On and on they walked, and it seemed that the great carpet of deadly flowers thatsurrounded them would never end. Frank Baum shorturl.at/nrFJ9
This week we are going to talk about phytoactives from the #poppy, Latin name Papaver somniferum. There is evidence that humans were cultivating this plant already in stone age times, causing it to spread from the Eastern Mediterranean across Europe and Asia. The latex of poppies, dried as #opium, contains the alkaloid #morphine, apowerful painkiller, and other medicinally-useful alkaloids such as #codeineand #papaverine. The seeds of poppy are a nutritious food, rich in oils and othernutrients but with no significant amounts of psychoactive alkaloids.
Obviously, poppy plants do not need morphine for pain relief! They use it for a completely different purpose (Morimoto et al, 2001), which is as a “cement” to cross-link pectinin the plant cell walls, providing resistance to attack by phytopathogens.
As botanicaldrugs, opiates have a controversial history. As recreational drugs they areaddictive and dangerous. In the nineteenth century, European colonial powersfought “opium wars” to secure their right to sell opium in China. In moderntimes the over-prescription and abuse of opiate pain medications is considereda major health issue in western countries.
Opium-derived drugs are traditionally ingested, inhaled, smoked or injected, or applied topically in poultices, creams and oitments, Topical application has been proposed as a safer way to use opiates for pain relief (Tennant, 2011), an approach that willonly gain traction if negative perceptions about opiates can be overcome.
Sources
"Papaver somniferum", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Dec. 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Papaver_somniferum&oldid=1059847334
Morimoto, S et al. “Morphine metabolism in the opium poppy and its possible physiological function. Biochemicalcharacterization of the morphine metabolite, bismorphine.” J. Biol. Chem.276,41 (2001): 38179-84. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m107105200
Tennant, F. “Taking Advantage of the Peripheral Opioid Receptor”, Practical Pain Management, Vol 10:3 (2011) https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/treatments/pharmacological/opioids/taking-advantage-peripheral-opioid-receptor
