The present paper describes the methodological optimization and validation of a capillary zone electrophoresis method for the rapid determination of heroin, secondary products and additives present in clandestine heroin samples, by using 20 mM beta-cyclodextrins in phosphate buffer, pH 3.23. Applied potential was 15 kV and separation temperature was 24 degrees C; detection was by UV absorption ...

Background and objectives: More than 40 different alkaloids have been obtained from opium the most important of which are morphine, codeine, papaverine, noscapine and tabaine. Opioid alkaloids produce analgesia by affecting areas of the brain that have peptides with pharmacological pseudo-opioid properties. These alkaloids show important effects on some intracellular peptides l...

Sir, In Asia, Illicit opium and cannabis are produced mainly in Afghanistan, which makes major social and health problems for some countries, particularly Iran as the neighborhood. [1] In Iran, opium and hashish have been used for near 300 years, [2] but other drugs such as heroin, buprenorphine, cocaine, tramadol, and ecstasy are new drugs of abuse in this country. [3-6] Abuses of the new drug...

Cough is a natural reflex expulsive defense mechanism of the body, for clearing excess secretions, mucous, inhaled irritants, toxins or foreign substance in the respiratory tract. It is the most common symptom of respiratory disease. When cough becomes serious, opioids are effective, but they have side effects like sedation, constipation, some addiction liability and also compromise the respira...

Wounding is required to be made in the walls of the green seed pod of Opium poppy prior exudation of latex. To withstand this kind of trauma plants regulate expression of some metabolites through an induced transcript level. 167 unique wound-inducible ESTs were identified by a repetitive round of cDNA subtraction after 5 hours of wounding in Papaver somniferum seedlings. Further repetitive reve...

Papaver species are known to produce a large variety of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, with each species exhibiting a specific alkaloid profile, but only a few genes involved in the biosynthesis or regulation of these complex pathways are known so far. Here we used a genomic approach to discover genes responsible for the determination of a specific alkaloid profile. A stem expressed sequence tag...

In the racemic title compound, C(22)H(23)NO(7), the dihedral angle between the fused ring systems is 51.87 (6)°. Two of the meth-oxy groups are disordered over two orientations in 0.688 (5):0.312 (5) and 0.672 (15):0.328 (15) ratios. In the crystal, weak C-H⋯O inter-actions link the mol-ecules.

-Plant cell cultures rather than differentiated plants are the preferred material for studying secondary product formation and elucidate the enzyme pathways responsible for isoquinoline alkaloid formation. Using callus and cell suspension cultures of different BwberiJ species, we studied the incorporation ofearly precursors like tyrosine, dopa, tyramine, and dopamine into jatrorrhizine. Besides...

Isoquinoline alkaloids are a large class of compounds derived from the amino acid L-tyrosine containing many physiologically active members. Among the isoquinoline alkaloids, morphine is one of the pharmaceutically important members that is still derived from the plant that produces it, the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. P. somniferum produces over 80 alkaloids derived from L-tyrosine. We have...