Abstract
The genus Papaver is highly esteemed in the pharmacy industry, in the culinary field, and as ornamental plants. These plants are also valued in traditional medicine. Among all Papaver species, Papaver somniferum L. (opium poppy) is the most important species in supplying phytochemicals for the formulation of drugs, mainly alkaloids like morphine, codeine, rhoeadine, thebaine, and papaverine. In addition, Papaver plants present other types of phytochemicals, which altogether are responsible for its biological activities. Therefore, this review covers the phytochemical composition of Papaver plants, including alkaloids, phenolic compounds, and essential oils. The traditional uses are reviewed along with their pharmacological activities. Moreover, safety aspects are reported to provide a deep overview of the pharmacology potential of this genus. An updated search was carried out in databases such as Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and PubMed to retrieve the information. Overall, this genus is a rich source of alkaloids of different types and also contains interesting phenolic compounds, such as anthocyanins, flavonols, and the characteristic indole derivatives nudicaulins. Among other pharmacological properties, numerous preclinical studies have been published about the analgesic, anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antidiabetic activities of Papaver plants. Although it highlights the significant impact of this genus for the treatment of a variety of diseases and conditions, as a future prospect, characterization works accompanying preclinical studies are required along with clinical and toxicology studies to establish a correlation between the scientific and traditional knowledge.
Highlights
Many plants are naturally rich sources of phytochemicals with valuable biological properties, which could have significant impact for the treatment of a variety of diseases and conditions and as potential alternative options for synthetic drugs
The study was completed on a mouse model, and the results demonstrated that plant extract significantly reduced pain in mice at all the three doses (50, 100, and 150 mg/kg body weight), as indicated by reduction in number of writhes as 36.91, 57.01, and 68.39%, respectively
Besides the pharmacological interest of P. somniferum, the traditional use of different Papaver plants is widely established in different cultures and countries
Summary
Many plants are naturally rich sources of phytochemicals with valuable biological properties, which could have significant impact for the treatment of a variety of diseases and conditions and as potential alternative options for synthetic drugs. Concerning the natural product field, P. somniferum was the first source of natural drugs with the obtainment of analgesic morphine drugs [13], including codeine, morphine, and a variety of semisynthetic derivatives, mainly derived from thebaine, such as oxycodone and buprenorphine [14] These compounds belong to the opiate family that has analgesic properties mainly by binding to the mu-opioid receptor within the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system. Antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammation, neuroprotection, and maintenance of fertility are some of the important bioactivities of the Papaver genus plant extracts, as depicted in the following In this context, this review describes the traditional uses of Papaver species, their phytochemical composition, and bioactive properties, describing preclinical and clinical studies. ChemBioDraw Ultra 12.0 (CambridgeSoft, Cambridge, MA, USA) was used to draw the chemical structures of the phytochemical compounds from the Papaver genus
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