Comparison of Morphinan Alkaloids During Different Stages of Growth in the Medicinal Plant Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum L.)

Background: Opium poppy contains important pharmaceutical alkaloids such as Morphine, Codeine, Thebaine, Noscapine, Papaverine and Sanguinarine which are of a high economic value in pharmaceutical industries. Since production volume of secondary metabolites is very low, many strategies have been so far adopted for commercialization of its production. Objective: this research has been carried out to investigate accumulation process of morphinan alkaloids in opium poppy plant during different stages of growth. Methods: Opium poppy plant was cultured in greenhouse condition and during three stages of seed, development and flowering, samples have been taken from root and aerial organs’ tissues and after extraction of alkaloid from each specimen separately, amount of Morphine, Codeine and Thebaine using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was measured. Results: results indicated that amount of these alkaloids differs in various parts of plant during different stages of growth. Highest content of Morphine, Codeine and Thebaine was observed in aerial organs and at flowering stage of this plant. Morphine was the dominant alkaloid in all parts of plant. Conclusion: after study of the results, it was found that the plant’s growth stage has a crucial role in the under study alkaloids concentration amount, so as the amount of all the three alkaloids, Morphine, Codeine, and Thebaine after flowering stage, both in the roots and aerial organs, is by far more than their amount at growth and seeds stages. Since the largest amount of morphine was observed in flowering stage, it seems that application of new techniques such as metabolic engineering will yield better results at this stage.