Introduction

The opium poppy may have been used for several thousand years as a medicine to control diarrhea and relieve pain. In 1803, Friedrich Sertürner reported the isolation of a pure active alkaline substance from opium, and named it morphine, after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. Today, morphine and other opioids are widely used in different clinical settings, especially as analgesics to treat moderate to severe pain.