Chemistry
Oxycodone's chemical name is derived from codeine. The chemical structures are very similar, differing only in that
- Oxycodone has a hydroxyl group at carbon-14 (codeine has just a hydrogen in its place), hence oxycodone;
- Oxycodone has a 7,8-dihydro feature, whereas codeine has a double bond between those two carbons; and
- Oxycodone has a carbonyl group (as in ketones) in place of the hydroxyl group of codeine, hence the "-one" suffix.
It is also similar to hydrocodone, differing only in that it has a hydroxyl group at carbon-14.
Expanded expression for the compound oxycodone in the academic literature include "dihydrohydroxycodeinone", "Eucodal", "Eukodal", "14-hydroxydihydrocodeinone", and "Nucodan". In a UNESCO convention, the translations of "oxycodone" are oxycodon (Dutch), oxycodone (French), oxicodona (Spanish), الأوكسيكودون (Arabic), 羟考酮 (Chinese), and оксикодон (Russian). The word "oxycodone" should not be confused with "oxandrolone", "oxazepam", "oxybutynin", "oxytocin", or "Roxanol".
Read more about this topic: Oxycodone
Famous quotes containing the word chemistry:
“...some sort of false logic has crept into our schools, for the people whom I have seen doing housework or cooking know nothing of botany or chemistry, and the people who know botany and chemistry do not cook or sweep. The conclusion seems to be, if one knows chemistry she must not cook or do housework.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“Science with its retorts would have put me to sleep; it was the opportunity to be ignorant that I improved. It suggested to me that there was something to be seen if one had eyes. It made a believer of me more than before. I believed that the woods were not tenantless, but choke-full of honest spirits as good as myself any day,—not an empty chamber, in which chemistry was left to work alone, but an inhabited house,—and for a few moments I enjoyed fellowship with them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)