PAPAVE R SOM NI FE R UM. Lints. Poppy. Var. (a) with white seed. I Var. (14 with black seed. Khash kash aswad, ARAD. . . MALAY. Pasto, . . . . BENG. Bunga.madat, „ Mukon, . . . . Ga. Khash-khash,Kunar,Pram. Koknar, Post, . HIND. . . . 8aNsc.
Kasakasa, . . Tam., Tim This very important plant, one of the Papa veracem, a native of the of Europe and Asia Minor, was well known to the Greeks, and was cultivated at very early periods on account of its seeds. (Theoph. lib. ix. cap. xiii. ed. Bodieus and Staple, p. 1097.) Some authors have been of opinion that it is the piztry of Dioseorides, and that the kind with black seeds was called dypia, and that with white seeds 44sp“ and that it is the juice of this plant which Hippocrates recommends under the name of 6:4; pszsoo;, or juice of the poppy. Pliny (xx. c. 18) uses opium to express the inspis sated juice of the poppy. Sprengel, in his Hist. Rei Herb. i. p. 176, quotes Diosc. lib. iv. c. 65, as referring to Papaver somniferum, and to P. Rhoeas; but in his edition of that author (ii. p. 600) lie mentions only the latter plant ; hence we may infer that he conceives the former to have been unknown, as he nowhere else mentions it. It was early cultivated in Egypt, in India, Persia, and Asia Minor, as well as in some of Europe. The garden poppy is probably native of Persia. The dark red-flowered and black-seeded was called by Gmelin, P. somniferum ; and the white-flowered with white seeds, P. offici nale. It is cultivated in Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, India, and China, on account of its inspissated juice, the opium of commerce.
The cultivation of the poppy is very simple, though the weeding requires care, and the plants must not be crowded too much together. They are carefully watered and manured, the watering being more copious as the period of flowering approaches, and until the capsules are half-grown. The capsules are employed in medicine for the preparation of a sedative decoction and syrup, much used for children. They are devoid of odour, of slightly bitter taste. If collected before the concrete juice is removed, the capsules contain a minute portion of all tho active principles of opium ; for medicinal purposes those should be rejected which are marked with longitudinal and parallel cuts resulting from the'extraction of opium. An infusion of poppy heads in cold water should strike a red colour with permurinte of iron.
Poppy seeds yield by expression 56 per cent. of a bland and very valuable oil, of a pale golden Colour, fluid to within 10 degrees of the freezing point of water, sp. gr. •939 ; it dries easily, is inodorous, of agreeable flavour, is partially soluble (8 in 1000) in alcohol, dissolves the oxides of lead. For all pharmaceutical purposes, this oil is equal to that of the olive employed in Euro pean pharmacy. About 30,164 tons of poppy seeds, value Rs. 39,04,065, are annually exported from India, chiefly to France and Britain. Opium is an important article of commerce, and is extensively used in medicine and as a luxury.