Browsing by Author "Bajpai, Suphla"

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Alkaloid profiles of the Indian land races of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum L
(Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002) Prajapati, Seema; Bajpai, Suphla; Singh, Digvijay; Luthra, Rajesh; Gupta, Madan M.; Kumar, Sushil
The capsule husks of a set of 115 Indian land races of opium poppy Papaver somniferum L. obtained over two cropping seasons were screened for the percent contents of papaverine, reticuline, narcotine, thebaine, codeinone, codeine, morphine and oripavine. Among the accessions screened 36, 7 and 1 did not accumulate papaverine, papaverine and narcotine and codeine and morphine, respectively. The alkaloid profiles and correlations between alkaloids in all the four classes of accessions showed that in the Indian genetic resources of P. somniferum (a) morphine is synthesized from codeine rather than oripavine, (b) net alkaloid contents are low under narcotine deficiency, and (c) accumulation of morphine and codeine was limited upstream of codeinone and morphinone. The accessions identified to be harboring genetic blocks in the phenenthrine and benzylisoquinoline biosynthetic pathways will be useful for understanding the genetic control of secondary metabolism in opium poppy.
The floral androcarpel organ (ACO) mutation permits high alkaloid yields in opium poppy Papaver somniferum
(Indian Academy of Sciences, 2001) Prajapati, Seema; Bajpai, Suphla; Gupta, MM; Kumar, Sushil
Isolation of a recessive aco (androcarpel organ) mutation in opium poppy Papaver somniferum, is described. The aco (aco aco) mutant plants form androcarpels in place of inner whorl stamens in their flowers. The abnormal flowers are self-fertile, as stamens in the outer whorl are normal. In aco mutant the calyx, corolla and syncarpous gynoecium are formed like in the wild type ACO plants. The androcarpel walls of aco plants synthesize and accumulate alkaloids like the main carpel walls. The aco mutation provides a means for improving carpel wall husk mass and thereby the yield of alkaloids
Inter-relationships between morphine and codeine in the Indian genetic resources of opium poppy Papaver Somniferum
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2002) Bajpai, Suphla; Gupta, Ajay Prakash; Gupta, MM; Kumar, Sushil
A set of 208 Indian and two Thai germplasm accessions of opium poppy Papaver somniferum were assessed for variation in 17 morphological characters, seed yield and content and yield of morphine from capsules and peduncles. The germplasm was found to be highly variable for all the characters evaluated. In the harvested peduncles and capsules, 13% was peduncle straw, 61% seeds and the rest capsule husk. The peduncle and capsule straw yields ranged between 0.6–2.2 and 1.4–5.3 g plant-1, respectively. Morphine content in the peduncle varied between about 0.001–0.24% and that in the capsule from 0.02 to 1.05%. On average basis morphine content in the capsule husk was more than 9-fold higher than the peduncle straw. The plant morphine yields from peduncles and capsules ranged between 1.2 and 28.6 mg plant-1. Four accessions yielded more than 20 mg of morphine plant-1. Among these, in one of the accessions about 13% of the morphine was contributed by the peduncle. The plants of high morphine yielding accessions were generally small in height, and bore white flowers and large sized ungrooved capsules with a small number of seeds, on a large peduncle.