What it is

Dermorphin is a heptapeptide from frog skin, the founding member of a family that now runs to seven natural peptides and close to thirty synthetic relatives. It is a mu-opioid agonist of extreme potency, more selective than morphine and far stronger on a molecule-for-molecule basis. Its documented human use is spinal, placed by an anaesthetist into the fluid around the cord, and it has never been a self-administered compound anywhere in its history. The related peptide family includes the deltorphins, which aim at the delta receptor instead.