Abstract
COMPARATIVE rates of incorporation of carbon dioxide labelled with carbon-14 led to the proposal1 that, in Papaver somniferum, thebaine is the first octahydrophenanthrene alkaloid formed, and is converted by successive O-demethylations to codeine and finally to morphine. Although this sequence seemed best to explain the labelling ratio among these three alkaloids, conclusive proof was lacking. The results described here, considered with the previous data1, constitute proof of this interrelationship.
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References
Rapoport, H., Stermitz, F. R., and Baker, D. R., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 82, 2765 (1960).
For example, Schröter, H.-B., “Encyclopædia of Plant Physiology”, 8, 844 (Springer, Berlin, 1958).
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STERMITZ, F., RAPOPORT, H. O-Demethylation as a Biosynthetic Pattern in the Formation of Opium Alkaloids. Nature 189, 310–311 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/189310a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/189310a0
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