In ancient medicine, some plant derivatives were used to alleviate pain including: alcohol, cannabis, mandrake, and opium. Before the development of general anesthesia, surgery was only performed out of extreme necessity. It is probable that a drug such as opium would have been given following surgery although its use may not have been recorded. The first description of postoperational opium was by James Moore in 1784.
The development of Morphine is probably regarded as the biggest step forward in drug history. It was the first alkaloid drug to be extracted from poppies.Morphine was isolated from opium by Friedrich Serturner in 1805. He was a 21-year-old pharmacist’s assistant. He wondered about the medicinal properties of opium, which was widely used by 18th-century physicians.
In a series of experiments, performed in his spare time and published in 1806, Serturner managed to isolate an organic alkaloid compound from the resinous gum secreted by the opium poppy. He found that opium with the alkaloid removed had no effect on animals, but the alkaloid itself had 10 times the power of processed opium. Sertuner named that substance morphine, after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams, for its tendency to cause sleep.
In 1853, the hypodermic needle was developed and the use of morphine became more widespread. From its earliest application, it was used as a form of pain relief and that is still how it is meant to be used today. Since then, various delivery systems for morphine have been developed, these include oral suspensions, pills and more.
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