ALKALOIDS, LATEX AND OXIDASES IN PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM 9 
Mr. Hood collected and dried two lots of capsules, one in contact with 
the air, the other in an atmosphere of CO2. Unfortunately, however, 
the experiment was hardly a repetition. Some of the capsules had 
begun to desiccate before the experiment was set up. An accident 
occurred to the container holding the lot drying in CO2 with the 
result that the material was exposed for some time to the air. The 
experiment, however, was carried through. On analysis by Mr. 
Richtmann the air-dried material was found to contain 0.064 percent 
crude morphine, those dried in CO2, 0.032 percent crude morphine 
calculated on dry weight at about 60° C. When the modifying condi- 
tions just described are taken into account, the results obtained seem 
to confirm those of the first experiment. 
From the evidence at hand, we believe ourselves justified in tenta- 
tively advancing the conclusion that morphine as such does not exist 
in the poppy but is formed from a mother substance present in the 
latex through the action of oxidases using the oxygen of the air. 
It seems quite probable that the mother substance consists of a complex 
molecule which, under the action of atmospheric oxygen wielded by 
oxidases, is split along a fairly well determined cleavage line with the 
result that a rather constant N-containing product having the consti- 
tution of the alkaloid morphine arises. Should the reaction occur 
under somewhat different conditions, it seems possible that the lines 
of cleavage might shift somewhat, giving a different proportional 
quantity among the many alkaloids obtained from the poppy. When 
oxygen is absent and presumably oxidase action also, cleavage, if it 
takes place at all, may take place along quite different lines with the 
result that no morphine appears. That other alkaloids are affected 
as well as morphine is shown by the entire absence of an alkaloidal 
reaction in the material dried in CO2. A certain kind of analogy 
between this situation and that seen in glucosides which are split 
up through the action of enyzmes is strongly suggested. 
Inasmuch as physiological opinion concerning the significance of 
alkaloids to the plants producing them has tended strongly toward 
the view that they are waste products of plant metabolism, it seemed 
desirable to carry the investigation further. Obviously morphine 
itself can hardly represent to the poppy plant an accumulation of 
N-containing waste products. 
It could hardly be taken for granted, however, that all alkaloids 
stand in a like relation to the plant. Accordingly, belladonna plants 
