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Poppy seed is the dried seed of Papaver
somniferum, an erect annual herb, 30-150
cm long with 0.5-1.5 cm thick stem. Stem
is glabrous with thick waxy coating. Leaves
are numerous, alternate, spreading horizontally,
15-25 cm long. Flowers are few, solitary,
on a 10-15 cm long peduncle. Fruit is a
capsule with waxy coating. Seeds are numerous,
very small, white grey with an oily endosperm.
Poppy is a self pollinated plant. The seed
is the spice.
The centre of origin of Poppy is the Western
Mediterranean region of Europe and is
cultivated in India, USSR, Egypt, Yugoslavia,
Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, China,
Japan, Argentina, Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary,
and Portugal for its legal pharmaceutical
use. It is also grown illegally for the
narcotic trade in Burma, Thailand and
Laos (Golden Triangle) and Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Iran (Golden Crescent).
Poppy is cultivated in temperate and
sub-tropical region and requires well
drained, highly fertile, light black cotton
soil having good percentage of fine sand.
In India it is a licensed crop since the
latex of the mature fruit are collected
for the production of opium, a narcotic
substance.
Poppy seed (Khas Khas) is used as food
and as a source of fatty oil. It is widely
used for culinary purposes. Because of
its highly nutritive nature it is used
in breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, curries,
sweets and confectionary. Its seeds are
demulcent and are used against constipation.
The capsules are used as a sedative against
irritant coughing and sleeplessness in
the form syrup or extract.
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