In vivo formation of codeinone and morphinone from codeine. Isolation and identification from guinea pig bile.

Codeinone (CO) and morphinone (MO) were isolated and identified in the bile of guinea pigs given sc injections of codeine. Authentic CO was synthesized and characterized by the NMR and mass spectra of its 2-mercaptoethanol (ME) adduct. This material was then used as the standard to identify the CO-ME adduct in the bile of codeine-treated animals. The MO-ME adduct was also identified in the bile with authentic materials prepared earlier. The results of our investigations indicated that 10.5 and 2.7% dose of CO and MO, respectively, were produced for 6 hr after the codeine was given. The metabolites were separated by preparative HPLC on a reverse phase column packed with C18 gel using a 10 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.8/CH3CN, 1:1 (v/v) as an eluate. For the further purification of metabolites, we used another reverse phase column with the same mobile phase. A structural elucidation of the ME adduct of metabolites was then performed by fast atom bombardment mass spectroscopy and 400 MHz fourier transform-NMR spectrometric analysis, and identified as (8S)-(2-hydroxyethylthio)dihydrocodeinone and (8S)-(2-hydroxyethylthio)dihydromorphinone, respectively.