The gathering of opium begins during the technical ripeness period of the capsules, which sets in days after mass flowering July-August. Technically-ripe capsules are elastic to the touch and have a light grey-blue waxy coating.
During this period the seed is in the stage of milky ripeness. Incisions are made first in the capsules on the main stem and later in those on lateral stems. In the USSR - unlike India - the capsules are incised horizontally, ensuring abundant exudation of milky latex. On an average three incisions are made in every technically-ripe capsule at intervals of one or two days. Capsules are incised by day, from 12 - 1 till 5 - 6 p. In cloudy, rainy weather the capsules are incised and the opium is collected on the same day, with an interval of hours.
The first incision is made towards the top of the capsules on the south side; the second somewhat lower on the north side; and the third still lower again on the south side.
The capsules are incised with a special three-bladed knife with limited depth of cut figure 1. The distance between the blades of the knife should not exceed mm. Experiments have shown that a large number of blades on the knife does not increase the exudation of milky latex or the amount of opium collected. The opium is removed from the capsules with a scraper figure 2 and placed in a jar. The outfit for incising capsules and collecting opium is shown in figure 3.
When removing the raw opium from the capsules, the collectors take care not to scrape epidermis off them as well, since that would lower the opium's commercial quality.
Outfit for incising capsules and removing raw opium : 1 knife; 2 blades and inserts; 3 jar; 4 scraper. The incising and opium-collecting period lasts 25 days in the Issyk-Kul Valley, and on a single farm days. The cultivation on each farm of three types of poppy which take different times to reach technical ripeness lengthens the lancing and harvesting period by days.
This enables a smaller number of workers to gather the whole yield of raw opium in good time and without loss. Experience has shown that with three incisions practically the whole possible yield of opium is collected, and that to expend much labour on a fourth incision, let alone a fifth, is uneconomic.
Strict control is applied during the opium harvest in poppy-growing areas and farms to ensure that the whole opium crop is maintained intact and delivered to the State processing plant. Before the harvest each collector is assigned an area of 0. Each collective or State farm worker is given a smock and an outfit knife, scraper, jar, etc. All the opium he collects he hands over to his brigadier actually on the field, for weighing.
It is placed in aluminium containers capacity 40 kg , and on the same day is sent under guard from the fields to the State processing plant. When the opium received separately from each brigade and farm arrives at the plant, it is mixed together in a dough-mixing machine into a homogeneous mass and again placed into aluminium cans and weighed.
Three average samples are prepared from small quantities taken from each can and are sent to the laboratory for analysis of the morphine content of the opium. The analysis results are used as the basis for payment to farms for the opium obtained from them not by its physical weight but per kg of its morphine content.
Differential prices for 1 kg of morphine content are fixed for different areas, depending on the conditions of production. Appearance : a doughy, homogeneous mass, light or dark grey, without foreign admixture fragments of capsule or other plant matter. The official standards also specify methods for determining the commercial quality and chemical composition of opium. Depending on the weather conditions, the level of farming techniques and other external factors, the yield of opium from 1 hectare varies substantially from one year to another and, in a single year, from one farm to another.
The yield of seed, per hectare does not on an average exceed kg, although the biological crop of seed is considerably higher. The farms harvest the capsules late and part of the seed is lost by dispersion. A major problem in opium poppy cultivation is the high expenditure of labour.
Depending on the size of the crop and the level of mechanization, between 1, and 1, man hours - two-thirds of which are spent on the incision triple and collection of opium by hand - are required per hectare of poppies. Experiments have shown that a more economic method of obtaining opium is to carry out only one incision and collection, after which all the capsules are harvested and threshed on attaining biological ripeness and, after the seed has been separated, sent to a plant for extraction of the morphine remaining in them.
The efficiency of this method is confirmed by the experiments and calculated results of the VILR. Yield of morphine with single incision as percentage of yield with multi-incisions.
The single incision and collection of opium thus gave on an average According to the results of a test with the middle-ripening variety, D, after a single incision an additional quantity of morphine amounting to 1. It is clear from this example that, if the capsules are incised once and the opium is collected, and if then they are harvested and the morphine is removed from them by extraction, one hectare of middle-ripening D opium poppy will yield the following quantities of commercial morphine:.
