The study of scopolamine involves aspects that are manifold and complex. In this investigation, the pathways for biological and laboratory syntheses were elucidated, in additional to the physical and chemical properties and characteristics of scopolamine. 13C-NMR and H-NMR were generated from collected data, and the isolation and uses of scopolamine were discussed.
Introduction
Scopolamine's uses have roots in ancient times and have pervaded into the present. This heterocyclic tropane alkaloid is naturally found in Solanaceas plants and can be prepared in the laboratory from various precursors. First isolated in the late nineteenth century, it has found various uses in the modern world. In humans, scopolamine is therapeutically employed in opthamallogical procedures to cause mydriosis, prolonged dialation of the iris, and is used to prevent and treat motion sickness. Because it depresses the central nervous system, it has been used as an amnesiac for birthing mothers, producing "Twlight Sleep." It does not have great chemical utility and decomposes on standing or heating; therefore it is stored in hydrated forms or as salts with HCl or HBr.
Historical Usage of Scopolamine
During the Middle Ages, drug addicts used potions derived from compounds such as the tropane alkaloids, which are found in solanaceous plants. The sensation of flying, in addition to hallucinations were attributed to the application of such ointments. These early drug addicts were often victims of witch-hunts. In addition, scopolamine was used as an anaesthetic during surgery, until physicians were accused of sorcery upon the disclosure of their patients' odd dreams.
Plant-derived tropane alkaloids were used for cosmetic reasons: until the Renaissa...
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...nonymous. NASTECH FILES NDA FOR INTRANASAL SCOPOLAMINE. 1999. Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc. press release.
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Merck had developed an antibiotic, Ivermectin that was used to treat parasites in animals. Dr. William C. Campbell, a Merck senior researcher, found evidence that the same drug might be effective against the parasitic worm that causes river blindness. After much consideration, Merck decided to research Ivermectin’s effectiveness in preventing river blindness. That research, including human clinical trials, showed that the drug indeed was effective with no side effects. After searching for an organization that would pay for the distribution of the human version of the drug, called Mectizan, without success, Merck decided to give the drug itself, at no cost, to everyone who needed it and set up its own committee to oversee distribution. In the little more than a decade since that announcement, river blindness has been virtually eliminated as
Yang, J. (2009, August 21). Experts concerned about dangers of antibacterial products. The Globe and
Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is a neurotransmitter in the brain that has an enormous influence over many brain functions. It is synthesized, from the amino acid L-tryptophan, in brain neurons and stored in vesicles. Serotonin is found in three main areas of the body: the intestinal wall; large constricted blood vessels; and the central nervous system. The most widely studied effects have been those on the central nervous system. The functions of serotonin are numerous and appear to involve control of appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, mood, behavior (including sexual and hallucinogenic behavior), cardiovascular function, muscle contraction, endocrine regulation, and depression (1).
A Swiss chemist named Dr. Albert Hoffman first produced lysergic acid Diethylmide –or best known as LSD in 1938 (Dye, 1992, p. 2). Hoffman discovered the drug while trying to synthesize a new drug for the treatment of headaches. He obtained the lysergic acid from the parasitic fungus that grows on rye plants known as ergot. From the lysergic acid, he synthesized the compound LSD. He used the compound to test for its pain killing properties on laboratory animals. Being that appeared totally ineffective, the bottle of LSD was placed on a shelf and remained untouched for five years.
In the Vice News documentary reporter Ryan Duffy travels to Bogota,the capital of Colombia. To report on a powerful drug called Scopolamine, which is also known as "The Devil's Breath." The drug is so intense that it turns a person to your own human puppet not able to use free will, but can you still speak and do other activities as normal. In the culture of Colombia this drug was used in ancient burial rituals all the way to support during child birth. Now it is use in the modern times it is treated like the novelty superpower Rohypnol or “Roofies.”
Administration, U.S. Food and Drug. Animal and Veterinary. 02 Febuary 2014. Web. 17 Febuary 2014.
