OPIUM. The drug known in commerce as opium is derived from the immature fruits of Papaver somniferum (fig. I), family Papaveraceae, by slightly incising the fruits and collecting and drying the exuded milky juice.
There are several forms of the plant in cultivation for yielding opium. The truly wild plant (var. setigerum) is found on the northern coast of the Mediter ranean. It has acutely toothed leaves, the lobes sharp-pointed, each ending in a bristle. The leaves, flower stalks and sepals are covered with scattered bristly hairs, and the stigmata are seven or eight in number.
The variety of the plant chiefly cultivated in Asia Minor and Egypt is distinguished by having a sub-globular fruit and HD to stigmata. It is glabrous and is known as var. glabrum.
The one cultivated in Persia is var. album, which has a fruit more or less egg-shaped ; the pores below the stigmata do not open when the fruits are ripe. It varies in the colour and shape of the petals. Those (the majority) with white petals have usually white seeds, those with reddish or purple petals have usually slate-coloured seeds.
The mode of cultivation adopted varies. In Turkey, from which the chief supplies of medicinal opium are obtained, the cultiva tion is carried on by peasant proprietors. A naturally light and rich soil is chosen, improved by manure and irrigation where necessary, and the land should be sloping and well drained, moisture in excess being injurious. The ground is ploughed twice, the second time crosswise. The seed is mixed with four times its weight of sand to prevent it being sown too thickly, to lb.
being used to every toloom (1,600 sq.yd.). The crop is very un certain owing to droughts, ground-frosts and locusts. To avoid failure, and to allow time for collecting the produce, every toloom has three sowings from October to March, the crops thus coming to perfection in succession. In localities where there is hoar frost in spring, the seed is sown in September, or at latest in the beginning of October. The yield of opium and seed is then greater than if sown later. After sowing, the land is harrowed and young plants are hoed and weeded, chiefly by women and children, from early spring until the time of flowering. In the plains the flowers
expand at the end of May, and on the uplands in July. At this period gentle showers are of great value, as they cause an in crease in the subsequent yield of opium. The petals fall in a few hours, and the capsules grow so rapidly that in a short time— generally from nine to 15 days—the opium is fit for collection. This period is known by the capsules yielding to pressure from the fingers, by assuming a lighter green tint, and by exhibiting a kind of bloom called "cougak," easily rubbed off with the fingers; they are then about I in. in diameter. The incisions are made by holding the capsule in the left hand and drawing a knife two-thirds round it, or spirally beyond the starting point (fig. 2), great care being taken not to let the incisions penetrate to the interior, lest the juice should flow inside and be lost ; in this case also it is said that the seeds will not ripen, and that no oil can be obtained from them. The operation is usually performed after the heat of the day, commencing early in the afternoon and continuing to nightfall, the exuded juice being col lected next morning. This is done by scraping the capsule with a knife, transferring the concreted juice to a poppy-leaf held in the left hand, the edges of the leaf being turned up to avoid spilling the juice; the knife-blade is moistened with saliva by drawing through the mouth after every alternate scraping to prevent the juice from adhering to it. When as much opium has been collected as the size of the leaf will allow, another leaf or more is wrapped over the top of the lump, which is then placed in the shade to dry for several days. The pieces vary in size from about 2 oz. to 2 lb., being made larger in some districts than in others. The capsules are generally incised only once, but the fields are visited a second or even a third time to collect the opium from the poppy-heads subsequently developed by the branching of the stem. The yield of opium varies, even on the same piece of land, from one-third to 71 chequis (or 1.62 lb.) per to/oom, the average being 1 chequis of opium and 4 bushels (50 lb.) of seed. The seed, which yields 35 to 42% of oil, is worth about two-thirds the value of the opium. The whole of the operation must, of course, be completed in the few days, usually from five to ten, during which the capsules are capable of yielding the drug.