Dawks said:

>And what exactly do they do when they 'synthesize' morphine into heroin? not really looking for a big tek, just the gist.

Basically they first separate the morphine from the plant material/fats from the opium latex. Then they react this together with acetic anhydride and sodium bicarbonate. There's more to but that's the gist.

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In the acetylation of morphine to yield heroin (diacetylmorphine) the phenolic OH group on the 3-carbon is the first to react to give, as an intermediate, 3-O-monoacetylmorphine, which is further acetylated to heroin. Similarly, when heroin is deacetylated, either by hydrolysis or enzymatically, the more reactive 3-acetyl group tends to be removed first to yield 6-O-monoacetylmorphine as the predominant intermediate, although low levels of 3-O-monoacetylmorphine may also be formed under these conditions (Fig. 3

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idk about the potency thingy, could be just a body/brain chemistry thing

oh, from BL:

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The difference simply lies in heroin's advantageous lipid solubility. It is 3 times as effective in this area. The advantage allows it to cross the BBB 3 times as fast, thus saqting the relevant, in this case Mu, receptors that much faster.

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Quote:

Think of heroin not so much as a different drug than morphine but as 2 acetyl groups which act as a vehicle for the faster and more efficient transmission of morphine across the blood-brain barrier. Non-parenteral administration of morphine and diamorphine produces identical effects, IV heroin produces a bigger rush because it crosses the BBB faster.

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akira_akuma said:

chemistry is kewl.

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Indeed. Wish I had paid more attention to chemistry in school