Pain is an unpleasant sensation that originates from ongoing or impending tissue damage. Management of different types of pain (acute, postoperative, inflammatory, neuropathic cancer) is challenging and yet the most frequent issue encountered by clinicians. Pharmacological therapy is the first line of approach for the treatment of pain and opioid drugs are prescribed for acute and chronic pain ...

Throughout history, opium has been used as a base for the opioid class of drugs used to suppress the central nervous system. Opium is a substance extracted from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.). Its consumption and medicinal application date back to antiquity. In the medieval period, Avicenna, a famous Persian scholar (980-1037 AD) described poppy under the entry Afion of his medical enc...

Papaverine, a major benzylisoquinoline alkaloid in opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), is used as a vasodilator and antispasmodic. Conversion of the initial intermediate (S)-norcoclaurine to papaverine involves 3'-hydroxylation, four O-methylations and dehydrogenation. However, our understanding of papaverine biosynthesis remains controversial more than a century after an initial scheme was propo...

INTRODUCTION The term narcotic has had wide and inconsistent usage in lay, legal and scientific circles. Some use the word to characterize any drug which produces stupor, insensibility or sleep; many apply it only to derivatives of the opium plant ( `opiates'); others consider the term equivalent to 'addiction-producing'; and in legal matters, 'narcotics' may refer to almost any allegedly dange...

The plant-endoparasitic nematode Anguina pacificae is presently one of the most destructive pests of Poa annua in Northern California, causing stem galls at the base of tillers in this annual bluegrass, resulting in yellow or brown patches and irregular surfaces on golf course putting greens. The objective of the study was to investigate the population dynamics of A. pacificae on two golf cours...

Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs) are a diverse group of biologically active specialized metabolites produced mainly in four plant families. BIA metabolism is likely of monophyletic origin and involves multiple enzymes yielding structurally diverse compounds. Several BIAs possess defensive properties against pathogenic microorganisms and herbivores. Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum: Papaverace...

California poppy (Eschscholzia californica Cham.) cell cultures produce several benzophenanthridine alkaloids, such as sanguinarine, chelirubine, and macarpine, with potent pharmacological activity. Antisense constructs of genes encoding two enzymes involved in benzophenanthridine alkaloid biosynthesis, the berberine bridge enzyme (BBE) and N-methylcoclaurine 3'-hydroxylase (CYP80B1), were intr...

Development, imaginal survivorship, adult longevity and fecundity of the predatory phytoseiid mite Euseius (Amblyseius) finlandicus Oudemans reared on seven different plant pollens were determined in the laboratory. The rationale behind these experiments was to assess the nutritional value and the possible effect on development and population dynamics of the mite. Mites were kept individually o...

This study was carried out to determine the effects of diets containing different amounts of poppy seed meal (PSM) and yeast culture (S. cerevisiae) on performance and egg quality parameters of laying hens. A total of 160 laying hens, 40 weeks old, were divided into four groups of 40 hens each, which were in turn subdivided into four subgroups of 10 hens’ experimental replicates. The animals in...

The in vitro shoot culture of a T-DNA insertional mutant of Papaver somniferum L. established by the infection of Agrobacterium rhizogenes MAFF03-01724 accumulated thebaine instead of morphine as a major opium alkaloid. To develop a non-narcotic opium poppy and to gain insight into its genetic background, we have transplanted this mutant to soil, and analyzed its alkaloid content along with the...