10. Phenylpiperidine skeleton derivatives and related compounds

Opium is certainly one of the oldest known pharmacological agents. Indeed, 4,000 years before our era, the Sumerians were already using the psychological effects of the dried juice of certain poppies. Arab medicine at the end of the 1 ^er millennium recognized opium's anti-diarrheal action, but it wasn't until the development of analytical chemistry in the 19th century that the young German pharmacist's apprentice F. Sertürner succeeded in isolating a crystalline substance in 1806, which he called morphine. Today, there are over 20 alkaloids extracted from opium, including codeine. However, opium's ability to induce tolerance and dependence, particularly when administered parenterally, prompted chemists and pharmacologists to develop morphine-derived substances with analgesic and antidiarrheal properties, but without the ability to induce such...