Opium poppy

Nutritional value per 100 g of poppy seeds
Calorific value	2198 kJ (= 525 kcal )
water	5.95 g
protein	17.99 g
carbohydrates	28.13 g
- of which sugar	2.99 g
- fiber	19.5 g
fat	41.56 g
- saturated fat	4.517 g
- monounsaturated	5.982 g
- polyunsaturated	28.569 g
Vitamins and minerals
Vitamin A	0 µg
Vitamin B 1	0.854 mg
Vitamin B 2	0.1 mg
Vitamin B 3	0.896 mg
Vitamin B 6	0.247 mg
Vitamin B 9	82 µg
Vitamin B 12	0 µg
vitamin C	1 mg
Vitamin D	0 µg
Vitamin E.	1.77 mg
Vitamin K 1	0 µg
Calcium	1438 mg
iron	9.76 mg
magnesium	347 mg
sodium	26 mg
phosphorus	870 mg
potassium	719 mg
zinc	7.9 mg

Sleep poppy
	Opium poppy ( Papaver somniferum ), illustration.
Systematics
	Eudicotyledons
Order :	Buttercups (Ranunculales)
Family :	Poppy Family (Papaveraceae)
Subfamily :	Papaveroideae
Genre :	Poppy seeds ( papaver )
Type :	Sleep poppy
Scientific name
	Papaver somniferum
	L.

Opium poppy ( Papaver somniferum ) is a species of poppy ( Papaver ) in the poppy family (Papaveraceae). The seed can be used as food as well as for oil production . All parts of the opium poppy contain alkaloids , especially the milk sap in high concentrations , which runs through the entire plant and especially the pericarp of the capsule fruit in a dense network of milk tubes . This juice can be harvested and, when dried, forms the narcotic drug opium . The name opium comes from the Greek language and means something like "little juice".

The specific epithet somniferum is derived from Latin and means sleep-bringing. It refers to its use as a sleeping aid for children in ancient Greece. There are numerous cultivars that differ, among other things, in the content and composition of the alkaloids .

description

Flower and fruit

Seeds

Vegetative characteristics

The opium poppy is an annual and upright herbaceous plant that reaches heights of 30 cm to 1.5 m. The round, overflowing stem is rarely branched. A tap root is formed.

The simple, alternate leaves are about 5 to 20 cm long. The leaves are serrated or serrated on the edge.

Generative characteristics

The flowering period is from June to August. The flower stalk is slender and hairy. The relatively large flower bud is usually 15 to 25 (10 to 30) mm long and stands up. When the flower bud is opened, the two sepals fall off. The open, hermaphrodite flowers are radially symmetrical with a diameter of 5 to 10 cm . The four white to purple (rarely red) petals are about twice as large as the sepals and have a dark spot on the base. The stamens have yellow stamens and 2 to 4 mm long anthers . The flower is usually completely pollinated after a few days and then also sheds its petals. The flowers of ornamental poppies can be of different colors and have more than four petals.

The spherical capsule fruits contain hundreds of seeds. The relatively small seeds are kidney-shaped, hard, veined in a raised, reticulate manner and pitted. Steel-blue seeds are most similar to the wild form, whitish seeds contain less oil and are used to make flour. A variety with gray seeds ( Waldviertler Graumohn ) is popular in Austria and its designation of origin is protected. The thousand grain mass is only approx. 0.3 to 0.7 grams.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22 or 44.

Systematics

The first publication of Papaver somniferum was done by Carl von Linné .

One can distinguish several subspecies:

Papaver somniferum L. subsp. somniferum : the chromosome number is 2n = 22 or 44.
Papaver somniferum subsp. setigerum (DC.) Arcangeli (Syn .: Papaver setigerum DC. ): It occurs in southern Europe. The chromosome number is 2n = 22 or 44.
Papaver somniferum subsp. songaricum Basil. : It occurs on the Balkan Peninsula and in Asia.

