158 CHEMISTRY OF PLANT LIFE 



species of Strychnos. They are all highly poisonous. Beyond 

 the fact that when they are hydrolyzed they yield quinoline and 

 indole, their composition is unknown. 



Morphine, CirHigNOs, is the chief alkaloid of opium, which is 

 the dried juice of young pods of the poppy. Both the alcoholic 

 solution of opium (known as " laudanum ") and morphine itself 

 are extensively used in medicine as narcotics to deaden pain. 

 Morphine has an exceedingly complex structure, being a combina- 

 tion of an isoquinoline and a phenanthrene nucleus, which is 

 probably correctly represented by the following formula: 



H H 2 



HOC C CH 2 

 C C N CH 3 



HC CH 3 

 HY 



A Jin 



H 2 



Y 



L 



Codeine, Ci7Hi 8 (OCH 3 )N02, which is also found in opium, is 

 a methyl derivative of morphine. Papaverine, laudanosine, nar- 

 cotine, and narceine are four other alkaloids found in opium. 

 They each contain an isoquinoline nucleus, combined by one 

 bond to a benzene ring, with one or more methyl groups and three 

 or more methoxy (OCH 3 ) groups attached at various points 

 around the three characteristic rings. The following formula for 

 laudanosine will illustrate their structure: 



OCH 3 

 N CH 3 



I 



