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Although the cultivation of the opium poppy and the use of its narcotic derivatives have been an integral part of many cultures throughout history, it is only in recent years that the impact of the opium trade has aroused great interest in the United States. The opium trade involves two geographical systems. First, there is the legal trade with the opium poppy being cultivated for the products morphine and codeine which serve the world's medical needs. Second is the illegal opium trade which involves the production and export of opium for the heroin and opium markets of the world. Each system lends itself well to geographical analysis and this paper concentrates on the changing spatial patterns of the opium trade in the last two decades.

ALL OF THE ANALGESIC drugs now in widespread use fall into two types. The first is the antipyretic analgesics. Some of these agents have anti-inflammatory as well as fever-reducing and pain-relieving properties. The other type of analgesic drugs is much more potent, lacks anti-inflammatory and antipyretic actions, and has diverse other properties. This article deals with this second type, which, because its members are very diverse, can best be called simply the potent analgesics. The potent analgesics fall into three groups. The first group is composed of the natural opium alkaloids, that is, those which are removed unchanged from the dried sap of the seed boll of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. Morphine and codeine are the two members of this group. Papaverine and narcotine, along with a number of other alkaloids, are found in opium but none is analgesic or narcotic. The second group of potent analgesics is the semisynthetic opiates. By chemical treatment, a variety of changes in the structure of morphine or codeine yields a large number of drugs of varying interest and importance. The third group includes completely synthetic compounds which have a range of activity more or less similar to that of morphine. These are referred to as opioids. The number of potent analgesic drugs is large, and if all chemical names, trade names, and other synonyms are considered, the list becomes truly labyrinthine. Meperidine alone has at least 21 different names, and methadone tops this with at least 22. Only the more widely used compounds, or those which are distinctive, are described here.

A polyphenolase complex was isolated from the 1000- g organelle fraction of the latex of the opium poppy. This enzyme oxidized a variety of phenolic substrates, including p -cresol, catechol, p -coumaric acid, hydroquinone and tyrosine, but would not oxidize the opium alkaloid intermediates reticuline and salutaridinol. The activity of the enzyme complex was enhanced by techniques which involved the mechanical damage of the organelles and by solubilization of the organelle membrane with the detergent Triton X-100. The enzyme activity was inhibited by KCN and DIECA.

Wherever the opium poppy is cultivated its seed forms a valuable secondary crop. India has a bigger outturn of seed than any other country. In the years immediately preceding the war the bulk of the poppy seed produced in India was exported. The following Table gives an idea of the proportion of the total production exported for a number of years past.

1. An attempt was made to correlate the growth and development and morphine content of Yuma poppy, U.S.D.A. no. 17 (Papaver somniferum L.) grown under usual greenhouse conditions with that of plants grown under controlled temperatures and photoperiods. 2. The concentration of morphine (μg/gm dry weight) in organs of plants first grown on an 8-hour day, then on 18-hour photoperiods at 49-59 days after seed germination, and then transferred to natural daylengths in the greenhouse was greatest in the capsules, while none was detected in the seed. In plants harvested 32, 61, 98, 114, and 126 days after seed germination, the capsules collected at 98 days contained the highest concentration of morphine, while capsules collected at the last harvest contained the greatest amount of morphine (concentration x dry weight). On a whole-plant basis the greatest concentration of morphine was found in plants harvested 98 days after germination, whereas the greatest amount of morphine was found in plants collected after 9...

The well-known opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) furnishes opiates, ornamentals, poppy seed, poppy seed oil, poppycake, poppy flour, poppy straw and potherbs. Poppies also furnish analgesics, anodynes, ant food, antibiotics, anti-malarials, aphrodisiacs, baby rattles, bird food, copper indicators, cough remedies, demulcents, diaphoretics, diarrhea cures, febrifuges, fuel, fumitories, goiter treatments, hemostatics, hypnotics, imbedding media, indicators of the geographic origin of opium, molybdenum indicators, polyploidy inducers, salad vegetables, sedatives, sudorifics, tranquilizers and vesicants.

The capacity of alkaloid synthesis was examined in embryogenic callus tissues of Turkish opium poppy, Papaver somniferum L cv. office-95. Eight months old cultures grown in hormone-free MS were examined for alkaloid content. They were found to produce codeine at a level of 1.2 x 10 -2 , the baine 2.5 x 10 -3 , noscapine 2.2 x 10 -3 , morphine 1.6 x 10 -3 and papaverine 5.2 x 10 -4 % FW. Key words: Papaver somniferum , Embryogenic callus, Alkaloids DOI = 10.3329/ptcb.v16i1.1098 Plant Tissue Cult. & Biotech. 16(1): 1-4, 2006 (June)

Papaver aculeatum Thunb. is reported to have the somatic chromosome numer 2n=22. The only species of the genus possessing the same number is the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum L. Possible relation...