Milky juice of Papaver somniferum obtained by scratching immature seed pods provides opium when dried

Origin and history

The wild precursor of the opium poppy is controversial; Papaver glaucum Bolss is being discussed. et HAUSSKN., P. aculeatum THUNB. and, as with Candolle, the bristle poppy ( Papaver somniferum subsp. setigerum ) native to the western Mediterranean region . The bristle poppy is considered the most likely candidate. The exact origin of the opium poppy is unknown, both the eastern and western Mediterranean are believed to be. The greatest biodiversity of Papaver species is found in the eastern Aegean and Iran . Domestication in the area of linear ceramic tape would also be possible. The use of the opium poppy as a useful plant has been in Central Europe since the early Neolithic phase of the band ceramic culture , from around 5200 BC. Proven. This makes poppy one of the oldest cultivated plants in Central Europe. Aurélie Salavert considers that the opium poppy reached the Belgian Hainaut along with other Mediterranean cultivated plants, such as naked barley , and was adopted here by the culture of linear ceramics. Manen also sees a cardial influence in ceramics in this area . The influence of the La Horguette culture was also discussed. An allegedly Körös- period opium poppy find comes from Ibrány –Nagyerdő, Huda-tábla . Archaeobotanically, poppy seeds can only be detected if they are puddled with very fine mesh sizes , so it is difficult to assess its distribution.

Poppy field in the Waldviertel (Lower Austria)

Poppy cultivation in the Geo-Nature Park Frau-Holle-Land : Germerode in the Werra-Meißner district in North Hesse .

Afghan poppy farmer in his field

In Cyprus , bottles were made in the late Bronze Age that had the shape of a poppy seed capsule (base ring ware) and, according to analyzes, contained opium. In 1975, a 14 centimeter long bronze cylinder from the 12th century BC was built in the capital Kition . Excavated, which is interpreted as an opium pipe and probably comes from the temple of a fertility deity. In Egypt, opium mixtures could be used until around 1800 BC. Trace back to BC. The Egyptians perhaps imported opium from Cyprus, later cultivated it themselves in the Nile Valley and used it in cult activities. They stored their opium in special vessels, the Bilbil jugs (Arabic name, Cypriote Base ring vessels).

Numerous works claim that the opium poppy is mentioned on Sumerian cuneiform tablets , but this is due to a reading error. The Sumerians allegedly referred to the opium poppy as the “plant of joy” (HUL.GIL), but this translation is not certain either.

Archaeological finds from ancient Greece show that the Greeks used opium for cultic and medicinal purposes. The poppy capsule was the symbol for the sleep god Hypnos , for Morpheus , the god of dreams, for Nyx , the goddess of the night, and for Thanatos , the god of death; this symbolic power of the poppy seed capsule for dreams, sleep and death has found a diverse expression in the fine arts. In the Roman Empire the opium poppy came into the dubious rank of a prosperity drug. An inventory of the imperial palace in 214 counted a total of 17 tons of opium. The Chinese have also been growing opium poppies for medicinal purposes since around 1100. Early Christianity , which saw disease as a punishment from God, forbade the use of opium as a pain reliever in some places in the 4th century. Charlemagne renewed this ban in 810; Some people saw poppy seed juice as the work of Satan. With Arabic medicine, opium returned to Europe (the Baghdad ophthalmologist Jesu Haly was already using opium and mandragora for operations around 1000 ). Also in the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia from around 800 there is "Opium" and in the 12th century Hildegard von Bingen wrote "Papaver ... from whom you make the best opia ... and the juice is kept: the same is easy to manigerhande artzendye."

Various ancient writings show that meconium can be obtained from pressed plants . Meconium is weaker than opium in its effects, but was also used as a sleep aid and medicine.

The extraordinary importance that the discovery of opium had for the people of that time can now be easily understood. For the first time, the healing art had resources available that relieved pain and made many medical interventions more bearable or even possible for the patient. Preparations made from opium, for example as latwerge , were also used in the Middle Ages for the anesthetic (surface anesthesia) of painful eye disorders.

