Morphine - Chemistry

Chemistry

Morphine is a benzylisoquinoline alkaloid with two additional ring closures. It has:

• A rigid pentacyclic structure consisting of a benzene ring (A), two partially unsaturatedcyclohexane rings (B and C), a piperidine ring (D) and a tetrahydrofuran ring (E). Rings A, B and C are the phenanthrene ring system. This ring system has little conformational flexibility.
• Two hydroxyl functional groups: a A3-phenolic OH (pKa 9.9) and a C6-allylic OH
• An ether linkage between C4 and C5,
• Unsaturation between C7 and C8,
• A basic, 3o-amine function at position 17,
• 5 centers of chirality (C5, C6, C9, C13 and C14) with morphine exhibiting a high degree of stereoselectivity of analgesic action.

Most of the licit morphine produced is used to make codeine by methylation. It is also a precursor for many drugs including heroin (3,6-diacetylmorphine), hydromorphone (dihydromorphinone), and oxymorphone (14-hydroxydihydromorphinone). Replacement of the N-methyl group of morphine with an N-phenylethyl group results in a product that is 18 times more powerful than morphine in its opiate agonist potency. Combining this modification with the replacement of the 6-hydroxyl with a 6-methylene produces a compound some 1,443 times more potent than morphine, stronger than the Bentley compounds such as etorphine.

The structure-activity relationship of morphine has been extensively studied. As a result of the extensive study and use of this molecule, more than 200 morphine derivatives (also counting codeine and related drugs) have been developed since the last quarter of the 19th century. These drugs range from 25 percent the strength of codeine (or slightly more than 2 percent of the strength of morphine) to several hundred times the strength of morphine, to powerful opioid antagonists, including naloxone (Narcan), naltrexone (Trexan), and nalorphine (Nalline).

Morphine-derived agonist–antagonist drugs have also been developed. Elements of the morphine structure have been used to create completely synthetic drugs such as the morphinan family (levorphanol, dextromethorphan and others) and other groups that have many members with morphine-like qualities. The modification of morphine and the aforementioned synthetics has also given rise to non-narcotic drugs with other uses such as emetics, stimulants, antitussives, anticholinergics, muscle relaxants, local anaesthetics, general anaesthetics, and others.

Most semi-synthetic opioids, both of the morphine and codeine subgroups, are created by modifying one or more of the following:

• Halogenating or making other modifications at positions 1 and/or 2 on the morphine carbon skeleton.
• The methyl group that makes morphine into codeine can be removed or added back, or replaced with another functional group like ethyl and others to make codeine analogues of morphine-derived drugs and vice versa. Codeine analogues of morphine-based drugs often serve as prodrugs of the stronger drug, as in codeine and morphine, hydrocodone and hydromorphone, oxycodone and oxymorphone, nicocodeine and nicomorphine, dihydrocodeine and dihydromorphine, etc.
• Saturating, opening, or other changes to the bond between positions 7 and 8, as well as adding, removing, or modifying functional groups to these positions; saturating, reducing, eliminating, or otherwise modifying the 7-8 bond and attaching a functional group at 14 yields hydromorphinol; the oxidation of the hydroxyl group to a carbonyl and changing the 7-8 bond to single from double changes codeine into oxycodone.

• Attachment, removal or modification of functional groups to positions 3 and/or 6 (dihydrocodeine and related, hydrocodone, nicomorphine); in the case of moving the methyl functional group from position 3 to 6, codeine becomes heterocodeine, which is 72 times stronger, and therefore six times stronger than morphine
• Attachment of functional groups or other modification at position 14 (oxymorphone, oxycodone, naloxone)
• Modifications at positions 2, 4, 5 or 17, usually along with other changes to the molecule elsewhere on the morphine skeleton. Often this is done with drugs produced by catalytic reduction, hydrogenation, oxidation, or the like, producing strong derivatives of morphine and codeine.

Both morphine and its hydrated form, C₁₇H₁₉NO₃H₂O, are sparingly soluble in water. In five liters of water, only one gram of the hydrate will dissolve. For this reason, pharmaceutical companies produce sulfate and hydrochloride salts of the drug, both of which are over 300 times more water-soluble than their parent molecule. Whereas the pH of a saturated morphine hydrate solution is 8.5, the salts are acidic. Since they derive from a strong acid but weak base, they are both at about pH = 5; as a consequence, the morphine salts are mixed with small amounts of NaOH to make them suitable for injection.

A number of salts of morphine are used, with the most common in current clinical use being the hydrochloride, sulfate, tartrate, and citrate; less commonly methobromide, hydrobromide, hydroiodide, lactate, chloride, and bitartrate and the others listed below. Morphine acetate, which is another name for heroin is a Schedule I controlled substance, so it is not used clinically in the United States; it is a sanctioned medication in the United Kingdom and in Canada, its use being particularly common (nearly to the degree of the hydrochloride salt) in the United Kingdom. Morphine meconate is a major form of the alkaloid in the poppy, as is morphine pectinate, nitrate and some others. Like codeine, dihydrocodeine and other, especially older, opiates, morphine has been used as the salicylate salt by some suppliers and can be easily compounded, imparting the therapeutic advantage of both the opioid and the NSAID; multiple barbiturate salts of morphine were also used in the past, as was/is morphine valerate, the salt of the acid being the active principle of valerian. Calcium morphenate is the intermediate in various latex and poppy-straw methods of morphine production. Morphine ascorbate and other salts such as the tannate, citrate, and acetate, phosphate, valerate and others may be present in poppy tea depending on the method of preparation. Morphine valerate produced industrially was one ingredient of a medication available for both oral and parenteral administration popular many years ago in Europe and elsewhere called Trivalin (not to be confused with the current, unrelated herbal preparation of the same name), which also included the valerates of caffeine and cocaine, with a version containing codeine valerate as a fourth ingredient being distributed under the name Tetravalin.

Closely related to morphine are the opioids morphine-N-oxide (genomorphine), which is a pharmaceutical that is no longer in common use; and pseudomorphine, an alkaloid that exists in opium, form as degradation products of morphine.

The salts listed by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration for reporting purposes, in addition to a few others, are as follows: