Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and – Plant – seedling – plant seed – or plant part – per se – Higher plant – seedling – plant seed – or plant part
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-29
2003-03-18
Campell, Bruce R. (Department: 1661)
Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and
Plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part, per se
Higher plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part
C800S323000, C800S265000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06534696
ABSTRACT:
FIELD
The present invention relates to the development of a disease resistant and high yielding variety of opium poppy plant (
Papaver somniferum
L. 2
n=
22) christened as ‘Rakshit’. More particularly, the invention relates to the development of a high seed and straw yielding (concentrated poppy straw) variety of opium poppy by hybridizing the highly resistant sources in the germplasm with high yielding lines/genotypes followed by repeated selection and evaluation for the said characters for six years under natural and artificial epiphytotic conditions. The resultant variety is highly resistant to the most destructive disease, downy mildew caused by
Peronospora arborescens
(Berk) de Barry and moderately resistant to both damping off caused by
Pythium dissotocum
Drechsler and collar rot caused by
Rhizoctonia solani
Kuhn. The variety being highly self pollinated is distinct, uniform and stable and suitable for commercial cultivation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Opium poppy is commercially cultivated in a large number of countries under strict vigilance. International Narcotic Control Board (INCB) Vienna, regulates the opium poppy cultivation in the world. The latex obtained by the incision of unripe capsules is known as opium which is the source of several pharmacologically important alkaloids. Morphine, codeine, thebaine, narcotine and papaverine are the most important alkaloids produced by the plant and are exploited by the pharmaceutical industry as analgesics, antitussive and antispasmodic. The total world area of illicit cultivation of poppy for opium production was about 37000-56000 ha from 1989-1993 according to the INCB, Vienna. Eight to ten thousand tones of opium is produced in India yearly (Bryant, R J, Chemistry and Industry. 7:146-153,1988). This amount of opium covers about half of the world's annual morphine demand. India remains the only country in which the cultivation of opium poppy for gum is still legal. However, the importance of poppy straw has been increasing continuously and world area of poppy cultivation for purposes other than opium production was as large as 25,000-40,000 ha in the early 1990s which increased to 80,000 ha in 1994. This means that the cultivation of poppy for straw is 2-3 times more than that of the area used for licit opium production. Poppy straw and straw concentrate are more important than opium in the production of morphine. More than 50% of the world's morphine is now manufactured from these raw materials. However, the single method of using dry capsules for direct extraction is practiced only in some central European countries. The United Kingdom is the largest producer of morphine from straw concentrate. Australia produced 36,082 kg. of morphine from concentrate in 1993 (INCB,1993). Countries like USA, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Netherlands and Italy import straw concentrate for morphine extraction. Turkey has its own poppy cultivation industry.
Poppy seeds are rich in protein and minerals and are widely used in the food industry. These are also considered to have aphrodisiac and constipating properties (Nerglz and Otles, J. Sci. Food Agr. 66:117, 1994). Anticarcinogenic properties have also been reported in the poppy seeds (Aruna, Food Chem. Toxicol. 30: 11, 1992; Berger, Berger's Medicinal Chemistry, Part II, A. Willey Interscience Publication, 1140, 1979). The seeds contain a high proportion of edible vegetable oil which is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, particularly oleic acid and linoleic acid (Wealth of India—Raw materials vol. 7: 234, 246, 1966). Linolinic acid tends to lower down the blood cholesterol in human beings (cf. Singh et al, Indian J. Agric. Sci. 60: 358, 1990). The biological value if poppy seed oil was found in similar to those of sunflower oil and olive and was considered to be promising for human consumption (Beare et al Nutrition and Metabolism, 23:335-346, 1979). Several other uses of poppy seed and oil have been reported by Teteyl (Tetely, Hort. Rev., 19: 373, 1997).
Opium poppy is attacked by many diseases like downy mildew, damping off, capsule rot, collar rot, stem rot, mosaic etc. which cause huge damage to seed and latex yield. Downy mildew caused by
Peronospora arborescens
is the most destructive and wide spread disease which spreads very rapidly under low temperature and high humidity conditions leading to severe damage to the crop (Kothari and Prasad, Indian Phytopath. 23: 6740-688,1978). Damping off caused by
Pythium dissotocum
occurs most frequently during misty weather when high moisture regime prevails for 7-10 days during the month of January. The disease spreads rapidly and kills large population of the young seedlings in severely infected fields within 15-20 days of its appearance(Alam et al, 1995, Indian Phytopathology 49: 94-97). The collar rot disease caused by
Rhizoctonia solani
appears on young plants of 10-12 fully expanded leaf stage . The infection initally appears as dark brown necrotic lesions at the collar region (a joint between the stem and root) which later turns black resulting in premature death of the infected plants.
All existing varieties of opium poppy at CIMAP (Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants), Lucknow, India are highly susceptible to all these diseases and till now no disease resistant and high yielding genotype is available. Hence, there is a strong and pronounced need for disease—resistant poppy varieties. Keeping this objective in view, planned experiments were carried out at CIMAP, Lucknow for developing disease resistant genotypes with high yield potential. The available germplasms were screened for disease resistance and highly resistant sources were identified against all the devastating diseases of opium poppy. These resistant sources were then hybridized systematically with high yielding genotypes followed by repeated selection for the desirable characters in the advanced generations under natural as well as artificial epiphytotic conditions.
OBJECTS
The main object of the invention is to develop poppy varieties resistant to common destructive diseases like downy mildew, damping off, capsule rot, collar rot, stem rot, mosaic etc.
Another object is to develop poppy varieties having high straw and seed yielding capacity.
Yet another object is to provide poppy plants having high morphine content in the straw.
Still another object is to develop poppy plants capable of growing in natural and epiphytotic conditions.
SUMMARY
In accordance with the above and other objectives, the invention provides a novel variety of poppy plant, christened as ‘Rakshit’, said variety being resistant to common disease like downy mildew damping off, capsule rot, collar rot, stem rot, etc. The said variety ‘Rakshit’ has high straw and seed yielding capacity as compared to conventional poppy varieties. The straw of the variety is also rich in morphine content.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Accordingly, the invention provides a novel disease resistant variety of opium poppy (
Papaver somniferum
) called Rakshit. This variety has yielding capacity and has high speed and straw with high morphine content in the poppy straw. The seeds of the Rakshit plant are deposited at National Gene Bank of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants at Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, India. The Accession Number is CIMAP/IPMC 99/T-7 (CIMAP 0518). The seeds of this Rakshit plant were also deposited at National Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria Limited (NCIMB), 23 St. Macher Drive, Aberdeen, United Kingdom on Sep. 12, 2002. The Accession No. is NCPAT17699 (NCIMB 41148).
Accordingly, the present invention provides a disease resistant and high yielding variety Rakshit of opium poppy (
Papaver somniferum
) having the following morphological/agronomic features.
Plant height
106-112
cm
Peduncle length
22-26
cm
Peduncle colour
green
Seed yield
12-14
q/ha
Straw yield
9-11
q/ha
Days to 50% flowering
90-100
days
Days to maturity
128-134
days
No. of capsules/plant
1-4
No. of stigmatic rays/capsule
16-18
Latex colour
dark pink
No.of s
Alam Mansoor
Darokar Mahendra Pandurang
Dhawan Om Parkash
Dwivedi Samresh
Gupta Madan Mohan
Campell Bruce R.
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Para Annette H.
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