Poppy plants

Barnett and colleagues developed a new method for determining the concentration of codeine during its extraction from poppy plants. As part of their study they determined the method s response to codeine relative to that for several potential interferents. For example, the authors found that the method s signal for 6-methoxycodeine was 6 (arbitrary units) when that for an equimolar solution of codeine was 40. 

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). 

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. 

FACCHINI, D., DELUCA, V., Phloem-specific expression of tyrosine dopa decarboxylase genes and the biosynthesis of isoquinoline alkaloids in opium poppy, Plant Cell, 1995, 7, 1811-1821. 

In the past, a number of discoveries have been made in the absence of any knowledge about the receptors or ligands. One of the earliest examples of this kind is morphine (65) which was used for many years as an analgesic agent (as a constituent of opium, extracted from the poppy plant, Papaver somniferum) without... 

Like morphine, codeine is a naturally occurring opioid found in the poppy plant. Codeine is indicated for the treatment of mild to moderate pain and for its antitussive effects. It is widely used as an opioid antitussive because at antitussive doses it has few side effects and has excellent oral bioavailability. Codeine is metabolized in part to morphine, which is believed to account for its analgesic effect It is one of the most commonly used opioids in combination with nonopioids for the relief of pain. The administration of 30 mg of codeine in combination with aspirin is equivalent in analgesic effect to the administration of 65 mg of codeine. The combination of the drugs has the advantage of reducing the... 

The details of the earliest cultivation and use of opium for its euphoric effects are highly disputed, as it certainly predates the existence of written languages. Therefore, there are no physical records that date back to the beginnings of opium s use. Another difficulty in pinpointing the earliest use of opium is that it comes from the pod of a specific type of poppy plant called Papaver somniferum. In addition... 

The opium poppy, or Papaver somniferum, is just one of more than 100 different poppy plant species that grow both in the wild and in cultivated settings around the world. While P. somniferum is one of many different poppies, it is one of only two species that produce morphine (the active ingredient in opium) and the only one actively cultivated to produce the drug. 

Although the poppy plant s active ingredients are tapped and turned into opium for export, farmers typically do not waste the rest of the plant. The seeds, which develop in the pod even after it is tapped, contain no toxic substances and are edible... 

But the question remains if OxyContin is such a great drug, why the concern It stems from the fact that OxyContin comes from the poppy plant, in the form of the alkaloid thebaine. While less powerful than raw opium, and certainly much less powerful than heroin, thebaine is still an opiate... 

Papaver somniferum—The opium poppy plant it is one of only two species that produce morphine (the active ingredient in opium) and the only one actively cultivated to produce the drug. 

Opium is the dried milky juice obtained from the unripe capsules of the poppy plant, Papaver som-niferum. The word opium comes from the Greek word for sap, or juice, a reference to the substance from the seed capsules of Papaver somniferum from which the drug is derived. 

Like morphine, codeine is extracted from natural opium, obtained from the poppy plant (Papaver somniferum). Only when it was first discovered and tested was codeine purified directly from opium (see Chapter 1). Today pharmaceutical-grade codeine is synthesized from morphine through the relatively simple chemical modification process of methylation, whereby CHj replaces a hydrogen atom on the morphine molecule. The chemical substitution reaction that takes place (H for CHj) does so at a specific location on the morphine molecule (Figure 3.1) if the substitution were to occur elsewhere on... 

Historically, plant-based natural products have been a source of useful drugs. The analgesic opiates come from the poppy plant. Digitalis for congestive heart failure was first isolated from the foxglove plant. Various antibiotics (penicillin) and anticancer agents (taxol) are derived from natural product sources. There are numerous other examples. 

Opium is the milky exudate obtained by incising the unripe seed capsule of the poppy plant Papaver somniferum and morphine is the most important alkaloid of opium. Morphine produces analgesia through action in the brain and spinal cord, that contain peptides possessing opioid like pharmacological action. These endogenous substances are known as endogenous opioid peptides (earlier known as endorphin now known as P-endorphin). 

In the drug discovery stage, suitable sources are explored. Sources of drug molecules can be natural, e.g. narcotic analgesic, morphine, from Papaver somnifemm (Poppy plant), synthetic, e.g. a popular analgesic and antipyretic, paracetamol, or semi-synthetic, e.g. semi-synthetic penicillins. 

The structure of morphine was first determined in 1925 by Sir Robert Robinson (1886— 1975) and John Masson Gulland (1898-1947). A total synthesis of morphine was achieved in 1952 at the University of Rochester by Marshall D. Gates (1915—2003) and his co-worker Gilg Tschudi. Since its first synthesis, a number of other processes have been used to synthesize morphine in the laboratory, but none of these is economically viable. Therefore morphine continues to be obtained through biosynthesis from poppy plants. 

OPIATES AND OPIATE-LIKE NEUROTRANSMITTERS The euphoric and sleep-producing effects of opiates, which are derived from the poppy plant, were well-known to ancient civilizations. Around 4000 BCE, for example, the Sumerians... 

Babylonians) carved pictures of the poppy plant into tablets inscribed with the words hul ("joy ) and gil ( plant ). In the classical literature of Virgil (ist century BCE), Somnus, the Roman god of sleep (a translation of the Greek Hypnos), was sometimes described as carrying poppies and an opium container from which he poured juice into the eyes of the sleeper. Chinese legend has the poppy plant springing up from the earth where the Buddha s eyelids had fallen after he cut them off to prevent sleep. 

Bulbs and corns are modified underground stems. They are collected when they are fully grown. Bulbs of Allium cepa and Allium sativa are used. Corm of Colchicum autumnale is the source of the drug. Dried seeds provide source of drugs such as Nux vomica and Ignatia. Lycopodium is produced from spores of the plant Lycopodium clavatum, Opium from the latex of the capsules of the poppy plant, Papaver somniferum and Carbo vegetabilis from the charcoal. Whole plants are also used for the preparation of drugs like Aconitum napellus, Calendula officinalis, Chamomilla, Phytolacca decandra (Cook, 1988). 

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