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First Synthesis of Diamorphine
- When
- 1874
- Where
- St Mary's Hospital, London
C. R. Alder Wright synthesized diamorphine in 1874 at St Mary's Hospital, London, by boiling anhydrous morphine alkaloid with acetic anhydride.
Wright developed hundreds of new opiate compounds and was the first person to synthesize diamorphine (heroin), in 1874. He boiled anhydrous morphine alkaloid with acetic anhydride over a stove for several hours and produced a more potent, acetylated form of morphine, now called diamorphine (or diacetylmorphine), also known as heroin.
Sources
- Charles Romley Alder Wright Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29
- St Mary's Hospital, London Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-02
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.