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Despite producing poppy for opium production India depends heavily on imports to meet need of Poppy seed for edible purposes [3] and domestic Codeine demand for medical purposes (more than 30% by imports). Opium is heavily imported from its top producing nations like Afghanistan. There is also an account of Opium black marketing in India. [4]
Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. [4] Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medicinal use and for the illegal drug trade.
Poppy seeds and fixed oils can also be nonnarcotic because when they are harvested about twenty days after the flower has opened, the morphine is no longer present. [4] Poppy cultivation is strictly regulated worldwide, with the exception of India where opium gum, which also contains the analgesic thebaine, is legally produced. [6]
Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine). [1] Laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) in alcohol ().
Papaver somniferum, commonly known as the opium poppy [2] or breadseed poppy, [3] is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae. It is the species of plant from which both opium and poppy seeds are derived and is also a valuable ornamental plant grown in gardens.
The poppy seeds harvest can be a by-product of cultivation of Papaver somniferum for opium, poppy straw, or both opium and poppy straw. However, harvesting for poppy seeds of superior quality is in conflict with harvesting for opium as poppy seeds should be harvested when they are ripe, after the seed pod has dried.
Even Dadabhai Naoroji, who was generally an opponent of the opium trade and often an ally of the same British radicals who sought to ban opium, argued during the parliamentary debate in 1893 that began the Commission that investigating opium sales in India was a distraction from other more pressing issues. [9]
The Papaveraceae family includes many plants that produce alkaloids, including opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Opium is derived from the latex of the opium poppy seed pods and has been used for centuries due to its psychoactive properties. The main alkaloids found in opium, such as morphine, and codeine have huge impact on pharmaceuticals and ...