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The latex capacity of opium poppy capsules is fixed early in capsule development and is not a major determinant in morphine yield
Author(s) -
Harvest T.,
Brown P.H.,
Fist A.,
Gracie A.,
Gregory D.,
Koutoulis A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.2008.00289.x
Subject(s) - capsule , opium poppy , morphine , yield (engineering) , biology , papaver , horticulture , botany , traditional medicine , materials science , pharmacology , medicine , composite material
This study found that the latex capacity (mg latex mg −1 dry weight capsule) of opium poppy capsules is fixed early in capsule development. Latex capacity, which represents the proportion of the capsule wall allocated to laticifers (specialised cells for latex storage), had peaked in the capsule at 1 week after flowering. In contrast, the morphine content of capsules continued to increase with capsule development until commercial harvest. Morphine content was correlated with capsule mass and total latex mass, but there was no correlation between latex capacity and morphine yield. The most important morphological characteristic in terms of morphine end yield (commercial harvest stage) was capsule mass. The findings of this study demonstrate that although latex yield per plant is a highly heritable morphological characteristic, it may have limited potential for use in a breeding strategy aimed at increasing the morphine yield from capsules.