Friedrich W. Sertürner, (1783-1841). "Über das Morphium, eine neue salzfähige Grundlage, und die Mekonsäure, als Hauptbestandteile des Opiums“, in Annalen der Physik, I/25, pp 56-90, 1817. Offered in an individual issue of the Annalen, in the original wrappers, removed from a bound volume, 120, plus one plate. Very Good condition. $500
“Rational drug discovery from plants started at the beginning of the 19th century, when the German apothecary assistant Friedrich Sertürner succeeded in isolating the analgesic and sleep-inducing agent from opium which he named morphium (morphine) after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus. He published a comprehensive paper on its isolation, crystallization, crystal structure, and pharmacological properties, which he studied first in stray dogs and then in self-experiments...This triggered the examination of other medicinal herbs, and during the following decades of the 19th century, many bioactive natural products, primarily alkaloids (e.g., quinine, caffeine, nicotine, codeine, atropine, colchicine, cocaine, capsaicin) could be isolated from their natural sources”--Atanas G.Atanasova, et alia, “Discovery and resupply of pharmacologically active plant-derived natural products: A review”, Biotechnology Advances, Volume 33, Issue 8, December 2015, Pages 1582-1614.
"(Serturner's) determination now of the alkaline nature of morphine marks an important step in the beginnings of alkaloid chemistry. Its isolation is the first isolation of an alkali with a vegetable origin"--Claire Parkinson, Breakthroughs, p. 264.
Also in this volume: Chladni, "Ueber die sprungweise gehende Bewegung mancher Feuerkugeln, nebst einigen Folgerungen", pp 91-102
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