An annual herb native to south-eastern Europe and western Asia. Also known as the Opium Poppy, it is cultivated extensively in many places, including Iran, Turkey, Holland, Poland, Romania, the Czech and Slovak Republics, India, Canada, many Asian, Central and South American countries, and near Stockbridge in Hampshire.
According to Grigson, the Opium Poppy may have been cultivated by Neolithic lake villagers in Switzerland.

A latex containing several important alkaloids is obtained from the immature seed capsules. Incisions are made in the walls of the green seed pods and the milky exudates collected and dried. Opium, morphine, codeine, noscapine, papaverine and thebaine can be isolated from the dried material.







In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree

An annual herb native to south-eastern Europe and western Asia. Also known as the Opium Poppy, it is cultivated extensively in many places, including Iran, Turkey, Holland, Poland, Romania, the Czech and Slovak Republics, India, Canada, many Asian, Central and South American countries, and near Stockbridge in Hampshire.
According to Grigson, the Opium Poppy may have been cultivated by Neolithic lake villagers in Switzerland.

A latex containing several important alkaloids is obtained from the immature seed capsules. Incisions are made in the walls of the green seed pods and the milky exudates collected and dried. Opium, morphine, codeine, noscapine, papaverine and thebaine can be isolated from the dried material.







In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree