Meconic acid, also known as acidum meconicum and poppy acid, is a chemical substance

Chemical substance

In chemistry, a chemical substance is a form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. It cannot be separated into components by physical separation methods, i.e. without breaking chemical bonds. They can be solids, liquids or gases.Chemical substances are...

 found in certain plants of the Papaveraceae

Papaveraceae

Papaveraceae, informally known as the poppy family, are an economically important family of 44 genera and approximately 770 species of flowering plants in the order Ranunculales. The family is cosmopolitan, occurring in temperate and subtropical climates, but almost unknown in the tropics...

 family (poppy) such as Papaver somniferum (opium poppy) and Papaver bracteatum

Papaver bracteatum

Papaver bracteatum, also known as the Iranian poppy, is a sturdy perennial poppy with large deep red flowers up to 8 inches across on stiff stalks up to 4 feet high with a prominent black spot near the base of the petals...

. Meconic acid constitutes about 5% of opium

Opium

Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...

 and can be used as an analytical marker for the presence of opium. Meconic acid has erroneously been described as a mild narcotic

Narcotic

The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...

, but it has little or no physiological activity, and is not used medicinally. Meconic acid forms salts with alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

s and metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

s. These salts as well as meconic acid ester

Ester

Esters are chemical compounds derived by reacting an oxoacid with a hydroxyl compound such as an alcohol or phenol. Esters are usually derived from an inorganic acid or organic acid in which at least one -OH group is replaced by an -O-alkyl group, and most commonly from carboxylic acids and...

s are called meconates. Meconic acid was first isolated by Friedrich Sertürner

Friedrich Sertürner

Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner was a German pharmacist, who discovered morphine in 1804.-Biography:He was born on 19 June 1783 in Neuhaus ....

 in 1805.

Chemistry

Meconic acid is a dicarboxylic acid

Dicarboxylic acid

Dicarboxylic acids are organic compounds that contain two carboxylic acid functional groups. In molecular formulae for dicarboxylic acids, these groups are often written as HOOC-R-COOH, where R may be an alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, or aryl group...

. Its structure contains two carboxylic acid

Carboxylic acid

Carboxylic acids are organic acids characterized by the presence of at least one carboxyl group. The general formula of a carboxylic acid is R-COOH, where R is some monovalent functional group...

 groups

Functional group

In organic chemistry, functional groups are specific groups of atoms within molecules that are responsible for the characteristic chemical reactions of those molecules. The same functional group will undergo the same or similar chemical reaction regardless of the size of the molecule it is a part of...

 (-COOH) and one keto group (=O) attached to a pyran

Pyran

In chemistry, a pyran, or oxine, is a six-membered heterocyclic, non-aromatic ring, consisting of five carbon atoms and one oxygen atom and containing two double bonds. The molecular formula is C5H6O. There are two isomers of pyran that differ by the location of the double bonds...

 ring. Meconic acid gives a red color with ferric chloride. Meconic acid is colorless and is only slightly soluble in water but readily soluble in alcohol.