Alkaloid profiles of the Indian land races of the opiumpoppy Papaver somniferum L.

The capsule husks of a set of 115 Indian land races of opium poppy Papaver somniferum L. obtained over two cropping seasons were screened for the percent contents of papaverine, reticuline, narcotine, thebaine, codeinone, codeine,morphine and oripavine. Among the accessions screened 36, 7 and 1 didnot accumulate papaverine, papaverine and narcotine and codeine and morphine, respectively. The alkaloid profiles and correlations between alkaloids in all the four classes of accessions showed thatin the Indian genetic resources of P.somniferum (a) morphine is synthesized from codeine rather than oripavine, (b) net alkaloid contents are low under narcotine deficiency, and (c)accumulation of morphine and codeine was limited upstream of codeine and morphine. The accessions identified to be harboring genetic blocks in the phenenthrine and benzylisoquinolinebiosynthetic pathways will be useful for understanding the genetic control of secondary metabolism in opium poppy.