Papaver somniferum

Opium is the dried, powdered sap of the unripe seed pod of Papaver somniferum, a poppy plant indigenous to Asia minor. Theophrastus described its medical properties in the third century BC, but the Sumerians, ca BC 4000, probably perceived its utility. Arab physicians knew of the dmg, and Arab traders carried it to the Orient where it was used as a treatment for dysentery. Paracelsus is credited with repopularizing the dmg in western Europe in the early sixteenth century by formulating opium into "laudanum", which is still in use. More than 20 different alkaloids (qv) of two different classes comprise 25% of the weight of dry opium. The benzylisoquinolines, characterized by papaverine [58-74-2] (1.0%), a smooth muscle relaxant, and noscapine [128-62-1] (6.0%), an antitussive agent, do not have any analgesic effects. The phenanthrenes, the second group, are the more common and include 10% morphine (1, = R = H), 0.5% codeine [76-57-3], C gH2 N03, (1, R = H, R = CH3), and 0.2 thebaine [115-37-7], C 2H2 N03, (2). 

In these equations, [L = specific growth rate coefficient, v = specific rate of substrate uptake, t = time, x = biomass concentration, Sj = intracellular substrate, and Cj = concentration of intracellular substrate. Several examples where these equations can be applied include nitrogen hmitations in M. citrifolia cultures and phosphate hmited growth in C. roseus, N. tahacum, a.nd Papaver. somniferum. 

OF THE ALKALOIDS OF PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM IN THE EXPERT-CRIMINAL OBJECTS... 

Opium (Papaver somniferum) Benzylfsoquinolines Phthalide isoquinolines Morphine Sub-group, Sinomenium acutum Other Papaver spp. Rhoeadine, etc.. ... 

The term opioid refers to any exogenous substance that acts as an agonist at any of several receptors. Opioid antagonists are drugs that bind to a receptor but produce no actions. The poppy plant, Papaver somniferum, from which opium is obtained, is grown in many areas of the world. Morphine constitutes 10% of opium, and codeine can be obtained direcdy from opium. Semisynthetic opioids such as heroin and oxycodone are obtained directly or indirectly from morphine. There are other distinct chemical classes of drugs with opioid actions, including the methadones. 

The opiate alkaloid, papaverine, from Papaver somniferum is an anti-spasmodic, vasodilator, and smooth muscle relaxant. Its total synthesis has been studied since Pictet and Gams early work in 1909 and has since been followed up by various industrial syntheses up till the early 1950s using important industrial commodities as vanillin, acetovanillone, veratraldehyde (methylvanillin), and homoveratric acid as starting materials (see Figure 4.50). Table 4.23 summarizes the results of the five synthetic plans for this natural product. All are convergent... 

The development of the first effective analgesic drug, opium, was almost certainly adventitious, and occurred in prehistoric times. The use of the dried exudate from slitting the immature capsule of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, as an analgesic, sedative and euphoriant, has a long folkloric history. Isolation of the principal active component morphine (1) as a pure crystalline compound represented one of the early landmarks in organic chemistry. 

The starting material for these 14-hydroxy compounds is the opium alkaloid thebaine (9). Although present in only small amounts in the alkaloid fraction from Papaver somniferum, it constitutes the major component (as much as 26% of the dried latex) from a... 

Classical examples of Asian medicinal plants are Papaver somniferum (opium, Papaveraceae), Cannabis sativa L. (cannabis, Cannabinaceae), and Myristica fragrans... 

Morphine A naturally occurring opiate, found in the dried sap or opium of Papaver somniferum. 

Opium The extract from Papaver somniferum containing morphine and codeine. 

HUANG, F.-C., KUTCHAN, T.M., Distribution of morphinan and benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloid gene transcript accumulation in Papaver somniferum, Phytochemistry, 2000,53, 555-564. 

LENZ, R., ZENK, M.H., Purification and properties of codeinone reductase (NADPH) from Papaver somniferum cell cultures and differentiated plants, Eur. J. Biochem., 1995, 233, 132-139. 

UNTERLINNER, B LENZ, R KUTCHAN, T.M., Molecular cloning and functional heterologous expression of codeinone reductase The penultimate enzyme in morphine biosynthesis in the opium poppy Papaver somniferum, Plant J., 1999,18,465-475. 

Biotransformations of morphinan alkaloids have been reported for plant, fungal, and mammalian enzymatic systems with emphasis on rather specific reactions such as the reduction of ketones, N- and O-demethylation, and perox-idative transformations. Furuya et al. used immobilized tissue culture cells of Papaver somniferum to accomplish the selective reduction of codeinone (135) to codeine (136) (207) (Scheme 30). Suspension cultures of a well-established cell line of P. somniferum were grown for one week as a source of cell mass for immobilization in calcium alginate. The cells continued to live in the alginate matrix for 6 months maintaining their biological activity. The reduction of co-... 

Morphine (10) and codeine (11), constituents of opium, are the most interesting alkaloids found in nature. Morphine is also the oldest alkaloid isolated, in 1805, by the German pharmacist Sertiimer from opium, the sun dried latex of Papaver somniferum. The structure of morphine with its so-called morphinan skeleton, once called the acrobat under the alkaloids, was finally elucidated in 1952 by the first total synthesis performed by Gates and Tschudi. Many syntheses would follow [26], but all morphine used today, whether legal or illicit, originates in the natural source P. somniferum or its extract, opium. The latex may contain up to 20% morphine. Most legal morphine is converted into the anticough medicine codeine (Table 5.1) by treatment with trimethylanilinium methoxide, whereas almost all illicit morphine is acetylated to the diacetate heroin. 

Francis PS, Adcock JL, Costin JW et al (2008) Chemiluminescence detection of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) alkaloids. J Pharm Biomed Anal 48 508-518... 

Before delving into ways the living world uses its special chemicals, we should note that these compounds touch our own lives in important ways. For millennia, humans have been borrowing natural chemicals for their own purposes, most often as drugs. Our oldest medicine is opium, which we prepare from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) today much as Mediterranean peoples did four thousand years ago. Just as we do, these early communities valued opium for its ability to kill pain and impart a sense of well-being. The principal constituent responsible for these effects is a chemical compound called morphine, which remains unsurpassed in its ability to control severe pain. In poppies, morphine s toxicity and bitterness presumably repel herbivores looking for a tasty meal. 

The opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is a blue-grey annual plant growing 30 to 150 cm in height (Robbers et al. 1996 Gruenwald et al. 

The opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Reprinted from Culbreth DMR. (1927). Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy, 7th ed. Philadelphia Lea 8i Febiger. 

Paul BD, Dreka C, Knight ES, Smith ML. (1996). Gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric detection of narcotine, papaverine, and thebaine in seeds of Papaver somniferum. Planta Med. 62(6) 544-47. 

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