Poppy seeds as food

Poppy seed cake according to a Turkish recipe

The oily, pleasant and fragrant nutty seeds of the opium poppy are used as food, especially for desserts, pastries or so sprinkled rolls used: poppy cake , poppy seed strudel , Mohnpielen , poppy tents , dumplings or poppy seed rolls, poppy seed rods and the like. In addition, the poppy seeds are also used as a spice and, thanks to a fat content of 40–50%, to produce oil, as cold-pressed edible oil or for cosmetic purposes (e.g. skin creams and soap production). Poppy seeds are also used as animal feed and in pharmacy .

White, gray and blue to blue-black poppy seeds are available. The white varieties come mostly from India, a well-known gray variety is the Waldviertel gray poppy , the blue varieties traded in Germany mostly come from Turkey , the Czech Republic , Hungary and Australia . Around 8,000 tons of poppy seed are processed in Germany every year. Only opium poppies are used to obtain seeds, because other species of the genus Papaver are considered to be not very productive or indigestible. Ground poppy seeds are marketed as baked poppy seeds.

Poppy seed is one of the foods richest in calcium and is relatively rich in vitamins of the B group . Their morphine content is usually very low and harmless to health, but is subject to fluctuations due to the varieties processed, the origin, the time of harvest and the care and process used in production. In particular, it is assumed that, due to new harvesting methods in which the capsule is squeezed, the product may be contaminated with alkaloid-containing capsule fragments and milk juice and thus increased alkaloid contents in the end product. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) carried out a market analysis in 2005 based on media reports on high morphine levels in poppy seeds in the grocery trade and recommended a “preliminary maximum daily intake” of 6.3 µg morphine per kilogram body weight. On the basis of this and with the help of estimates of the typical poppy consumption of the population, the BfR recommends a guideline value of no more than 4 µg / g morphine content in poppy seeds. The amounts of morphine found in commercially available poppy seeds in the study at that time were partly below, partly considerably higher, so that the BfR assessment document appealed to the industry to reduce the alkaloid content of its products.

With the opium poppy the milky sap is formed in the capsule as well as in the stem and the leaves. However, it is not contained in the ripe seeds. However, varieties such as the opium poppy, which are also used as food, can come into contact with the milky sap during mechanical harvesting and thus become contaminated with thebaine. In this way, thebaine can be accidentally ingested with food.

In 2018, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment pointed out insufficient toxicological knowledge and incomplete information on the amount of poppy seeds consumed in Germany. The institute advised that care should be taken in food production to reduce the levels of opium alkaloids, including thebaine, as far as technically possible.

Even if the opiate content remains in the safe range, it can lead to positive results in drug tests for opiates with the help of urine samples . It is then impossible to distinguish whether the alkaloids were ingested through the consumption of drugs or the consumption of foods rich in poppies. For this reason, the consumption of food containing poppy seeds is prohibited in German prisons. The same generally applies to hospital wards as part of withdrawal therapies.

Poppyseed as an intoxicant

Opium globules

Other products of the opium poppy are the alkaloids contained in the white milky sap . The most important of the 40 alkaloids include morphine , codeine , papaverine , noscapine (= narcotine), thebaine and narceine . Morphine, codeine and thebaine are morphinane derivatives. Narcotine, papaverine and narceine, on the other hand, are benzylisoquinoline alkaloids. A large part is bound as salt with the meconic acid (so-called meconates). The heroin is made synthetically from the poppy seed ingredient morphine, but is not contained in the poppy seed itself.

Ripe fruit capsules contain more codeine and less morphine than green ones. Medicinal tea can be made from dried and finely ground fruit capsules. Morphine dissolves much better in drinking alcohol (ethanol) than in water, so that strong tinctures can be made.

To obtain opium, the already thickly swollen but still green poppy seed capsules are scratched in places in the evening hours. In the following morning hours, the dried, brown colored milky juice of the articulated milk tubes - the raw opium - is obtained by scraping. This process is repeated several times until the fruit capsule is evenly scarred. One capsule provides about 20–50 mg of raw opium, which contains 3–23% morphine .

