A natural opioid pain medication derived from opium poppies, used to treat mild to moderate pain and suppress cough. It's converted to morphine in the body to produce its pain-relieving effects.
From Greek 'kodeia' meaning poppy head, referring to the seed pod of the opium poppy from which it's extracted. First isolated from opium in 1832 by French chemist Pierre Robiquet.
Codeine is a perfect example of personalized medicine in action - some people are 'ultra-rapid metabolizers' who convert codeine to morphine so quickly it can be dangerous, while others are 'poor metabolizers' who get almost no pain relief because they can't convert it effectively. This genetic variation is why the same dose can be useless for one person and potentially toxic for another!
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