Chapter 16

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The next noon, as Countess Isabelle Denave and Dr. Blenstein were on their way to London by carriage, heroin had already been successfully synthesized on the third floor of the Denave clothing store on Dover Street in London.

"Jason, these are..." Roman Duran, wearing a light yellow off-the-shoulder dress, frowned slightly as she looked at the two glass test tubes containing light yellow and light brownish-gray substances. The young French tailor beside her was full of anticipation.

"This is morphine," Zhu Jishi pointed to the light yellow powder, "extracted from opium, its effectiveness is several times that of opium. It was successfully isolated from opium by German pharmacist Sertürner in 1806. However, this morphine is not ordinary morphine, but rather the hydrochloride salt of morphine, which is ten times more effective than opium."

"Ten times more effective than opium!" Mrs. Duran couldn't help but exclaim. She said a bunch of French to the young man beside her, who immediately fixed his gaze on the glass test tube in Zhu Jishi's hand.

Zhu Jishi glanced at the well-mannered young man and thought, "This guy must have a pretty bad opium addiction. It seems there's still a market for heroin abuse in Europe!" But then he thought of the fact that most opium users in Britain were poor laborers, and his brows furrowed.

"Jason, what's wrong?" The mature woman Roman teased, "Are you worried about Henry's safety?"

Zhu Jishi shook his head and picked up another test tube containing a grayish-brown substance. "Wait a moment, let's look at this one. This is diacetylmorphine! This is my invention (Zhu Jishi is becoming more shameless), and it is three to five times more effective than morphine hydrochloride!" He paused, looked at Mrs. Duran, and added, "Theoretically, it can be five times more effective, but that refers to high-purity diacetylmorphine. The diacetylmorphine in this test tube is not very pure, so its effectiveness is not as strong, but it is still more potent than ordinary morphine hydrochloride."

In the future, heroin is classified into four grades based on purity: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4. Zhu Jishi couldn't produce the high-purity "No. 4" heroin at this time. The test tube in front of him contained "No. 2 heroin," which is crude diacetylmorphine. Due to the incomplete reaction between morphine hydrochloride and diacetyl, and the fact that the morphine hydrochloride Zhu Jishi first extracted was not of the highest purity, the purity of the diacetylmorphine obtained was at most 30%, with the rest being morphine and various impurities.

"But... how do you use this?" Mrs. Duran picked up a piece of the grayish-brown substance and asked Zhu Jishi, "You're not going to have Henry swallow it directly, are you?"

"You can't swallow it, and you can't take that much. Taking too much can be fatal!" Zhu Jishi waved his hands, but then he was momentarily stunned.

After all, Zhu Jishi, who was making drugs in 1842, was a good boy in the 21st century! He had never seen heroin, let alone knew how to use it—sigh, this lesson is quite profound! A 21st-century Chinese youth, born and raised under the red flag, had been in capitalist Britain for less than two months and was already engaged in the evil business of drug manufacturing! It seems that the corrupting influence of capitalism is really powerful...

After severely condemning the evil capitalist system in his heart, Zhu Jishi still couldn't figure out how to use a whole piece of diacetylmorphine. In the end, he took a small amount of morphine hydrochloride powder and mixed it with a small piece of opium paste, then handed it to the eager Mrs. Duran. Still a bit uneasy, he added, "Have Henry take small puffs, don't let him finish it all at once." He then shook his head, "Forget it, I'll watch him take it!"

"Okay, let's go downstairs and try it." Mrs. Duran took the small piece of opium paste mixed with a little morphine hydrochloride and handed it to Henry, who rushed down to the second floor and into his room. Zhu Jishi followed closely behind. The room was very clean, with bright windows, a stark contrast to Zhu Jishi's messy doghouse. It seemed that this French young man's opium addiction wasn't severe.

Henry took out a smoking pipe from a drawer and skillfully loaded it with opium, but instead of using a lamp, he lit a candle and used the flame to light the opium.

"Oh, God! This stuff is amazing! It's really a divine medicine, I'm almost in heaven, God, thank you for bringing such a miraculous drug to the world, it's truly amazing..."

