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Common name: Opium Poppy, Afim अफ़ीम (Hindi)
Botanical name: Papaver somniferum Family: Papaveraceae (poppy family)
Poppy is an annual herb native to Southeastern Europe
and western Asia. Also known as opium poppy, the species is cultivated
extensively in many countries, including Iran, Turkey, Holland, Poland,
Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, India, Canada, and many Asian and Central
and South American countries. Reaching a height of 1.2 meters, the erect plant
can have white, pink, red, or purple flowers. Seeds range in color from white
to a slate shade that is called blue in commercial classifications.
A latex containing several important alkaloids is obtained from immature seed
capsules one to three weeks after flowering. Incisions are made in the walls
of the green seed pods, and the milky exudation is collected and dried. Opium
and the isoquinoline alkaloids morphine, codeine, noscapine, papaverine, and
thebaine are isolated from the dried material. The poppy seeds and fixed oil
that can be expressed from the seed are not narcotic, because they develop
after the capsule has lost the opium-yielding potential.
Medicinal uses: Poppy is one of the
most important medicinal plants. Traditionally, the dry opium was considered
an astringent, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac, diaphoretic, expectorant, hypnotic,
narcotic, and sedative. Poppy has been used against toothaches and coughs. The
ability of opium from poppy to serve as an analgesic is well known. Opium and
derivatives of opium are used in the pharmaceutical industry as narcotic
analgesics, hypnotics, and sedatives. Opium and the
drugs derived from opium are addictive and can have toxicological effects.
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