Poppy Papaver somniferum Recorded use of the poppy dates back well over 5,000 years, to the time of the ancient Sumerians and it was used by all the great civilizations; used by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans and cultivated in China, India and Iran by the 8th century AD. The drug opium is obtained from this species of poppy, a thick, milky latex which is extracted from the unripe seed heads, which contains some 25 different alkaloids, notably morphine and codeine, both powerful painkillers. This, of course, has led to its use as a medical painkiller since the earliest times. It has also been used for its sedative, antispasmodic and expectorant properties. Eighth century Arab physicians formulated a cough syrup, based on opium, which was in common use up until the 17th century. During the Middle Ages, sponges impregnated with poppy juice, mandrake, hemlock and ivy were used as an early form of anaesthesia during medical operations. The Victorian era saw opium abuse, with tincture of opium, laudanum, used routinely for pain control and opium smoking becoming a fashion among the creative and arty set. Opium mis-use continues today, with heroin, a morphine derivative high on the list of so-called ‘recreational’ drugs. However, the ripe seeds contain none of these narcotic alkaloids and neither does the oil extracted from them, and the tiny, nutty seeds impart a wonderful flavour to foods such as cakes, biscuits and breads. Poppy seeds are very popular in Indian cookery, where they are used not just to flavour, but as a very effective thickening agent too.