[Determination of thebaine in various tissues of papaver bracteatum by gas chromatography].

Papaver bracteatum is an important source of opiates because of its high thebaine content. An efficient and convenient method of determining thebaine, not only in the root, but in the more highly pigmented capsule, stem and leaf, is urgently required. We decided to examine these in detail on a wide variety of plant material and to choose an assay method which is convenient and gives reproducible results. A simple method for the quantitative extraction and analysis of thebaine in the different tissues (capsule, root, leaf and stem) of papaver bracteatum has been established. The powdered materials were extracted with methanol under ultrasonic condition. The procedure of extraction is simple, rapid and reliable. The assay method gave satisfactory reproducibility for a wide range of plant materials (coefficient of variation 2.9% to 5.4%). The linear range of response of thebaine was from 5.0 to 500.0 mg/L. The minimum limit of detection was 2 ng. The operating time of the assay is about 20 min. The presence of other alkaloids did not interfere with the assay reported here in.