By production practice poppy-growing farms can sell capsules at fixed prices after the first or even after a second incision if their remaining morphine content is not less than 0. With a view to lowering the labour cost of harvesting capsules and collecting opium, the Design Office in Kirghizia is working on the construction of a special machine by which this labour-intensive process can be mechanized.
The oil poppy also belongs to the somniferum variety of the Papaver family. The commercial part of the oil poppy is the capsule with up to 30 cm of the stalk straw and the seed. The oil poppy is mainly sown in the Ukraine, in parts of the central black-soil area, and in the Central Volga Basin on non-irrigated land. The capsules of the oil poppy have much thinner skins and less developed latex vessels than those of the opium poppy.
The morphine from its capsules straw is obtained by extraction in special plants. In this work, it was found that in harvested poppy seeds, and thermally processed poppy seeds with and without a food matrix , if used in normal levels would not exceed the recommended acute reference dose.
It was also shown that the levels of all alkaloids reduce when thermally processed, in comparison with harvested, untreated seeds. Papaver somniferum L. In the 21 st century, the two main legitimate uses of the opium poppy are as a source of alkaloid compounds for the pharmaceutical industry and as a source of poppy seeds for the food industry Gumuscu et al. Of the plant family Papaveraceae common name poppy the genus Papaver has two species containing morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine also called narcotine , and papaverine Figure 1 : Papaver somniferum L.
C Garnock-Jones and Scholes, ; Yoshimatsu et al. Thebaine has been reported in Papaver orientale L. Although it is known that alkaloid compounds can be found in both Papaver somniferum L.
Table 1. The dried latex product is called opium from which morphine and other alkaloid compounds can be extracted. However, if left to fully mature, the plant will form poppy seeds within the capsule which can be mechanically harvested and collected by a sieving process Kapoor, ; Schiff, Harvesting methods have been shown to greatly affect the level of alkaloids in the final opium product Mahdavi-Damghani et al. If the opium is harvested too early in the process the product is found to be watery and if too late the opium contains significantly lower levels of alkaloids Mahdavi-Damghani et al.
It was initially thought that the seeds and any products derived from them would not contain any alkaloid compounds due to the fact that the seeds develop after the latex Duke, ; Schiff, However, in the late 's, it was noted that poppy seeds contained alkaloids found in opium Grove et al.
Meadway et al. Since then, it has become increasingly apparent that the presence of alkaloids in the food chain is a problem and can potentially lead to serious repercussions Garnock-Jones and Scholes, ; Cassella et al. In Germany in particular, where poppy seeds are used and readily incorporated into food products, measures have been taken to reduce the amount of morphine present in poppy seeds intended for the food chain.
The Report highlighted the requirement to estimate the dietary morphine exposure. From evaluation of extensive scientific literature sources, the EFSA panel concluded that it was possible for an individual to suffer effects from ingestion of poppy seed products. It is known that the ingestion of poppy seeds has caused positive opiate drug test results with positive opiate results have been found in urine, blood, and oral fluid Cassella et al.
In this study, the aim was to establish if thermal processing methods, the food matrix employed and the source of poppy seeds would affect the levels of opium alkaloids identified pre- and post-baking. The main reason for this was to establish if normal food preparation techniques, employed when using poppy seeds, would ultimately affect the opium alkaloids reaching the food chain. Ultimately this will influence drug-testing results or have a potential clinical impact on an individual.
Organic solvents acetonitrile, chloroform, isopropyl alcohol, diethyl ether, and methanol of HPLC grade were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Poole, Dorset.
Poppy seeds were purchased from a number of retail outlets in the UK with the country of origin identified where available Table 2. The mass spectrometer was operated in positive mode ionization with the specific instrument parameters shown in Table 4 Carlin et al. Table 4. Figure 2 shows the extracted ion chromatograms for each of the alkaloids being analyzed in this work, including deuterated morphine as an internal standard.
