The chemistry of Husemann’s test for morphine
Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City (CDMX), Mexico.
International Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research Updates, 2023, 01(01), 025–028.
Research Article
Publication history:
Received on 23 September 2023; revised on 05 November 2023; accepted on 08 November 2023
Abstract:
In this article is cleared up what is happening in the test tube during the Husemann’s test for morphine. According to different experimental conditions, morphine in sulphuric acid is heated during half an hour, boiled, or heated at 150° during brief time, previously to the addition of an oxidant. The heating of morphine in sulphuric acid produces the transformation of morphine into apomorphine. A blue-violet to red-violet colour results on addition of chlorine water. The sensibility is one eighteenth of milligram. Reaction of chlorine with water forms a complex that reacts with the external hydroxyl group in apomorphine. An unstable organic hypochlorite gives rise to a concerted mechanism and a new hypochlorite is formed in ortho position. Enolization recovers aromatization and the electro-donor properties of the phenol group form an o-quinone via three electron-shifts.
Keywords:
Apomorphine; Chlorine water; Reaction mechanism; Reactive intermediates; Rearrangement; Redox reactions
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