The authors selected 38 thin-layer-chromatography (TLC) systems described in the available literature published over the last 10 years and evaluated those systems with respect to their suitability for detection and identification of opiates in urine, opium and heroin, as well as adulterants in heroin. A total of 14 substances: 8 opiates (morphine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, diacetylmorphine, codeine, acetylcodeine, noscapine, papaverine and thebaine) and 6 adulterants (ephedrine, quinine, methadone, caffeine, cocaine and strychnine) were used as test samples for this research. Using laboratory-coated plates and pre-coated plates, 15 and 13 TLC systems, respectively, were found to be able to detect and identify morphine and codeine in urine without interference from the remaining 12 substances. For the detection of opiates in opium samples as well as opiates and adulterants in illicit heroin samples the TLC system: chloroform-n-hexane-triethylamine (9:9:4) which was developed by the National Drug Research Centre, Penang, Malaysia, was found to be most suitable on both laboratory-coated and pre-coated plates. In addition, the following two systems, one on laboratory-coated plates--hexane-chloroform-diethylamine (50:30:7)--and the other on pre-coated plates--benzene-dioxane-ethanol-ammonia (50:40:5:5; T-7)--were also found to be among most suitable TLC systems for the analysis of opiates in opium samples. The article also presents the relative cost of each of the 38 evaluated TLC systems.
The leaves of a tropical plant, Mitragyna speciosa Korth. (Rubiaceae), have been traditionally used as a substitute for opium. By phytochemical studies on the constituents of the plant growing in Thailand as well as in Malaysia, several 9-methoxy-Corynanthe-type monoterpenoid indole alkaloids including new natural products were isolated. The structures of these new compounds were elucidated by the modern spectroscopic methods and/or chiral-total syntheses. The chiral total synthesis of (-)-mitragynine, a major component of this plant, was achieved. Potent opioid agonistic properties of mitragynine, which acts on mu- and delta-opioid subtype receptors, and of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, whose analgesic activity is more potent than that of morphine, were clarified in in vitro experiments. The essential structural features in mitragynine for revealing the analgesic activity were elucidated by pharmacological evaluation of the natural and synthetic mitragynine derivatives.
Opioids are opium-like drugs which are commonly used as analgesics to treat moderate to severe pain. Apoptosis is a type of programmed cell death to remove unnecessary or damaged cells in an organism. Recently, the ability of opioids to induce apoptosis especially in cancer cell lines hasgained the interest of many researchers. This fascinating finding hasled to more testing of different kindsof opioids against different kindsof cancer cell lines in the course to search for the potential anticancer drugs. This review provides current information about opioids and apoptosis, and more importantly the compilations of researches over the years on how opioids are related to apoptotic cells death.
1. The Malayan Medical Journal as the offcial organ of the British Medical Association Malaya branch
2. The cure of opium habit
3. Infectious jaundice
4. The Institute for Medical Research Kuala Lumpur
5.
The case of an elderly Chinese male opium addict with cauliflower ears is discussed. He had no history of contact sports that could have led to auricular trauma resulting in deformed ears. Besides cauliflower ears, he had features of chronic bronchitis. The association between opium addiction and cauliflower ears was first described way back in 1932. It was attributed to the prolonged opium induced sleep on hard surface subjecting the ears to repeated pressure and trauma. With the changing pattern of drug abuse, opium abuse related cauliflower ears will become a vanishing sign.
Opium addicts (OA) with no biliary symptoms have been shown to have dilated common bile duct (CBD). Endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP) without biliary drainage in such asymptomatic OA is hazardous. Hence it is not indicated unless there are clear clinical and laboratory evidences of biliary stasis.
The article focuses on countries and areas of South-East Asia, which are seriously affected by drug abuse and the problems associated with it. Opium has traditionally been used for treating illnesses and alleviating physical and mental stress, as well as for recreational and social purposes. The prohibition of the sale and use of opium in Burma, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand forced many habitual opium users to switch to heroin. Over the past two decades there has been an increasing trend towards drug use, often involving experimentation with more than one substance, among youth in and out of school. For example, a survey of students at teachers' colleges in northern Thailand showed that at some time in their lives 30-40 per cent of the male respondents and 3-6 per cent of the female respondents had used cannabis, and that 18-20 per cent of the males and 12-27 per cent of the females had sniffed volatile solvents. The same survey showed that 5-10 per cent of both the males and females had used stimulants and nearly 2 per cent had used heroin. During the 1970s the abuse of heroin and other opiates emerged as a serious problem of epidemic nature, predominantly affecting young people in many countries of South-East Asia. While opiates, including heroin, have been abused by inhaling and by smoking, there has recently been an increasing trend towards injecting heroin of high purity (80-90 per cent pure heroin). Heroin addiction spread first to the populations of capital cities and then to other cities and towns and even to the hill tribes, as studies in Thailand have revealed. Most recent studies have shown that heroin abuse has spread further in Asia, both socially and geographically, involving such countries as India and Sri Lanka, which had no previous experience with the problem. Studies have also shown that the abuse of manufactured psychotropic substances has been increasing and that heroin addicts resort to these substances when heroin is difficult to find. The article also briefly reviews the history of opium use in China and the history of drug abuse in Japan, particularly with regard to the problem of methamphetamine abuse, which has appeared in two epidemic-like waves. The first followed the end of the Second World War and disappeared at the end of the 1950s; the second reappeared in 1975 and since then has gradually been increasing in size.