A Stimulating Psychoactive Perspective BY RODI PREDESCU, MD, QUEST DIAGNOSTICS
NAME THAT DRUG
general anesthetic. Te efforts of Austrian ophthalmologist Karl Koller revealed the drug’s potential as a local anesthetic during eye surgery. William Halsted and collaborator Richard Hall applied Koller’s work to their own studies and found that injection of this drug to a target area of the body could induce local insensitivity to pain. Discovery of these local anesthesia procedures led to use of the drug in other medical practices and dentistry. Also in the 1800s, this month’s drug
of this drug had important origins much earlier in South America. Western South America gave rise to the nucleus of one of the largest civilizations in pre-Columbian history. During the early 1500s, these indigenous people had a very rich culture full of traditions and religious beliefs that incorporated the use of a sacred native plant. Ingesting the leaves from this medium- sized shrub would extract the crude form of our mystery drug and alleviate daily hunger pains, fatigue during laborious work hours, and help to combat severe cold temperatures. In the course of European colonization of the west, the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci first documented this leaf-chewing activity during his second expedition to America. Vespucci’s findings and the accounts of other European
A 52 datia focus
lthough this month’s mystery drug maintained a more pleasurable use in the 20th century, the crude form
travelers led to the invasion of native lands by the Spanish who took sole control over the plants. Over the next 300 years, the extractable drug from this plant became the focus of research aimed at understanding the uses and benefits of this substance. In 1860, a major advancement in
understanding this month’s mystery drug occurred when German chemist Albert Niemann isolated the active component from the leaves. Niemann named the compound and began describing characteristics that identified the drug as an anesthetic. In 1865, Niemann’s studies were further clarified by colleague Wilhelm Lossen who resolved the molecular formula (C17
H21 NO4 ) of the
drug. Richard Willstäter elucidated the structure of the drug and performed the first successful biosynthesis reaction from tropinone in 1898, which led to the commercial production of the drug as a
began to appear in tonics and beverages that were advertised to restore health and vitality. Trough self-experimentation, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud advocated the use of a curative that contained this drug for the treatment of sexual impotence and depression. Chemist Angela Mariani developed the Vin Mariani, an alcohol- based concoction revered by royalty and the wealthy. Tis tonic originally contained 6 mg of the drug per fluid ounce of wine, but later the concentration of drug was increased to 7.2 mg per ounce to compete with the potency of similar beverages in the US. Te success of the Vin Mariani influenced a Georgia pharmacist to include the drug in a wine of his creation. John Pemberton became addicted to the opium-based painkiller morphine aſter being wounded in the Batle of Columbus, GA. To combat this addiction, he created a wine-drug mix called Pemberton’s French Wine Coca that contained this month’s drug (8.46 mg per ounce), kola nut, and damiana. Once Pemberton moved his wine creation from Columbus to Atlanta to gain more consumers, he felt the impact of the temperance legislation enacted by lawmakers of Fulton County to fight against alcoholism by banning the consumption of alcohol. Fortunately, these events led to drastic changes in his recipe including replacing alcohol with soda water, the
summer 2015
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