Enhancement of Opium Alkaloids Production in Callus Culture of Papaver rhoeas Linn.

Callus culture of Papaver rhoeas Linn. established on revised tobacco medium showed presence of three opium alkaloids namely morphine, thebaine and narcotine. The colour of the tissue varied from light grey, dark grey and finally black depending on the age of the tissue. The high yielding cell lines of dark grey color were isolated and maintained as suspension culture on revised Murashige and Skoog's (1962) medium. These high yielding tissues were fed with different concentrations (12.5, 25, SO and 100 mg/100 011) of tyrosine, a known precursor of opium alkaloids in order to further increase the alkaloid content of the tissue. The dark grey tissues grown on RT liquid medium supplemented with 12. 5 mg/100 011 tyrosine yielded maximum percentage of alkaloids and therefore this concentration of tyrosine is considered as the most suitable condition for the enhancement of alkaloids in Papaver rhoeas tissue culture.