Potions under correct, good and honest use can be of great help and perhaps save many a life. Yet we must be careful and vigilant whenever we create a potion to consider every circumstance and consequence before taking action.
Drug use and abuse is as old as mankind itself. Human beings have always had a desire to eat or drink substances that make them feel relaxed, stimulated, or euphoric. Wine was used at least from the time of the early Egyptians; narcotics from 4000 B.C.; and medicinal use of marijuana has been dated to 2737 B.C. in China. But it was not until the nineteenth century that the active substances in drugs were extracted. There was a time in history when some of these newly discovered substances, such as morphine, laudanum, cocaine, were completely unregulated and prescribed freely by physicians for a wide variety of ailments.
While hallucinogenic drugs have been used for centuries, it was not until the discovery by Western society of their mind-altering properties (Hofmann 1959; Stoll 1947; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A) that these compounds began to be more widely used for treatment of mental disorders (see Abraham, Aldridge & Gogia 1996; Strassman 1995; Neill 1987; McGlothlin & Arnold 1971; Freedman 1968; Delgado, Pedro L; Moreno, Francisco A). Hallucinates are derived from plants or the fungus that grows on plants, the first recorded hallucination was a tossup between mental issues that were then used for a political push or the ergotamine during the Salem witch trails in 1962, far after that Albert Hofmann became the creator of LSD from ergotamine a chemical from the fungus ergot, in Switzerland 1938. From that time LSD has played a part in history, studies have shown that much has changed in the half-century since LSD was first used by psychiatrists and then found widespread recreational use in the 1960's and 70's. Modern psychiatry has embraced drugs that affect the same brain molecules that are tweaked by hallucinogens (Blakeslee,
In the ancient and medieval time, antipyretic agents were only found in willow bark and in cinchona bark [2]. Willow bark was used as a pain reliever [3]. People were advised to chew on the bark in order to relieve pain and fever [3]. Cinchona bark was used for increasing appetite, however people also used it for common cold and fever [4]. When the cinchona tree started to decrease in the 1880s, people started to look for other alternatives [2]. During the 1880s, antipyretics agents were developed, which were acetanilide and phenacetin [2]. These properties of acetaminophen were discovered by accident [2]. It occurred when the molecule acetanilide was added to a patient’s prescription [2]. By this time, this drug had been synthesized via the reduction of p-nitorphenol [2]. However the drug acetaminophen was still not used medically for another 20 years [2]. In 1893, acetaminophen was found in the urine sample of an individual who had taken phenacetin [2]. This drug was concentrated into an odorless, white, crystalline compound that was found to have a bitter taste [2]. Acetaminophen was discovered to be a metabolite of acetanilide, however the discovery was ignored at that time [2]. It was later on that acetaminophen was found to have pain and fever relieving properties
In the history of mankind, the hallucinogens have probably been the most important of the narcotics. Their fantastic effects made the...
Drugs have been around for thousands of years but their reasons for being used has changed. Drugs were originally intended for medical uses. In ancient Egypt, physicians prescribed tannic acid to treat burns. The early Chinese and Greek pharmacies included opium used as a pain- killer, while Hindus used cannabis and henbane plants as an esthetic. With the advances in technology drugs have become more helpful yet more deadly.
Neurotransmitters can also produce their effects by modulating the production of other signal-transducing molecules ("second messengers"messengers") in the post-synaptic cells (Cooper, Bloom and Roth 1996). Nine compounds -- belonging to three chemical families -- are generally believed to function as neurotransmitters somewhere in the central nervous system (CNS) or periphery. In addition, certain other body chemicals, for example adenosine, histamine, enkephalins, endorphins, and epinephrine, have neurotransmitter-like properties, and many additional true neurotransmitters may await discovery.
Pre-Columbian Mexicans used many substances, from tobacco to mind-expanding (hallucinogenic) plants, in their medicinal collections. The most fascinating of these substances are sacred mushrooms, used in religious ceremonies to induce altered states of mind, not just drunkenness.