Interaction of a Begomovirus with the Opioid Biosynthetic Pathway of Opium Poppy

Ashish Srivastava

Abstract

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is a herbaceous plant of the family Papaveraceae grown for its medicinally important alkaloids. It was regarded as a magic plant in the classical period of ancient Greece. The major constituents of opium are phenanthrenes: morphine (about 12% w/w), codeine (about 0.5% w/w) and thebaine (about 0.2% w/w), and benzylisoquinoline: noscapine (about 6% w/w) and papaverine (about 1% w/w).