Flowers are always associated with beauty and comfort. They symbolize purity and harmony of nature. However, the opium poppy is an exception. Beneath its gentle and crimson exterior lies boundless evil that constantly reminds us of bloodshed and disaster the opium has brought to human society throughout history.
What is opium poppy
The genus Papaver includes about 100 species that primarily grow in Asia, Central and Southern Europe, and a few species in the Americas, Oceania, and Africa. Among them, opium is only produced from opium poppy.
Opium poppy is an annual herb about one meter tall. Leaves without petioles connect with the upright unbranched stems directly, but lowest leaves have a very short petiole. Leaf edges are smoothly serrated and wrinkled, and it is like lettuce very much. The smooth surface of gray-green stem is nearly hairless. Each opium poppy has only one flower that is in its top of stem. Its flowers are red, pink, white, or purple. Each flower has four fan-shaped petals about 10 centimeters in size. The petals wilt after a few days, leaving behind an oval or round fruit that is like a clay pot. The smooth fruit is about the size of an egg. When you cut them, you will find many seeds resembling millet. As the fruit matures, it dries and cracks to release seeds. These seeds are widely used in cooking and oil production. All parts of plant contain alkaloids, but they are primarily concentrated in the unripe fruit.
Opium poppy is very adaptable to its environment, whether it is hot and humid Southeast Asia, mild Central and Southern Europe, arid regions of Central Asia, or high-altitude of 2,000 meters. The region most suitable for them is the tropical forests in Southeast Asia. Opium poppy is a plant domesticated by humans. Fertilizers or feces must be applied to obtain large commercial fruits. Wild strains only produce very small fruits.
Opium poppy cultivation and expansion in antiquity: it is medicine
The accurate and clear route of its spread is still uncertain. Switzerland may be the oldest place where opium poppy is cultivated. It was then spread to Turkey and Mediterranean coast during the Roman period. In the early Middle Ages, opium poppy was introduced to China’s Tang Dynasty via Silk Road from Arabia.
Prehistory: domestication of wild poppies
In the Neolithic era, leaves of wild poppies were ate by our ancestor as edible vegetables, and its seeds value was discovered subsequently. In addition to oil that accounts for about 50%, the seeds are rich in trace elements and vitamins. Immature fruit shells found at ancient sites suggest that people had likely discovered its sedative properties. It is not surprising that during times of food scarcity, all parts of a plant would be consumed. Wild poppies were probably domesticated into opium poppies during this period. People selected plants with larger fruits in order to harvest more seeds and opiate alkaloids.
Greece and Egypt: poppies are food and medicine
The opium poppy became an important crop during the late Bronze Age and was involved in Mediterranean trade along with goods like tin, copper, amber, obsidian, and pottery. The moist Mediterranean soil and abundant sunlight during cloudless summers were ideal for its growth. The fruits were used by the ancient Greeks as magical drugs to separate soul from body for spiritual and religious experiences.
Hypnos is the god of sleep in Greek mythology. He always wore a crown made of poppy. His palace was surrounded by poppies. His twin brother, Thanatos is the god of death who was also associated with opium poppy. The reason was that its extract was pain-relieving and hypnotic, and the dreams it induced were similar to eternal sleep (death). Demeter symbolized agriculture and harvest in Greek society. She was depicted in sculptures and murals as a goddess holding wheat and opium poppy pod. The Greeks also inherited the tradition of eating poppy seeds from Central Europe. Dough with poppy seeds was baked into bread, or seeds were sprinkled on honey-coated bread.
It is said that extraction of opium from poppies was invented by Cypriots living at trade hubs. Subsequently, opium spread to West Asia and North Africa. Egypt was one of the earliest civilizations to recognize its medicinal value. The fruits were crushed and boiled to make medicine, or incised to collect latex. The latter method was more potent. Opium was often mixed with wine to enhance its potency in treating pains, diarrhea, sleeplessness and cough.
Rome and Arabia: poppies are used for recreation
When Rome conquered Greece and established an empire encircling the Mediterranean, opium poppies were cultivated on a large scale. Mature fruits were even engraved on Roman coins. The Roman physician Galen was the first to note that abuse could lead to poisoning and even death. The expansion of Roman Empire brought opium poppy to Arabia.
The desert or semi-desert climate made the land extremely arid. Arable land was primarily concentrated in coastal plains and basins, and most of them required artificial irrigation. By this time, opium extraction and processing were already quite similar to modern methods. During the summer harvest, farmers used knives to make gentle, vertical incisions on the pod. Milky latex would slowly seep out and oxidized by the air into a brown solid that is called raw opium. It was scraped off with knives for collection. Each fruit could yield latex multiple times until it dried out.
Poppy and opiate were primarily used for medical and religious purposes in other regions, but they were used for pleasure and leisure in Arabia. One reason was that alcohol was prohibited among Muslims, and they had now found an alkaloid to numb their body and spirit as a substitute for alcohol. Raw opium was made into small pills for daily consumption; it was dissolved in boiling water or tea, or mixed with sugar or honey for ingestion. By this time, people had discovered opium abuse was addictive and weakened the digestive and nervous systems. Addicts would eat more and more until they died of incurable diarrhea.
The poppy was introduced to India and China (Tang Dynasty) during the expansion of Arabian Empire. However, the Chinese did not begin to manufacture opium until the Ming Dynasty 500 years later. The reason might be chaotic warlord conflicts during the late Tang Dynasty and the sharply decreased territory of Song Dynasty that lost almost all land in today’s western China and became hostile to neighboring countries.