Rauchopium or Chandu is traditionally obtained by redissolving the raw opium in water and then boiling it down. The remaining moist mass is now left to fermentation , which is completed after a few days or weeks. The ferment is then dried until it becomes a solid, kneadable mass. Another type of smoked opium is made by dissolving water and separating the latex and wax by filtration.

Chemical derivatization (acetylation → acid ester formation) of morphine produces heroin (diamorphine, diacetylmorphine), which has three to six times the analgesic (analgesic) effect of morphine.

The main illegal cultivation areas for opium poppies are in Afghanistan and Southeast Asia ( Golden Triangle ). Legal cultivation for medicinal purposes is practiced mainly in India, Turkey and the former Soviet republics.

See also: Opium Wars

Therapeutic use

Opium poppies have been used for pain relief since ancient times. In the Middle Ages, the opium obtained from it was also used as a component of so-called sleeping sponges (Latin spongia somnifera ) for anesthesia during surgical operations.

Morphine is used to combat severe pain, such as tumors, as well as chronic pain of various origins, but is also misused as a drug . Morphine can be psychologically and physically addictive. In the event of an overdose of morphine, death ( lethal dose ) from respiratory depression sets in . Codeine has only one sixth to one twelfth of the analgesic effectiveness of morphine and is used as an antitussive for severe irritable coughs. Noscapine and narceine are not pain relievers and, like codeine, have an antitussive effect that is, however, weaker. Furthermore, in contrast to morphine, noscapine and narceine are weakly respiratory and bronchodilatory. Papaverine is used for cramps of the stomach, gall bladder, intestines and urinary tract and also for renal colic. In the past, tincture of opium was often prescribed for gastrointestinal cramps, diarrhea and mental illnesses, but today it is rarely prescribed because of its addictive effect. The contained benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (e.g. papaverine) can also be used as a spasmolytic .

Legal position

Germany

The inclusion of poppy seed cultivation in narcotics law in Germany meant the end of commercial poppy seed cultivation, which was widespread before the Second World War and in the GDR until reunification . The cultivation of opium poppies is subject to approval in Germany , even as an ornamental plant , and if the approval is not available it is a violation of the Narcotics Act (BtMG). This can be punished with up to five years imprisonment or a fine . Private cultivation on very small areas is also subject to this permit requirement.

The approval for the low-morphine variety “Przemko”, which had been available since 1996, has since been withdrawn, as the Federal Opium Agency announced. The morphine-poor varieties “Mieszko” and “Zeno Morphex” are currently approved for German cultivation. The permit costs 240 euros for farms, 190 euros for scientific institutions and 95 euros for private individuals, whereby a permit is only granted for a maximum of ten square meters and three years for the latter.

Austria

Blue poppy, gray poppy and white poppy seeds

In contrast to Germany , the cultivation of opium poppies is allowed in Austria and looks back on a long tradition that goes back to the Hallstatt period. The Austrian cultivation area of poppy seeds was 3,012 hectares in 2017 , the yield around 15,000 tons . The cultivation of poppies for the purpose of producing narcotic drugs is not permitted (Section 27 of the SMG, Paragraph 1 of the Narcotics Act ). The main cultivation areas are northern Upper and Lower Austria ( Waldviertel ). While mainly blue poppy varieties are grown in Upper Austria, the Waldviertel is famous for its large-seeded gray poppy seeds with its open poppy seed capsules, which enable a combination of seeds and undamaged capsules for floristic purposes. This poppy is registered as "Waldviertler Graumohn PDO" by Regulation (EC) No. 510/2006 as a European designation of origin . The Lower Austrian "Mohndorf" Armschlag is known for its poppy-flower festivals and in autumn.

