Alcohol

  • Easily made through fermentation
  • Highest rates in Europe, Russian, Australia and Canada
  • 25% unrecorded consumption (i.e. home-brewed)
  • 3.3 million deaths attributed to alcohol consumption
  • History
    • Jiahu, China (7000-5800BC) - Fermented rice, honey and hawthorn
    • Areni-1 Cave, Armenia (4100BC) - Grapes

Opium

  • Derived from the sap of a opium poppy seed head
  • (The sap acts as an antiherbivore chemical (i.e. pesticide))
  • History
    • 10000-2000BC - throughout Europe, Asia, Middle East and North Africa
    • 4200BC - archaeological sites of buried opium
      • Brittany, France
      • Southern Spain
    • Luxor, Egypt (1500BC) - Ebers papyrus described a recipe that used opium
    • "The Odyssey" by Homer (700BC) - Reference

Morphine (Derived from opium)

  • Morphine is extracted from opium (composes 8-14% of opium)
  • In 1803, German pharmacist Friedrich Serturner added morphine crystals into food, which killed unwanted rats and dogs.
    • Observed that morphine evoked sleep and death
  • Morphine is an alkaloid

Laudanum (Derived from opium)

  • A Swiss-German occultist Paracelsus (1943-1541) discovered that opium dissolved better in alcohol than in water.
    • He named this solution laudanum
  • English physician Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689) made his own recipe
  • In the 1800s, laudanum was available by prescription
  • In the 1900s, laws became more restrictive, regulating the production and sale of addictive compounds

Codeine (Derived from opium)

  • Composes 1-3% of opium
  • In 1821, a French chemist Pierre Robiquet performed the process of O-methylation (substitution of an atom by a metal group) to isolate codeine from opium
  • Many uses
    • Analgesic (Pain relief)
    • Antitussive (Coughing)
    • Antidiarrheal
    • Antihypertensive (Blood pressure)
    • Antianxiety
    • Sedative
    • Suppress premature labour contractions
    • Suppress myocardial infarction (heart attack)
  • Has addictive potential, but is less potent than morpheine or heroin

Heroin (Derived from opium)

  • aka diacetylmorphine
  • 1874 - English chemist Charles Wright synthesised heroin by accidentally boiling morphine with acetic acid for several hours.
    • This process of acetylation introduces an acetyl group into the compound
  • The modern technique to create heroin is harder
  • 1898 - German chemist Felix Hoffmann discovered aspirin by subjecting salicylic acid to the same process
    • The company he worked at (Bayer) marketed heroin as an effective sedative for coughs, but without the addictive potential
    • 1913 - Bayer ceased production as a result of the increased legislative laws