An overall run time of 12 min was employed, with all analytes of interest eluting before 10 min. Figure 2. Extracted chromatograms from a mixed injection of a morphine, b morphine-d3, c codeine, d thebaine, e papaverine, and f noscapine. A minimum of six calibration points, plus a blank, were used with the concentration range and associated linear equations and R 2 values Table 5. A calibration set was analyzed alongside every data set.
Analyte specific validation data is shown in Table 5. Table 5. Validation parameters for morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine, and noscapine.
For each solvent, extractions were carried out at a different pH's i. To avoid contamination by plastic residues from pipette tips by the solvents, glass pipettes were employed. Poppy seeds from a portion of the 1 seeds were homogenized using a spice blender and approximately mg of the seeds were weighed into glass Durham tubes four tubes for each of the solvents. For each solvent, the pH was altered to produce a solution of poppy seeds and solvent 1 mL at the specified pHs.
To each solution, deuterated internal standard morphine-d 3 was added. The tubes were then capped and placed into an ultrasonic bath for 10 min, centrifuged at 4, rpm for 10 min. Calibration solutions were prepared in the mobile phase on the day of analysis for each of the extractions. The ingredients were mixed into a batter and added to each of the dimples of mini-muffin trays purchased from Lakeland Ambleside, Cumbria. The final weight of poppy seeds in each mini-muffin was approximately 1.
They were then left to cool to room temperature. The poppy seed muffins were immersed in liquid nitrogen, crushed using a mortar and pestle and transferred to a spice blender for homogenisation prior to extraction and analysis by LC-MS.
The liquid nitrogen method was found to be easiest to apply to the muffins: this was due to the fact that the poppy seeds were incorporated into the sponge of the muffin. Trying to extract each poppy seed from the matrix proved very time consuming and was also considered that any alkaloids that may have interacted with the muffin matrix may also be included in results.
Less fatty emulsion was also formed during the extraction method, when liquid nitrogen was employed. A comparative study was carried out to establish if there was a difference between alkaloid levels resulting from poppy seeds incorporated into the matrix of the muffin to those resulting from poppy seeds coated onto a bread roll.
The dough was then split into 4 equal portions and each one was pressed into poppy seeds. The rolls were left to cool to room temperature and the poppy seeds were scraped from the surface using a metal spatula and homogenized in a spice blender prior to extraction and analysis by LC-MS. It was found that at the extremes of the polarity scale diethyl ether, dichloromethane, and water , the chromatograms produced were complex and with poor peak shape for the alkaloids; these observations were independent of pH.
In contrast, the optimum result, in terms of alkaloid presence and peak shape, was obtained using the solvent mixture i. For this reason, this extraction solvent mixture was used for all subsequent extraction's. For each source, the mean weight of each of the alkaloids in poppy seeds was calculated.
When the levels of morphine in poppy seeds from each of the different sources was compared Table 7 , it was found that there was much variation within batch but also between sources of poppy seeds.
Biology T he milky latex sap of opium poppies contains isoquinoline alkaloids. This class of alkaloid contains a double carbon ring with one nitrogen atom N. It is classified as a narcotic and is commonly found in certain members of the poppy family Papaveraceae , such as the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. Narcotic refers to the pain-relieving and sleep-inducing properties of these highly-addictive alkaloids, including morphine, codeine and thebaine.
Morphine is named after Morpheus the god of sleep, while the specific epithet of the opium poppy somniferum means "to sleep" in Latin. These potent alkaloids are obtained from the milky latex sap of the mature seed capsule of the opium poppy. The raw opium sap drips from fresh cuts into the pericarp of the capsules, and upon oxidation and solidification in the air it turns black.
Morphine is acetylated to produce diacetylmorphine--better known as heroin. The poppy seeds used on bagels and rolls also come from opium poppies, and although they don't cause any narcotic effects on hungry people after their coffee breaks, they can trigger a positive reaction in very sensitive urine tests for drugs.
Multiple factors drive opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, such as political instability, scarce employment opportunities, lack of quality education and limited access to markets. Opium poppy cultivation is not a local problem. Converted into heroin it is not only consumed in Afghanistan and surrounding countries, but also in Europe which is the main destination for heroin produced in Afghanistan.
0コメント