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Planta Med 1994; 60(2): 181-183
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-959447
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© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Headspace Constituents of Opium

Gerhard Buchbauer1 , Alexej Nikiforov2 , Barbara Remberg1
  • 1Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währingerstrasse 10, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
  • 2Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währingerstrasse 38, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
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Publication History

1993

1993

Publication Date:
04 January 2007 (online)

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Abstract

The headspace of medicinal opium (Ph. Ned. 8) was analyzed by means of GC-FID, (+EI)-GC-MS (low and high resolution), and GC-FTIR. After olfactoric evaluation of the headspace sample by professional perfumers by the use of the GC-sniffing technique and after correlation tests with trained police dogs, more than 70 components were identified. With regard to the characteristic olfactoric properties of opium only one class of components, namely pyrazines, is of special interest. The synthetic mixture of 2-methyl-,2,5-, and 2,6-dimethylpyrazine with 2-methoxy-3-isopropyl- and 2-methoxy-3-isobutylpyrazine was found to represent the original opium odour quite well.

Key words

Papaver somniferum - Papaveraceae - opium - headspace - GC-MS - GC-FTIR - GC-sniffing technique

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