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Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: Lachryma papaveris) is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. [4] Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medicinal use and for the illegal drug trade.
Alkaloids that have no effect on the central nervous system were not always considered to be opiates, but current trend is to refer to all alkaloids derived from opium or poppy straw as such. Very small quantities of hydrocodone and hydromorphone are detected in assays of opium on rare occasions; it appears to be produced by the plant under ...
The main effects of paregoric are to increase the muscular tone of the intestine, to inhibit normal peristalsis, and as an expectorant; a peer-reviewed clinical study in 1944 reported "that all of [its] ingredients have been found to contribute toward the expectorant action of paregoric, and, further, that an advantage is contained in the ...
Morphine and heroin also produced higher rates of euphoria and other positive subjective effects when compared to these other opioids. [47] The choice of heroin and morphine over other opioids by former drug addicts may also be because heroin is an ester of morphine and morphine prodrug, essentially meaning they are identical drugs in vivo.
Psychoactive substances often bring about subjective changes in consciousness and mood (although these may be objectively observed) that the user may find rewarding and pleasant (e.g., euphoria or a sense of relaxation) or advantageous in an objectively observable or measurable way (e.g. increased alertness), thus the effects are reinforcing to ...
Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine). [1] Laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) in alcohol ().
Many of the alkaloids and other derivatives of the opium poppy are not opioids or narcotics; the best example is the smooth-muscle relaxant papaverine. Noscapine is a marginal case as it does have CNS effects but not necessarily similar to morphine, and it is probably in a category all its own.
Opium: This "drug derived from the unripe seed-pods of the opium poppy…produces drowsiness and euphoria and reduces pain. Morphine and codeine are opium derivatives." [100] Opioids have led to many deaths in the United States, particularly by causing respiratory depression.