Title: morphine
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - morphine
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11882
Status: current

Definition
The major phenanthrene alkaloid of opium, used as an analgesic, sedative, and anxiolytic.

Notes
1) Morphine and its analogues exert their action by binding to morphine receptors in the brain and nervous tissues. The natural ligands of these receptors are peptide neurotransmitters such as endorphin.
2) While chronic consumption of morphine leads to the development of tolerance and physical dependence, the artificial morphine derivative heroin can cause severe addiction after only few doses.

Related Terms
- addiction: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11564
- anxiolytic: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11598
- brain: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11647
- endorphin: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11754
- neurotransmitters: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11955
- opium: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11976
- sedative: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/12067

Source
- PAC, 2015, 87, 841. 'IUPAC Glossary of terms used in neurotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2015)' on page 882 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0103)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11882/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11882/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11882/xml

Citation: Citation: 'morphine' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11882
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-04-17T23:54:33+00:00