Morphine Trivia

Morphine is the most abundant alkaloid in the dried sap of the opium poppy, and there are varieties of poppy that have up to 26% morphine in their sap, and others as low as almost none. The huge pharma company Merck first sold morphine out of a single small chemist shop in 1927 just 23 years after it was discovered by Freidrich Sertuner in 1804. Morphine is the standard by which opioids are compared against, and the term Morphine Equivalent Dosage is commonly used to talk about the potency of other narcotic drugs. The use of morphine became more widespread after the invention of the hypodermic needle in 1857 and injected morphine remains a mainstay of pain management in hospitals today. Let’s start a thread here on other morphine trivia facts. I’m a medical trivia nut. Love to hear your fascinating minutia.