Poppy Papaver somniferum

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. 

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. 

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. 

Apomorphine hydrochloride (44 Apokyn Bertek, 2004), is a semisynthetic derivative of opium alkaloid morphine (43) isolated from poppy (Papaver somniferum), and it has long been known for its erectile activity at the effective dose of 2-6 mg physicians discovered the effect over 100 years ago, but found the drug, at a much higher dose (ca. 200 mg), to be more suitable for poison victims as an emetic because it also causes serious nausea and vomiting. Apomorphine exerts its erectile effect at the central nervous system the drug has been found to be a non-selective dopamine agonist which activates both Di-like and D2-like... 

Morphine is the major alkaloid in opium, the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. About 25% of the mass of opium is composed of alkaloids, with morphine constituting about 12-15%. Morphine is a powerful analgesic, and remains one of the most valuable for relief of severe pain. However, most of the morphine extracted from opium is processed further to give a range of semi-synthetic drugs, with enhanced or improved properties. A means of extracting morphine from the other alkaloids in opium is thus desirable. 

Opium is a cmde exudate obtained from the opium poppy Papaver somniferum, and it provides several medicinally useful alkaloids. One of these is codeine, which is widely used as a moderate analgesic. Opium contains only relatively small amounts of codeine (1-2%), however, and most of the codeine for dmg use is obtained by semi-synthesis from morphine, which is the major component (12-20%) in opium. Conversion of morphine into... 

Grothe, T., Lenz, R. and Kutchan, T. M. 2001. Molecular characterization of the salu-taridinol 7-0-acetyltransferase involved in morphine biosynthesis in opium poppy Papaver somniferum. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 276(33) 30717-30 723. 

Morphine and cocaine Morphine is medically the most important alkaloid present in opium. Opium itself consists of the dried milky exudate extracted from unripe capsules of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), which is grown mainly in Asia, but also in some parts of India and China. Morphine is a powerful analgesic and has been used to treat severe pain. However, its addictive properties complicate its long-term medical use and it is also a drug of abuse. In addition to morphine, opium also contains codeine, which has similar, but weaker, actions. 

For centuries opium was used for both medicinal and recreational purposes. Derived from the poppy Papaver somniferum, it contains numerous opiates, the primary one of which is morphine. The term opiate has largely been replaced by opioid, which represents all compounds with morphinelike activity and includes morphine, morphine derivatives, and peptides. Opiate is used to refer to morphinelike drugs derived from the plant and structurally similar analogues. These drugs are frequently referred to as narcotics, a Greek term for stupor, which is scientifically obsolete. Even in its early history, opium presented a problem when it was smoked or taken orally. The introduction of the hypodermic needle and syringe, however, drastically enhanced the euphoric properties of opioids and thereby altered their abuse liability. In addition, the synthesis of heroin resulted in an opioid that was more potent than morphine and ideally suited for intravenous administration. 

The word opium comes from the Greek opos (juice) or opion (poppy juice). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, opium is a reddish-brown, strongiy scented addictive drug prepared from the thickened dried iatex of the unripe cap-suies of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, used illicitly as a narcotic, and occasionally medicinally as a sedative and analgesic. ... 

Relief from pain has been an age-old aspiration of humankind. Natural substances— opium alkaloids from the latex of the poppy (Papaver somniferum, the sleep-bringing... 

The opium is obtained from the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. It contains two type of alkaloids e.g. phenanthrene derivatives (morphine, codeine thebaine) and benzyl isoquinoline derivatives (papaverine and noscapine). 

FIGURE 47.1 The oriental poppy (Papaver somniferum) from which opium is derived. The unripe pod from which opium juice is obtained is shown together with the flowering plant. 

Opium is obtained from the dried juice from the seed capsule of the oriental poppy, Papaver somniferum. The dried juice contains up to 17% morphine and 4% codeine by weight, as well as other, non-additive alkaloids that lack analgesic activity such as noscapine, papaverine, and thebaine. Papaveretum is a standardized preparation of opium containing 50% morphine. 

Unfortunately, to feel pain is an essential condition for survival. Pain-initiated avoidance behavior protects the individual. Morphine, obtained from opium, from the juice of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), has been known for millennia to alleviate pain. As mentioned in Chapter 5, endogenous opioids have also been identified. The word opioid is now used to refer to all drugs with morphine-like actions. The structure of morphine is shown in Figure 11.11. Diacetylmorphine (heroin) is made by acetylation at the 3 and 6 positions. 

Poppy Papaver somniferum L. Seed The Netherlands, Poland,... 

Isolation of the alkaloids from the latex of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, led to the identification of over 20 compounds (Fig. 11.1). The most abundant alkaloids were morphine (1), codeine (2), thebaine (3), noscapine (4), and papaverine (5). 

We switch to a completely different kind of alkaloid made from a different kind of amino acid. The benzyl isoquinoline alkaloids have a benzyl group attached to position 2 of an isoquinoline ring. Usually the alkaloids are oxygenated on the benzene ring and many are found in opium poppies (Papaver somniferum). For all these reasons papaverine is an ideal example. 

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