Opium also known as poppy tears , or Lachryma papaveris is the dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine , and non-analgesic alkaloids such as papaverine and noscapine. The traditional, labor-intensive method of obtaining the latex is to scratch "score" the immature seed pods fruits by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off and dehydrated.
The production methods have not significantly changed since ancient times. Through selective breeding of the Papaver somniferum plant, the content of the phenanthrene alkaloids morphine, codeine, and to a lesser extent thebaine has been greatly increased. In modern times, much of the thebaine, which often serves as the raw material for the synthesis for oxycodone , hydrocodone , hydromorphone , and other semisynthetic opiates, originates from extracting Papaver orientale or Papaver bracteatum.
It is then converted to heroin which is almost twice as potent, [ 7 ] and increases the value by a similar factor. The reduced weight and bulk make it easier to smuggle. The Mediterranean region contains the earliest archeological evidence of human use; the oldest known seeds date back to more than BCE in the Neolithic age [ 8 ] with purposes such as food, anaesthetics , and ritual.
Evidence from ancient Greece indicates that opium was consumed in several ways, including inhalation of vapors, suppositories , medical poultices , and as a combination with hemlock for suicide. Widespread medical use of unprocessed opium continued through the American Civil War before giving way to morphine and its successors, which could be injected at a precisely controlled dosage.
A little of it, taken as much as a grain of ervum is a pain-easer, and a sleep-causer, and a digester Opium has been actively collected since approximately BCE. Numerous finds of P. Opium was used with poison hemlock to put people quickly and painlessly to death.