Switzerland

The cultivation of opium poppies is also permitted in Switzerland , but is by no means as important as it used to be. The poppy cultivation reached its greatest extent in 1945 with an area of 1,313 hectares, whereby the poppy was used both for oil extraction and for the production of morphine for the pharmaceutical industry in Basel . After the end of the war, however, cultivation fell sharply (only 3 hectares of cultivation area in 1955) and was largely discontinued. There have been new approaches since the beginning of the 21st century, with the state research institute Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon (ART) promoting poppy cultivation especially by organic farmers. However, only very small areas of a few hectares are currently being cultivated, and due to the relatively low consumption of poppies in Switzerland - total annual consumption of around 114 t - poppy cultivation is not expected to exceed the level of niche production.

Other countries

In the USA, the cultivation of poppy seeds for opiate production is illegal, the importation is strictly regulated in Singapore , in Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan its possession is prohibited, in China the use of opium poppy in food is banned, although poppy and Poppy capsules can be purchased in western China markets. To make detection more difficult, they are often mixed with chilli oil.

literature

Wilfried Ahrens, Jan Sneyd: Poppy. Varieties, cultivation, recipes. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-8001-3112-9 .
Deni Bown: Dumont's Great Herbal Encyclopedia. DuMont, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7701-4607-7 .
Werner Drossendörfer: Flowers, herbs and essences. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 3-7995-3509-8 .
Manfred A. Fischer , Karl Oswald, Wolfgang Adler: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol. 3rd, improved edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9 .
Gerhard Grümmer : Contributions to the property analysis of the susceptibility of Papaver somniferum to Helminthosporium papaveris. Jena 1951, DNB 480872082 ( Dissertation Uni Jena , Faculty of Natural Sciences, August 16, 1951, 69 pages).
Roswitha Kirsch-Stracke, Petra Widmer: Butterfly and Opium Poppy. On the symbolic content of animal and plant representations on tombs. In: Stadt und Grün (The Garden Department). 48, No. 8, 1999, pp. 520-526.
Oskar Sebald (adaptation): Wild Plants of Central Europe. ADAC, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-87003-352-5 .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c BfR recommends a provisional maximum daily intake and a guideline value for morphine in poppy seeds. Health assessment No. 012/2006 of December 27, 2005 (PDF; 300 kB) Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, December 27, 2006, accessed on April 14, 2014 .

↑ Franz Zaribnicky (Ed.): The Austrian Food Book : Fruit, tropical fruits (including citrus) and poppy seeds. 44th issue, 2nd edition, Springer, 1935, ISBN 978-3-7091-5217-1 , p. 70.

^ Jenő Bernáth: Poppy: The Genus Papaver. Harwood Academic, 1998, ISBN 90-5702-271-0 , p. 268.

^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas. 8th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . P. 427.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Jaakko Jalas, Juha Suominen: Atlas florae europaeae. Volume 9: Paeoniaceae to Capparaceae pp. 30-31, Helsinki 1991, ISBN 951-9108-08-4 .

↑ Karl Hammer, Reinhard Fritsch: On the question of the type of origin of the cultivated poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) In: Kulturpflanze. Volume 25, 1979, pp. 113-124.

↑ Aurélie Salavert, Plant economy of the first farmers of central Belgium (Linear Pottery, from 5200 to 5000 BC). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20, 2011, 328-329. DOI 10.1007 / s00334-011-0297-z with additional literature

↑ Langer, R., & Hill, G. 1991, Agricultural Plants. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 304 doi: 10.1017 / CBO9781139170284.017

↑ Aurélie Salavert, Plant economy of the first farmers of central Belgium (Linear Pottery, from 5200 to 5000 BC). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20, 2011, 329

↑ CC Bakels: The poppy seeds, the linear ceramic band and the Mediterranean area. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 12, 1982, 11-13.

