Azaprocin is a drug which is an

opioid Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid us ...

analgesic An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic (American English), analgaesic (British English), pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used to achieve relief from pain (that is, analgesia or pain management). It ...

with approximately ten times the potency of

morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...

, and a fast onset and short duration of action. It was discovered in 1963, but has never been marketed. The derivative substituted on the phenyl ring with a p-nitro group is more potent than the parent compound, around 25x the potency of morphine. The ring-opened 2,6-dimethylpiperazine analogues are also active, and a large family of opioid analgesic compounds derived from this parent structure have been developed over the last 40 years. One analogue,

AP-237 Bucinnazine (AP-237, 1-butyryl-4-cinnamylpiperazine) is an opioid analgesic drug that was widely used in China to treat pain in cancer patients as of 1986. It is one of the most potent compounds among a series of piperazine-amides first synthesiz ...

, has been used in China to treat the pain caused by cancer.

References

{{Opioidergics Synthetic opioids Propionamides Alkene derivatives Piperazines Mu-opioid receptor agonists