Heroin

:For a female hero, see Heroine

History

Heroin was first synthesised in 1874 by C.R.A. Wright, a British chemist working at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London. He had been experimenting with combining morphine with various acids. He boiled anhydrous morphine alkaloid with acetic anhydride over a stove for several hours and produced a more potent, acetylated form of morphine. We now call it diacetylmorphine. The compound was sent to F.M. Pierce of Owens College, Manchester, for analysis. He reported the following to Wright:

Related Topics:
Synthesised - 1874 - British - Chemist - St. Mary's Hospital - London - Manchester

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:Doses ... were subcutaneously injected into young dogs and rabbits ... with the following general results ... great prostration, fear, and sleepiness speedily following the administration, the eyes being sensitive, and pupils dilated, considerable salivation being produced in dogs, and slight tendency to vomiting in some cases, but no actual emesis. Respiration was at first quickened, but subsequently reduced, and the heart's action was diminished, and rendered irregular. Marked want of coordinating power over the muscular movements, and loss of power in the pelvis and hind limbs, together with a diminution of temperature in the rectum of about 4° http://adhpage.dilaudid.net/heroin.html

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Heinrich Dreser, of Bayer in Elberfeld, Germany, noticed that diacetylmorphine was more potent than morphine. Bayer registered Heroin (meaning 'heroic treatment' from the German word heroisch) as a trademark. From 1898 through to 1910 it was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children. As with Aspirin, Bayer lost some of its trademark rights to Heroin following World War I.

Related Topics:
Heinrich Dreser - Bayer - Elberfeld, Germany - Trademark - 1898 - 1910 - Aspirin - World War I

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In 1914 the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act made it illegal to manufacture or possess heroin in the United States.

Related Topics:
1914 - Harrison Narcotics Tax Act - United States

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