There are three types of opiate alkaloids. First, the poppy alkaloids: morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine and papaverine; then, the semi-synthetic and synthetic derivatives used in therapy as antitussives and analgesics, such as pholcodine, ethylmorphine and dextromethorphan; at last narcotic compounds, diacetylmorphine (heroin) and opiates employed as substitutes in treatment of addiction:...

A 35-year-old male was referred because of eczema on the arms and lips that occurred episodically. He worked in a drug-manufacturing plant, and noticed that the episodes of eczema coincided with the production cycles of thebaine (CAS no. 115-37-7) and oripavine (CAS no. 467-04-9), but not with the production cycles of morphine (CAS no. 57-27-2) and noscapine (CAS no. 128-62-1). The eczema start...

T he world’s entire supply of opioid painkillers begins with the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Every year, about 100,000 ha of the crop is grown for its opiate compounds, which are extracted and converted into analgesics such as codeine and hydrocodone. Bioengineer Christina Smolke of Stanford University thinks it’s time for a new approach. Last year, she developed yeast that turns glucose ...

Opiumpoppy (Papaver somniferum L.) is one of the important and oldest cultivated medicinal plant used to extract morphine, papaverine, thebaine, codeine and other alkaloids. This study aimed to determine general and specific combining abilities of F1 hybrids obtained from various crosses and their parental lines for developing appropriate breeding material for future breeding programs. The resu...

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) produces a diverse array of bioactive benzylisoquinoline alkaloids and has emerged as a versatile model system to study plant alkaloid metabolism. The plant is widely cultivated as the only commercial source of the narcotic analgesics morphine and codeine. Variations in plant secondary metabolism as a result of genetic diversity are often associated with perturb...