Norsanguinarine (I), a new alkaloid and 6-acetonyldihydrosanguinarine (II), which appears to be an artefact, have been isolated from callus tissue of opium poppy. Sanguinarine (III), dihydrosanguinarine (IV), oxysanguinarine (V), protopine (VI), cryptopine (VII), magnoflorine (VIII) and choline (IX) have also been detected.

When specifically labeled (±)-reticuline was administered to opium poppies, it was incorporated into isoboldine to an extent of about 0.08%. No incorporation of reticuline could be observed in magnoflorine. Since reticuline, isoboldine, and magnoflorine are known to exist in the opium poppy, it may be concluded that aporphines with a 1,2,9,10-substitution pattern (isoboldine type) can be biosynthesized by direct phenol coupling (ortho-para), while this may not be the case for aporphines with substituents in positions 1,2,10,11 (corytuberine type). Because of steric factors, these aporphines are more likely to be produced via a dienone intermediate (proaporphine) followed by a dienone-phenol rearrangement.

Orientaline was detected in the opium poppy by an isotope dilution method based on its biosynthesis from norlaudanosoline. Administration of labeled orientaline revealed that this alkaloid was not a precursor of isoboldine, and the experimental results provided no evidence for a pathway involving norprotosinomenine. No conclusion was possible relative to the origin of magnoflorine in the opium poppy.

Radioactively labeled norreticuline was incorporated into papaverine in Papaver somniferum to an extent of about 5% without prior demethylation to norlaudanosoline. 1,2-Dehydronorreticuline does not participate in the biosynthesis of this alkaloid. (+)-Laudanosine is derived from (+)-reticuline via (+)-laudanidine, while (+)-codamine plays only a minor role. Radiodilution studies indicated that tetrahydropapaverine and papaveroline 6,3′,4′-trimethyl ether (pacodine) occur in the opium poppy. Based on the results of a series of tracer experiments, a scheme was proposed for the biosynthesis of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in P. somniferum.

The purpose of this work is to pinpoint the influence of some growth regulators, stimulators and inhibitors (the Na salt of 2-Cl, 4-sulfonamido phenoxy -acetic acid, the Na salt of 4-Cl, 2-sulfonamido phenoxy -acetic acid and 2, 4 dichlorophenoxy – acetic acid) on the process of germination of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L., var. Botosani). The substances have a large area of action, there effects being felt both on entire plants and on certain parts and tissues, thus regulating some important metabolic process. The stimulation and inhibition of growth regulators on germination depend on utilized variant of treatment.

The thirty-five or more opium alkaloids which have been isolated to date, belong to eight major groups, as illustrated by their carbon skeletons in Fig. 1+). Each group is represented in the plant by several members having different substitution patterns and oxidation states.

Drug dependence in Iran means almost exclusively dependence on opium and its derivatives, i.e. “shireh”, a decoction from opium residues, and heroin. Morphine is relatively little used, which may be attributed at least in part to intensive campaigns against morphine addiction instituted some fifteen years ago.

Protoberberines are biosynthesized in plants from reticuline in such a way that the N -methyl group of reticuline becomes the methylene group in the 8-position. It was demonstrated in this study that coreximine, a tetrahydro-ψ-berberine, is also derived from reticuline. (±)-Reticuline-(3- 14 C) administered to intact opium poppies was incorporated into coreximine to an extent of 0.174%, and controlled degradation showed that the radioactivity was located at the C-6 position. Consequently, it could be concluded that the opium poppy is capable of converting reticuline to coreximine, and that coreximine, like scoulerine and isocorypalmine, is a normal member of the opium alkaloids. In the same way, it was shown that canadine, tetrahydropalmatine, stylopine, and berberine were not present in the plants in detectable amounts.

Turkey's decision on July 1, 1974, to set aside its Opium Pact with the United States by resuming the cultivation of the opium-poppy flower, from which illegal heroin and medicinal pain-killing opiate drugs are extracted, has provoked not only angry Congressional reaction but also critical editorial comment in this country. The political imperatives of this problem are current. The Christian Science Monitor described Turkey's act to lift the ban on the cultivation of the opium poppy as being a big disappointment and setback for the United States.1 The Wall Street Journal predicted, on August 22, 1974: "In fact, if Turkey . . .

