Have you seen flowering plants, which are extraordinary, and luxuriated in the sun? Poppy flower is what I am talking.
Why, if eyes were made for seeing, 10 out of 10 will readily tell you they were flowers all right as their flowers showed an array of colors.
An annual plant, opium poppy belongs to the family of papaveraceous and is classified as a sedative and euphoriant. It has been the source of various medicines including opium, heroin, morphine (said to be the most effective painkiller known to medicine), and cocaine.
The ancient Sumerians called it “joy plant” and was known throughout the ancient world as sedative and soporific. Rome emperor Marcus Aurelius took opium to sleep. It was cultivated in ancient China and India as medicine or as food.
Unknown to many of us, the cultivation of poppy is what lies at the continuing turmoil in Afghanistan where 75 percent of the world’s poppy output comes from and is cultivated in 28 of that country’s 32 provinces. If the production in the year 2000 was 3, 276 tons of opium, the figure is believed to have more than multiple this year.
Wealth generated by opium brought about an array of warlords and private armies that have grown too strong for the afghan government to handle. Even the United Nations-led International Security Assistance Force has stepped clear of the warlords who are suspected to be actually behind the resurgence of violence.
They have amassed plenty of weapons and have grown in number that any attempt to stop them was tantamount to a declaration of war. European commanders were proposed to legalize poppy production in Afghanistan and channel its produce to the International Legal Market.
Good for Afghans, they can plant what they want. Here in our country, the discovery that poppies can thrive robustly is proof once more that we have fertile soil and favorable climate to grow just about any plant. But we can only dream for now for so long as we are not allowed to do so.
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Poppy, Papaver somniferum L., is an annual herb native to Southeastern Europe and western Asia. Also known as opium poppy, the species is cultivated extensively in many countries, including Iran, Turkey, Holland, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, India, Canada, and many Asian and Central and South American countries. Reaching a height of 1.2 meters, the erect plant can have white, pink, red, or purple flowers. Seeds range in color from white to a slate shade that is called blue in commercial classifications. The reported life zone of poppy is 7 to 23 degrees centigrade with an annual precipitation of 0.3 to 1.7 meters and a soil pH of 4.5 to 8.3 (4.1-31). The plants grow best in rich, moist soil and tend to be frost sensitive.
VERY DETAILED INFORMATION. THANK YOU FOR ADDING UP YOUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE SAID PLANT.
I AM CURIOUS IF THIS POPPY OR OPIUM POPPY IS NOT ILLEGAL IN YOUR PLACE? BECAUSE HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES, IT IS NOT PERMITTED BY THE LAW TO GROW THE SAID PLANT.
don't fast wen ders no food okei
Health benefits of poppy seeds are the following:
Poppy seeds contain many plant derived chemical compounds that found to have anti-oxidant, disease preventing and health promoting properties.
Their unique nutty aromatic flavor is because of many fatty acids and essential volatile oils, which comprise about 50% of net weight. The seeds are especially rich in oleic and linoleic acids. Oleic acid, a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, helps lower LDL or "bad cholesterol" and increase HDL or "good cholesterol" levels in the blood. Research studies suggest that Mediterranean diet which is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids helps to prevent coronary artery disease and strokes by favoring healthy blood lipid profile.
Poppy seeds outer husk is a good source of dietary fiber. 100 g raw seeds provide 19.5 g or 51% of recommended daily levels (RDA) of fiber. Much of this fiber is metabolically inert content which helps increase bulk of the food by absorbing water down the digestive tract and thereby easing constipation problem.
Additionally, dietary fiber binds to bile salts (a product of cholesterol) and decrease their re-absorption in the colon. It thus helps in a further decrease in blood LDL cholesterol levels.
The seeds are excellent source B-complex vitamins such as thiamin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, riboflavin, niacin, and folic acid. Many of these vitamins functions as co-factors in substrate metabolism especially fat and carbohydrates.
Poppy seeds contain good levels of minerals like iron, copper, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc and magnesium. Copper is utilized in the production of red blood cells. Zinc is a co-factor in many enzymes that regulate growth and development, sperm generation, digestion and nucleic acid synthesis. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the powerful anti-oxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase.
Dried poppy seeds contain very small levels of opium alkaloids such as morphine, thebaine, codiene, papaverine etc. When consumed in food, these compounds produce minimal effect on the human nervous system. On the contrary, these chemicals found to have some beneficial effects on the human body; soothe nervous irritability, act as painkillers. Its seed extractions found useful in pharmacy and in many traditional medicines in the preparations of cough mixtures, expectorants, etc.