↑ Aurélie Salavert, Plant economy of the first farmers of central Belgium (Linear Pottery, 5200-5000 BC). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20, 2011, 330

↑ Claire Manen, L'axe rhodanien-jurassien dans leproblemème des relations sud-nord au Néolithique ancien. BAR International Series 665. Archaeopress, Oxford

↑ Ferenc Gyulai, Archaeobotanical research at the Körös Culture site of Ibrány – Nagyerdő and its relationship to plant remains from contemporaneous sites in Hungary. In: Janusz K. Kozłowski, Pál Raczky (eds.), Northernmost Distribution of the Starčevo / Körös Culture, Papers presented on the Symposium organized by the EU Project Fepre (The Formation Of Europe: Prehistoric Population Dynamics and the Roots of Socio-Cultural Diversity). Kraków – Budapest 2010, plate 1

↑ Veronica A. Tatton-Brown: Double juglet of Base Ring ware. ( Memento of August 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Veronica A. Tatton-Brown: Ancient Cyprus. 2nd Edition. British Museum, London 1997, ISBN 0-7141-2120-7 .

↑ Horst Klengel : Trade and traders in the ancient Orient. Böhlau, Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-205-00533-3 , p. 173.

^ Klaus Koschel, Opium Alkaloids in a Cypriote Base Ring I Vessel (Bilbil) of the Middle Bronze Age from Egypt. Egypt and Levante / Egypt and the Levant 6, 1996, 159–166. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23788872Accessed : 30-11-2019

^ Matthias Seefelder: Opium. A cultural story. Ecomed, Landsberg 1996, ISBN 3-609-65080-X , p. 21.

^ Abraham D. Krikorian, Were the Opium Poppy and Opium known in the Ancient near East? Journal of the History of Biology 8/1, 1975, 95-114. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4330626 , Accessed: 30-11-2019

↑ Christian Rätsch: Plants of love. AT, Aarau 1995, ISBN 3-85502-524-X , p. 96

^ Abraham D. Krikorian, Were the Opium Poppy and Opium known in the Ancient near East? Journal of the History of Biology 8/1, 1975, 98

↑ Extensive lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology - section Hypnos . Extensive lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology. Retrieved July 17, 2016.

↑ Peter Schmersahl: Poppy in the fine arts - A plant between dream and death. In: Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung. 143, 2003, pp. 451-459.

^ Matthias Seefelder: Opium. A cultural story. Ecomed, Landsberg 1996, ISBN 3-609-65080-X , p. 47.

^ Frank Krogmann: Ophthalmology. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , pp. 1069-1075, here: p. 1069.

↑ Ulrich Stoll (Ed.): The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. A medical compendium of the 8th century (Codex Bambergensis medicinalis 1): text, translation and technical glossary. Stuttgart 1992 (= Sudhoffs Archiv , supplement 28), p. 440.

↑ Barbara Fehringer: The "Speyer herb book" with the medicinal plants of Hildegard von Bingen. A study on the Middle High German “Physica” reception with a critical edition of the text. Würzburg 1994 (= Würzburg Medical History Research , Supplement 2), p. 163 f.

^ Matthias Seefelder: Opium. A cultural story. Ecomed, Landsberg 1996, ISBN 3-609-65080-X , p. 29.

↑ Gundolf Keil: "blutken - bloedekijn". Notes on the etiology of the hyposphagma genesis in the 'Pommersfeld Silesian Eye Booklet' (1st third of the 15th century). With an overview of the ophthalmological texts of the German Middle Ages. In: Specialized prose research - Crossing borders. Volume 8/9, 2012/2013, pp. 7–175, here: p. 54.

↑ Basic Report: 02033, Spices, poppy seed. In: National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 28. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, accessed November 13, 2015 .

↑ Federal Institute for Risk Assessment: Poppyseed in Food: The content of the opium alkaloid thebaine should be reduced as much as possible. December 7, 2018, accessed July 11, 2019 .

↑ Ban on poppy seed rolls in jail. In: Spiegel Online, August 28, 2003.

^ World Drug Report 2010 at unodc.org , accessed December 28, 2011.

^ Bernhard Dietrich Haage: Medical Literature of the Teutonic Order in the Middle Ages. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 9, 1991, pp. 217-231; here: p. 224 f.