A simple technique for the identification of the Opium Poppy is described. The principal alkaloids are extracted from the plant by boiling water and identified by thin-layer chromatography in a benzene, dioxane, ammonium hydroxide, ethanol solvent. Approximately one hour is required for the extraction and identification of the alkaloids with a sensitivity of the order of 1–5 milligrams of plant material.

Selected varieties of opium poppy were crossed in pairs to determine to what extent certain desirable agronomic characters might be combined in new genotypes. Of the six crosses made, two were studied in detail and the others observed more generally. Recombinations of the required characters occurred fairly freely in the first cross and F5 lines have been selected which produce up to twice as much morphine per acre as either parent. Suitable recombinations were rare in the second cross, but the other four yielded segregates which combined the desirable characters in varying degree.

Man and animals generally seek escape from discomfort. Man today seems more prone to do so than ever before and, as will be seen, has acquired a considerable variety of means to that end. No one knows when man learned that there were natural agents available, the poppy among them, to ease his pains; but he did acquire that knowledge, and there the history of narcotics begins. Legally and otherwise, narcotic has a broader connotation than opiate. Practically, however, the major part of the narcotics problem centers around the opiates and their synthetic substitutes, and this account of historical development will deal with these only. Chopra suggests that the food value of the seeds of the opium poppy was recognized much earlier than the somniferous property of the capsule or poppy head,' but the capsules were used in the preparation of soporific drugs and soothing beverages from time immemorial. Poppies were grown for the capsules in Asia Minor many centuries ago, and the Arabs carried the dried poppy heads to eastern countries at a very early date. Eventually, someone discovered that at one stage in the development of the poppy plant, Nature seemed to concentrate its soporific properties-that is, the ingredients responsible for them-in the plant juice which would exude from the lanced ripe poppy head. This juice, collected and dried, is crude opium. Opium became a household remedy and the mainstay of the physician in its crude form, in pills, and in various liquid preparations-laudanum, paregoric, etc.whatever the symptomatic need. It also became a medium of social exchange and self indulgence as a confection and, in modified form, for smoking. Even into the latter half of the nineteenth century, there was little recognition of and less attention paid to overindulgence in or abuse of opium. It was the panacea for all ills. When a person became tolerant to its action and dependent upon it so that abstinence symptoms developed if a dose or two were missed, more was taken for the aches and pains and other discomforts of abstinence, just as it was taken for similar symptoms from any other cause. In the first decade of the last century, just about 150 years ago, the curiosity of Sertiirner, a German pharmacist, brought about the separation and recognition of

DR. CUNNINGHAM has devoted much care and attention to the study of the fungi present in the opium blight, and the results of his labours are given in the present pamphlet. The most important fungus present, and the one really causing the blight, is a species of Peronospora, and thus belongs to the same genus as our own too well-known potato-disease fungus. As in India the Peronospora affects the opium crop very seriously, it is a matter of the highest importance to have the life-history of such a pest worked out thoroughly by a competent observer. The Peronospora arborescens, which in India attacks the opium poppy, is to be met with in this country on the red poppy (Papaver Rhaeas). Dr. Cunningham invariably found the Peronospora present in blighted leaves, and he describes fully the mycelium and the conidia of the fungus. The mycelium spreads through the intercellular spaces of the leaf, branches coming to the surface through the stomata, which ramify and produce the conidia. The conidia apparently do not produce zoospores. The sexual mode of reproduction by antheridia and oogonia was not observed, even although De Bary has already described the oogonia of this fungus. The life-history thus is imperfect, and we must urge Dr. Cunningham to persevere and not rest satisfied until he has observed the whole of the stages of this fungus. Microscopical Notes regarding the Fungi present in Opium Blight. By D. D. Cunningham, Surgeon H.M. Indian Medical Service. (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. 1875.)

Opium is obtained from the unripe seed capsules of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. It contains 25 to 30 alkaloids. Commercially, morphine, narcotine (noscapine), papaverine, thebaine, codeine, and narceine are considered the most important of these alkaloids.

To the Editor:— The medical profession has literally been "blessed with the fruits" of the unripe seed capsule of the opium poppy,Papaver somniferum, for thousands of years. It has also been plagued with the problem of patients in search of relief from severe diarrhea. The pharmacologically active constituents of opium have been found to be an effective mode of therapy in exhausting diarrheal states, ie, acute dysentery. It is not surprising, therefore, that opium and diarrhea should meet and form an intimate relationship. It is the purpose of this paper to present two cases of chronic diarrhea, which occurred during long term tincture of opium therapy, that were markedly decreased with discontinuation of the drug. Case 1.— A 34-year-old white man was seen at the UCLA Medical Center in 1968, because of a five-year history of cramping pain and watery diarrhea. In 1963 a resection of six feet of