, the production of which requires considerable expertise in chemistry and access to constituents which are now tightly controlled, the refinement of the first three grades of heroin from opium is a relatively simple process requiring only moderate technical know-how and common chemicals. The final grade of heroin favored in the west is more difficult to produce and involves a potentially dangerous chemical procedure.
First morphine is isolated from the crude opium (through being dissolved in water, reacted with lime fertilizer such that it precipates out, and then reacted again with ammonia; what is left is then mechanically filtered to yield a final product of morphine weighing about 90% less than the original quantity of opium). The morphine is reacted with acetic anhydride — a chemical also used in the production of aspirin — in the complicated five-step process used by most refineries in the Golden Triangle. The first step is to cook the morphine at 85°C (185°F) for six hours with an equivalent weight of acetic anhydride. In the second, a treatment of water and hydrochloric acid then purifies the product moderately. When the chemists add sodium carbonate, the particulates settle. Step four involves the heroin being heated in a mixture of alcohol and activated charcoal until the alcohol evaporates. The fifth step is optional, as it only changes the heroin into a finer white powder, more easily injectable; this so-called “no. 4 heroin” is principally exported to the Western markets. In this last, most dangerous step, the heroin (after being dissolved in alchohol), precipates out in tiny white flakes when a mixture of ether and hydrochloric acid is injected; this step is dangerous due to the fact that ether may explode, leveling or severely damaging the refinery (as has happened to a number of such facilities).
The purity of the extracted morphine determines in large part the quality of the resulting heroin. Most black market heroin is highly impure due to contaminants left after refinement of opium into morphine which then remain in the final product; even if the final product is in the upper range of purity (80 – 99% pure), when the final product reaches the addict, it typically has been cut multiple times, and its purity is down to less than 5%.
The opioids include both natural opiates – that is, drugs from the opium poppy – and opiate-related synthetic drugs, such as meperidine and methadone.
The opiates are found in a gummy substance extracted from the seed pod of the Asian poppy, Papaver somniferum. Opium is produced from this substance, and codeine and morphine are derived from opium. Other drugs, such as heroin, are processed from morphine or codeine.
Opiates have been used both medically and non-medically for centuries. A tincture of opium called laudanum has been widely used since the 16th century as a remedy for “nerves” or to stop coughing and diarrhea.
By the early 19th century, morphine had been extracted in a pure form suitable for solution. With the introduction of the hypodermic needle in the mid-19th century, injection of the solution became the common method of administration.
Heroin (diacetylmorphine) was introduced in 1898 and was heralded as a remedy for morphine addiction. Although heroin proved to be a more potent pain killer (analgesic) and cough suppressant than morphine, it was also more likely to produce dependence.
Of the 20 alkaloids contained in opium, only codeine and morphine are still in widespread clinical use today. In this century, many synthetic drugs have been developed with essentially the same effects as the natural opium alkaloids.
Opiate-related synthetic drugs, such as meperidine (Demerol) and methadone, were first developed to provide an analgesic that would not produce drug dependence. Unfortunately, all opioids (including naturally occurring opiate derivatives and synthetic opiate-related drugs), while effective as analgesics, can also produce dependence. (Note that where a drug name is capitalized, it is a registered trade name of the manufacturer.)
Modern research has led, however, to the development of other families of drugs. The narcotic antagonists (e.g. naloxone hydrochloride) – one of these groups – are used not as painkillers but to reverse the effects of opiate overdose.
Another group of drugs possesses both morphine-like and naloxone-like properties (e.g. pentazocine, or Talwin) and are sometimes used for pain relief because they are less likely to be abused and to cause addiction. Nevertheless, abuse of pentazocine in combination with the antihistamine tripelennamine (Pyribenzamine) was widely reported in the 1980s, particularly in several large cities in the United States. This combination became known on the street as “Ts and blues.” The reformulation of Talwin, however, with the narcotic antagonist naloxone has reportedly reduced the incidence of Ts and blues use.
Morphine is a drug but a heroine is a character in a movie or book.
heroine
One entry found for heroine.
Main Entry: her·o·ine
Pronunciation: ‘her-&-w&n, ‘hir-
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin heroina, from Greek hErOinE, feminine of hErOs
1 a : a mythological or legendary woman having the qualities of a hero b : a woman admired and emulated for her achievements and qualities
2 a : the principal female character in a literary or dramatic work b : the central female figure in an event or period
Morphine is more highly processed heroin. Morphine is often given as a liquid.
Morphine is a stabilised drug available on prescription.
Heroin is an illegal drug which could be mixed with other chemicals or powders & is not a stabilised prescription drug.
Morphine is given in controlled doses, Heroin is not.
I guess there is some difference in how they both affect the body’s nervous system but I dont know specifically how or what.
I’m sure that you will find your answer on this web site though.
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