What is morphine?
Morphine is a narcotic analgesic. Morphine was first isolated from opium in 1805 by a German pharmacist, Wilhelm Sert?rner. Sert?rner described it as the Principium Somniferum. He named it morphium – after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. Today morphine is isolated from opium in substantially larger quantities – over 1000 tons per year – although most commercial opium is converted into codeine by methylation. On the illicit market, opium gum is filtered into morphine base and then synthesized into heroin.
