Caer's Eclectic Apothecary

Blue Poppy Seed

The opium poppy is the only species of Papaveraceae that is an agricultural crop grown on a large scale.

Other species, Papaver rhoeas and Papaver argemone, are important agricultural weeds, and may be mistaken for the crop. It is also valuable for ornamental purposes, and has been known as the “common garden poppy”, referencing all the group of poppy plants. Poppy seeds are considered an important food item and the source of poppy seed oil, healthy edible oil that has many uses.

Parts Used : The seeds are used, whole or ground, as an ingredient in many foods especially in pastry and bread.  Up until now, some countries still ban the cultivation and the distribution of this crop.

Plant Description

Opium poppy is a robust annual, glabrous, glaucous, lactiferous herb or small shrub that grows about 1.5 m (4.5 ft.) tall. The plant is found growing in fields, clearings, stream banks, railroads, roadsides, and other disturbed sites. The plant thrives in rich, well-drained soils and tolerates moderately acidic to alkaline soils. Leaves are alternate, lamina is ovate or oblong, 7–25 cm, both surfaces glabrous, glaucous and rather waxy, veins are distinct, slightly raised, base cordate, margin irregularly undulate-serrate, apex acuminate to obtuse; lower leaves are shortly petiolate but upper leaves are sessile and amplexicaul.

Flower & Fruit

Flowers are large, showy, 5–12 cm across, strongly cupulate, white, pinkish or reddish, rarely pale violet, with or without a basal dark blotch. Sepals are green caducous, 2–3.5 cm. Petals are twice as large as sepals, obovate- orbicular, with margin usually wavy or variously cut, caduceus. Stamens are numerous with white filaments and yellowish, oblong-linear anthers. Ovary are green, superior, spherical, 1–2 cm across, glabrous with 4–18 parietal placentas and many ovules and with 5–12 (−18) stigmas united into a compressed disk with deeply crenulate lobes. Fruit is a distinctive capsule, spherical or oblong, up to 4–6 cm in length and 3–4 cm in diameter, with small holes in the top. The capsule is green when it is forming and turns brown when mature and are crowned by stigmatic disk. Fruit consists of many, edible tiny, kidney-shaped seed that are globose to reinform, reticulate, deep gray to black colored. Though there is a white-seed cultivar from India. Average seed numbers per plant can range from 10,000 to 60,000. Poppy seeds are considered an important food item and the source of poppy seed oil, healthy edible oil that has many uses.

History

Opium poppy is generally supposed to have originated from Asia Minor but its exact place is unknown. Opium poppies are probably one of the earliest plants cultivated by men in Europe since the Neolithic era and represent one of mankind’s oldest medicinal plants. The plant has been domesticated by the Sumerians, Sumerian, Assyrians, Egyptians, Minoans, Greeks, Romans, Persians and Arabs. Over the centuries, however, it has been taken extensively into the Far East including India, Northern Burma and Thailand and China. Up until now, some countries still ban the cultivation and the distribution of this crop.

Types

There are different varieties of poppy seeds. Some of the popular types are:

• Blue poppy seeds It is also called European poppy seeds as they are mostly seen on Western breads and in confectionery.
• White poppy seeds It is also called Indian or Asian poppy seeds, they are featured in the respective cuisines.
• Oriental poppy seeds It is also called opium poppy, this one yields opium and is grown for commercial purposes.