General Information

  • Category- Flower, fruit, drug
  • Binomial Name- Papaver somniferum
  • Common Names- gum opium, afeem
  • Spread- 10-12 inches**
  • Height- 36-50 inches**
  • Average Production- 5-8 capsuls per plant
  • Days to Maturity- 95-120 days*

Environmental Requirements

  • Soil-  Well-drained soils
  • Soil pH- 5.8
  • Soil moisture- 20%
  • Sun Requirements- Full Sun
  • Best Time to Plant- Spring (February and March)

Tips to Grow Opium:

  1. Arrange good quality poppy seeds.
  2. The soil should be alkaline, acid or neutral. The soil should be moist but not waterlogged.
  3. Pour some poppy seeds into your hand and sprinkle them very thinly across the container to create natural looking drifts.
  4. We can add compost before sowing the seeds for better growth.
  5. Each poppy plant bears 5-8 capsules. The capsules are incised when the diameter is about 4 cm and when the color changes from bluish green to yellow. Incisions are made around the circumference with a sharp instrument without breaking the endocarp.
  6. The white latex which exudes coagulates rapidly and turns brown. The latex is scrapped on the next days and transferred to a poppy leaf. When sufficient latex is collected, it is kneaded into balls, wrapped in poppy leaves and dried in shade.

** The values are standard values but might change a bit.

Chemical Constituents of Opium:

  1. Opium contains more than 30 alkaloids. The opium alkaloids are classified as:

A) Phenanthrene alkaloids- Morphine, codeine, thebaine

B) Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids- Papaverine, norceine, noscapine.

These alkaloids are combined with meconic acid which can be detected by chemical test.

2. Opium also contains sugar, salts, albumin, coloring matter and moisture.

Uses:

  • Tincture opium is used to control diarrhoea.
  • Opium is used for the isolation of its alkaloids.
  • Morphine is used as an analgesic and pre-anesthetic medication.
  • Codeine and noscapine are used as cough suppressants.
Vegetables