ABSTRACT
Two species of Papaver, viz P. setigerum and P. somniferum, need special reference as they contain one of the most important alkaloids, morphine, in their latex and edible oil in their seed. In Russia and in the adjoining east European countries genetic and breeding studies have been carried on by all conventional methods with considerable success for the increased yield of morphine or other alkaloids and increased yield of the seeds for oil per hectare. There is good potential to improve the morphine contents of opium poppy in J. found genetic and the environmental variations for morphine content in 64 varieties. He indicated that south European varieties have the least amount of morphine but Coiciu et al. reported that Rumanian varieties had satisfactory contents of morphine and also had a good amount of the seed and yield of the oil.
