Relations among alkaloids, cadmium and zinc contents in opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.)

Abstract

The effort of this work was to prove whether there exists any relation between stress factors caused by content of cadmium and zinc, and content and composition of opium alkaloids codeine, morphine, narcotine (noscapine) and papaverine contained in poppy seeds and capsules (Papaver somniferumL.) in 14 samples of 8 varieties cultivated in 8 localities in 2003. Contents of cadmium and zinc were measured by a method of electrothermic atomization and contents of selected individual alkaloids were determined by a HPLC method. The results were tested by the Spearman correlation coefficient and the Pearson linear correlation coefficient. With knowledge of the Spearman coefficient, positive relations narcotine – zinc and narcotine – cadmium in the poppy seed samples were found. In the samples of poppy capsules positive relation morphine – cadmium (in cv. Opal) and negative relation papaverine – zinc and codeine – zinc (in cv. Opal) were found. Those pairs have been tested by the Pearson correlation coefficient for a possibility to exclude the linear independency. This independency was excluded with the probability of over 95% in the relations narcotine – cadmium in the seeds and morphine – cadmium in the capsules. With the probability of over 97.5%, linear relations narcotine – zinc in seeds and papaverine – zinc in capsules were proved.