Effect of Tyrosine on the Production of Alkaloids in the High-Yielding Cell Lines of Papaver somniferum Tissue Culture

The high yielding cell lines were isolated from the heterogenous callus culture of Papaver somniferum established on modified Murashige and Skoog's medium. These cell lines were transferred to liquid medium, and maintained for six months by frequent subculturing. The tissues were supplied with different concentrations (12.5, 25, 50 and 100 mg/100 ml) of tyrosine and analysed quantitatively for their alkaloidal contents. Six major opium alkaloids-morphine, codeine, thebaine, narceine, narcotine and papaverine, were identified. The tissue grown on liquid medium supplemented with 12.5 mg tyrosine/100 ml showed maximum percentage of alkaloids and therefore this concentration is considered as the most favourable condition and can be utilized for the large scale production of alkaloids from the cell lines.