How many chiral centers are in morphine?

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How many chiral centers are in morphine?

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Answer 1 · 2015-06-05T16:15:01

There are five chiral centres in morphine.

Explanation:

The systematic name of morphine is ( $1 S, 5 R, 13 R, 14 S, 17 R$ $1S,5R,13R,14S,17R$ )-4-methyl-12-oxa-4-azapentacyclo[ $9.6 .1 {.0}^{1, 13} {.0}^{5, 17} {.0}^{7, 18}$ $9.6.1.0^(1,13).0^(5,17).0^(7,18)$ ]octadeca-7(18),8,10,15-tetraene-10,14-diol.

Now you know why we just call it morphine!

Its structure is

www2.chemistry.msu.edu

The five atoms with the wedges and dashes are the chiral centres:

$C-5$ $"C-5"$ , the carbon joined to the epoxide
$C-6$ $"C-6"$ , the carbon attached to the $OH$ $"OH"$ group
$C-9$ $"C-9"$ , the carbon attached to $N$ $"N"$
$C-13$ $"C-13"$ , the carbon at the bridgehead of four different rings
$C-14$ $"C-14"$ , the carbon at the bridgehead of two rings

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How many chiral centers are in morphine?

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