Chemistry
Dihydrocodeine is the parent drug of a series of moderately strong narcotics including hydrocodone, nicocodeine, nicodicodeine, thebaine, acetyldihydrocodeine and others.
From the point of view of the organic chemist, the removal of the double bond makes the structure much more stable. It is more resistant to metabolic attack (hence a duration of action of 6 hours rather than 4 for codeine). It is also more stable in acidic, high-temperature environments. Whereas converting codeine to morphine is a difficult and unrewarding task, dihydrocodeine can be converted to dihydromorphine with very high yields (over 95%). Dihydromorphine is widely used in Japan. The dihydromorphine can be quantitatively converted to hydromorphone using potassium tert butoxide.
Dihydrocodeine can be presumptively detected by the Froehde reagent.
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“For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world.... I would watch the buds swell in spring, the mica glint in the granite, my own hands, and I would say to myself: “I will understand this, too, I will understand everything.””
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