After a few puffs, the young man started to babble. Although Zhu Jishi couldn't understand a word of French, seeing the young man's reaction, his slightly anxious heart finally relaxed. He knew his drug-making experiment had been successful and began to plan the next steps for setting up a pharmacy.

The most important thing, of course, was to apply for a patent.

The patent for diacetylmorphine must be secured, but there were more than just diacetylmorphine that could be patented. Through his understanding of the pharmaceutical technology of this era, Zhu Jishi knew that the most advanced pharmaceutical technology in Europe was still at the stage of extracting alkaloids from plants. For example, morphine is extracted from opium. However, the technology for further chemical processing of these alkaloids seemed to be non-existent, so alkaloids like morphine and berberine were taken orally, with poor results. Therefore, he could also apply for patents for diacetylmorphine, morphine hydrochloride, berberine hydrochloride, and other chemical compounds made from alkaloids. Compared to direct oral intake, the effectiveness of these chemically processed and purified compounds was significantly better, and they could be easily made into injectable solutions.

This was not a minor improvement. Taking berberine hydrochloride as an example, this drug, known as berberine in the future, is a broad-spectrum antibiotic with antibacterial effects against hemolytic streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Shigella and Flexner dysentery bacilli. It also enhances the phagocytic action of white blood cells and has varying degrees of inhibitory effects on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Yersinia pestis, as well as on Entamoeba histolytica.

Of course, the antibacterial effects of berberine cannot be compared to most antibiotics in the future. However, in this era where no antibiotics are available, berberine can be considered a "miracle drug"! In the future, traditional Chinese medicine for treating tuberculosis uses large doses of berberine. In the 1950s, many hospitals in mainland China even used berberine to cure tuberculosis patients—though the effects were not as good as streptomycin, it could still cure a few and extend the lives of most tuberculosis patients. Adding diacetylmorphine to a tuberculosis syrup could make some wealthy tuberculosis patients live more comfortably.

Zhu Jishi estimated that with the patents for berberine hydrochloride, morphine hydrochloride, and diacetylmorphine, and by developing "miracle" patent drugs for common diseases like tuberculosis, cholera, and colds based on these raw materials, he could make a fortune in this era.

As for penicillin and streptomycin, Zhu Jishi also planned to secretly produce some in the laboratory for backup. However, mass production was out of the question, as the chemical industry of this era was too underdeveloped to support large-scale industrial production of penicillin and streptomycin. Moreover, with the easily produced berberine, why would Zhu Jishi bother with the complex production of penicillin and streptomycin?

His goal in opening a pharmacy was not to truly benefit humanity, but to help the Chinese people recover the silver lost in the Opium War!

Zhu Jishi, who had studied basic medicine for over six years in the future, knew exactly how to make money from drugs. A highly effective miracle drug is not necessarily more profitable than a drug with very ordinary or even unnoticeable effects—because if a drug cures a patient too quickly, the business won't last. If a real cure-all were invented, most pharmaceutical companies would go bankrupt, and most doctors would be out of work!

Therefore, in this world, drugs that are effective but cannot truly cure diseases are often more profitable than miracle cures. Morphine hydrochloride, diacetylmorphine, and berberine clearly fit this condition.

The first two are only symptomatic treatments that are highly addictive, while the latter, though a broad-spectrum antibiotic, is only effective for treating diarrhea. Berberine is poorly absorbed when taken orally and only acts on the gastrointestinal tract. If injected subcutaneously, it remains in the body for a short time, requiring large doses to be effective against cholera, typhoid, diphtheria, puerperal fever, scarlet fever, dysentery, and tuberculosis. Therefore, in Zhu Jishi's plan, berberine hydrochloride would be a high-volume drug, and since he would own the patent and it would be the only effective antibiotic of this era, the price would certainly not be cheap... Ha, inventing penicillin and streptomycin to exploit the white people of this era is not impressive. If he could use berberine to swindle over a million pounds, it would be a fitting return for the years of training at a Chinese medical school!

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