Opium – Source, diagnostic characters, constituents, tests and uses

Opium

Source, diagnostic characters,
constituents, tests and uses

Objectives

At the
end of this lecture, student will be able to

Discuss
the source, diagnostic characters, constituents, tests and uses of
Opium

Opium

Source

• Dried latex from the unripe capsules of opium
poppy, Papaver somniferum

Family

• Papaveraceae

Geographical source

• Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Persia and India

• In India – Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and
Rajasthan

Plant description:

Narcotics and Pshycotropic substances act, 1985

• Genus Papaver – 50 species

• 6 species are found in India (P. somniferum, P.nudicaule,
P. rhoeas,  P. orientale, P. argemone, P.
dubium
)

P. somniferum Var. glabrum (bluish
white)

P. somniferum Var. album (purple) – cultivated
in India

P. somniferum Var. nigrum (violet)

Macroscopy

• Odour – strong, characteristic

• Taste – bitter

Natural opium:

• Round, conical, irregular, flattnened, 50 g to kilograms,
may or may not be covered with poppy leaves

Manipulated opium:

• Natural opium is mixed, milled and then made up into cakes
of definite shape containing fairly uniform content of morphine

Indian opium:

• Dark brown, cubical piece of 900 gm, enclosed in tissue
paper, brittle, homogenous

Persian opium:

• Dark brown, brick shaped mass, 450 gm, brittle, granular
or nearly smooth

Natural Turkish or Europena opium:

• Brown or dark brown, Conical or rounded, 250-100 gm, hard
and brittle, covered with poppy leaves

Manipulated Turkish opium:

• Chocolate brown or dark brown, covered with broken poppy
leaves, oval with flat upper and lower surface, 2000 gm, brittle

Manipulated European opium:

• Dark brown, covered with broken leaves, elongated mass
with rounded ends, 150-500 gm, firm and brittle

Manchurian opium:

• Imported in 1947in large cakes weighing 3-5kgs, measuring
30/20/6 cm, each enclosed in white canvas cover or bag.

Chemical constituents:

• Contains 25 different alkaloids which occur in
combination with meconic acid, of which about 5 % is present and with
sulphuric acid

Type benzyl iso quinoline and phenanthrene

Morphine, codeine (methyl morphine), narcotine,
thebaine

• Narceine, papaverine and the remaining alkaloids occur in
very small quantities

• Starch, tannin, oxalic acid and fat are absent

Tests

General test- presence of Meconic acid

• Opium in water, filtrate added with ferric chloride gives
deep reddish purple colour, which persists even on addition of HCl

Morphine sprinkled on nitric acid gives orange
red colour
, codeine negative

Morphine solution with potassium ferricyanide
and ferric chloride
gives bluish green colour (codeine negative)

Papaverine solution in HCl gives lemon
yellow colour
with potassium ferricyanide solution

Uses:

• Hypnotic and sedative

• Administerd to relieve pain and to calm excitement

• As astringent in diarrhea and dysentery

• Order of narcotic action: morphine,papaverine, codeine,
narcotine, thebaine (decreasing order)

• Morphine – potent analgesic, central narcotic effect –
causes addiction, Codeine- antitussive

Summary

• Dried latex from the unripe capsules of opium poppy, Papaver
somniferum
, Type – benzyl iso quinoline and phenanthrene – Morphine,
codeine (methyl morphine), narcotine, thebaine – Hypnotic and sedative

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