Pharm. Chem. [f. as prec., in reference to the fact that Egypt is a chief source of the opium of commerce.] Of or derived from opium; thebaic extract, tincture, laudanum.
1746. H. Pemberton, Dispensatory, 153. Opium strained, otherwise called the Thebaic Extract.
1783. W. Keir, in Med. Commun., I. 129. An eighth part of thebaic tincture.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XIV. Pharmacy, § 558. Thebaic powder. Ibid., § 604. Thebaic electuary.
So Thebaïcine, Chem., a yellow amorphous alkaloid, described by Hesse 1870, formed by boiling thebaïne with concentrated hydrochloric acid; Thebaïne [-INE5], a highly poisonous alkaloid, C19H21NO3, obtained in colorless leaflets or prisms from opium; formerly also called paramorphine and THEBAIA; also attrib. Thebaïsm, Path., the toxic action of thebaïne; Thebenine, Chem., an amorphous crystalline alkaloid, isomeric with thebaïne, from which it is formed by boiling with hydrochloric acid.
1875. Watts, Dict. Chem., VII. 1152. *Thebaïcine.
1894. Muir & Morley, Watts’ Dict. Chem., IV. 681. Boiling [in] dilute H2SO converts it [Thebaïne] into thebenine and thebaïcine.
1835. R. D. & T. Thomson’s Rec. Gen. Sc., II. 381. Ammonia is next poured into the purified liquid, by which means, Morphine and *Thebaine are precipitated.
1868. Watts, Dict. Chem., V. 759. Thebaine-salts do not crystallise from aqueous solution.
1871. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., 429. It appears that thebaine is the most powerful of the alkaloids.
1875. Watts, Dict. Chem., VII. 1153. *Thebenine.
