Opium Poppy: Genetic Upgradation Through Intervention of Plant Breeding Techniques

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Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) has its importance as a plant based natural pain re‐ liever from the time dating back to early civilization till today. Its pain relieving properties had been described in various books of unani, allopathy and ayurvedic medication system. Today our pharmaceutical industries solely depend on opium poppy for their crude resour‐ ces for manufacturing of pain killing drugs. The medical practitioners around the world routinely prescribe important life saving drugs, are the secondary metabolites produced as a result of complex plant metabolism. The important life saving drugs are mostly derived from five major alkaloids viz., morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine and papaverine which are present in opium latex in ample amount [1]. According to a report from an inter‐ national organization i.e. WHO (World Health Organization), about 85% of the population in developing countries depend on herbal plants for curatives, medicinal and other medico related applications. India being one of the twelve mega biodiversity centers of the world is fully fledged with diverse array of herbal and medicinal plants which makes it “Botanical Garden of World”. About 10,000 different medicinal plant species are found in India among which opium poppy occupies the highest place in terms of food (seeds) and pharmaceuticals (alkaloids). These valuable alkaloids are mainly extracted in India from green unripe capsu‐ les by making incision upto 1-2 mm in the epidermal wall of the capsule (Figure 1), but glob‐ ally it is extracted from the dried capsule which is called CPS (Concentrated poppy straw) system. In CPS system, the dried capsules along with eight inches of peduncle are harvested and seeds are threshed. The remaining husk is used to extract various alkaloids. The whole plant parts of opium poppy are valuable in terms of food, medicine, vegetable and as brew‐