A Tasmanian company has developed a poppy that produces a commercially useful drug precursor instead of full-fledged morphine, and an international research team has now reported how the plant does it.
HIGH-LOW. The seed capsule of a natural morphine-producing poppy (left) oozes sap that’s whiter than the latex of the morphinefree poppy mutant (right).
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.