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CULTURAL AND WILD PLANTS
Sleeping poppy. Legends, myths, symbolism, description, cultivation, methods of application
Directory / Cultivated and wild plants Content
Sleeping poppy, Papaver somniferum. Photos of the plant, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism Sort by: Poppy (Papaver) Family: Poppy (Papaveraceae) Origin: Probably Southeast Europe and Southwest Asia. Area: Sleeping poppy is widely distributed in various regions of the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, Australia and Oceania. Chemical composition: Sleeping pills contain alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, theobromine and papaverine. It also contains many other biologically active substances, including phenolic compounds, acids, sugars, etc. Economic value: Opium is obtained from the sleeping pill, which is used in medicine as a strong analgesic and sedative. Poppy seeds are also used in cooking and as a spice in various dishes. Myths, legends, symbolism: Poppy sleeping pills in different cultures symbolizes different things. In some traditions it is associated with sleep, dreams and illusions, while in others it is associated with opium and drugs. In European tradition, poppy is associated with the world of the dead, and its flowers are used on monuments in memory of those who died in wars. In Chinese culture, poppy is associated with youth and love. Sleeping poppy has many legends and myths associated with its narcotic properties. In Greek mythology, the poppy was associated with hypnosis and sleep, and in Roman mythology with the god of sleep, Somnus. In Chinese mythology, the sleeping pill is considered a symbol of youth and beauty. In ancient Roman legends, the sleeping pill was associated with Circe, a sorceress with the ability to turn people into animals. The symbolic meaning of the sleeping pill varies from culture to culture and time. In modern society, sleeping pills poppy is associated with danger and drug addiction, and can also be a symbol of memory of those who died in wars.
Sleeping poppy, Papaver somniferum. Description, illustrations of the plant Sleeping poppy, Papaver somniferum. Botanical description of the plant, areas of growth and ecology, economic importance, applications
Sleeping poppy is an annual herbaceous plant, a species of the genus Poppy (Papaver) of the poppy family (Papaveraceae). Sleeping poppy is a herbaceous annual plant, gray, large, 100-120 cm high, slightly branched. Hairs are either absent or few on leaf veins or peduncles. The root system is pivotal. The stem is erect, smooth, bluish-green, branched in the upper part. The lower leaves are on short petioles, gradually turning into a blade, the upper ones are sessile, amplexicaul, the blade is oblong, gray-gray, uneven, 10-30 cm long, coarsely serrate-toothed or incised-lobed and sharp-toothed along the edge. Peduncles long, thick, glabrous or with protruding bristles. The buds before opening the flowers are drooping, glabrous, leathery, ovate-oval, obtuse, large, 1,5-3 cm long. Before blooming, the flowers straighten. Flowers - actinomorphic, bisexual, large, solitary, located at the top of the stem or its branches. Perianth double, calyx of two leathery sepals falling off when the bud opens. The corolla consists of 4 rounded or broadly ovate petals of white, red, pink or purple color with a purple, yellow or white spot at the base, up to 10 cm long. The stamens are free, numerous, in several circles; filaments dark or light, club-shaped thickened above the middle; anthers linear-oblong. Gynoecium cenocarpous, formed by numerous fused carpels. Ovary superior, ovules numerous. Blooms in May - August. The fruit is a short-cylindrical obovate or almost spherical capsule 2-7 cm long, narrowed at the bottom into a clearly visible long stem, unilocular, with incomplete partitions and a large number of small seeds; disc flat, membranous, with clear, deep teeth; rays 8-12. Seeds are fleshy with oily endosperm, 1-1,5 mm in diameter; ripen in late July to early September. It grows wild in Southern Europe (the island of Crete in Greece, southern Italy, including Sardinia and Sicily), on the island of Cyprus, in Africa (northern Algeria, northern Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Madeira Island, Canary Islands), in the south of Central Asia , in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Kurdistan and southeast Turkey, and also naturalized in the Azores. Flower petals contain poppy and radinic acids, fatty substances, gum. Condensed milky juice (opium), which is obtained only by hand, by cutting still unripe boxes, on the vine, contains resinous, mucous substances and 20 alkaloids: morphine (0,3-0,5%), apomorphine, codeine (up to 0,07 %), papaverine (up to 0,05%), thebaine, laudanine, narcotine, readin and others. According to the chemical structure, poppy alkaloids are derivatives of phenanthrene and isoquinoline. The plant also contains beta-sitosterol and organic acids. About 40-56% fatty oil was found in mature seeds. Livestock is not eaten at all. If accidentally ingested, it causes rabies attacks, makes it difficult to excrete urine and feces. The most poisonous boxes are shortly before ripening, the stems, leaves and flowers are less poisonous. Drying does not remove poisonousness. Symptoms of poisoning: fever, increased activity of the glands, digestive arrest, nausea, convulsions, loss of consciousness, drowsiness, colic. Horses, cattle, sheep and pigs get sick. The pomace of poppy seeds after extracting the oil was given in the form of swill to dairy cows. After that, milk yields rose, but with increased feeding, milk yields decreased. Previously, poppy capsules (Capita Papaveris) were used as medicinal raw materials. Raw materials were collected after maturation, threshed, dried and briquetted. The sleeping pill poppy has been cultivated in many countries for thousands of years. Currently cultivated in China, India, Asia Minor, Central Asia, Afghanistan (in April 2022, its cultivation was banned by the Taliban). Opium is obtained from immature boxes - thickened milky juice. Raw opium is used in China and other countries for smoking, chewing, as a narcotic, intoxicant. In European medicine, opium is processed to extract alkaloids and make painkillers, sedatives, anticonvulsants and hypnotics, and in addition, for gastric diseases. The seeds are used to produce poppy oil, which is used for food, margarine and pharmaceuticals. Food poppy seeds are used for food purposes. They sprinkle pastries or make fillings. Food poppy is mainly cultivated in the Czech Republic (Czech blue poppy) and Turkey. Decorative plant. The culture of poppy sleeping pills began in ancient times. Since then, numerous varieties of cultivated poppy have been bred with black, purple, gray or white seeds, with boxes of various shapes, with simple and double flowers, with incised or split petals, with red, pink, purple, white flowers. At flowering, thickets or crops of sleeping pills provide honey bees with such a large amount of pollen that the honeycombs, which the bees almost completely clog with pollen, turn black. At the same time, sleeping pills do not give poppy nectar.
Sleeping poppy, Papaver somniferum
Papaver somniferum Sleeping poppy (Papaver somniferum) is an annual plant with a regular, separate-petal corolla of various colors, from white to purple. The fruit is a box. The seeds are numerous. The scientific name of the genus comes from the Latin words papa - bread or baby porridge and verum - real. In the old days, it was thought useful to mix poppy juice in baby food so that children sleep soundly. The specific name Somniferum in translation is hypnotic. Sleeping poppy is a self-pollinating plant, but largely prone to cross-pollination: earwigs, flies, beetles, bumblebees and bees are often found in flowers; flying and crawling from flower to flower, these insects pollinate the flowers. Poppy seeds (most valued with a blue color) are an essential product for bakery and confectionery factories, now inaccessible to housewives, but in the past they were willingly used by them in home baking. Oil is obtained from poppy seeds (40-60 percent). It is light yellow in color, does not go bitter for a long time and, they say, has a more pleasant taste than all other vegetable oils. It is used as a food product, for pharmaceutical purposes, in the preparation of paints for painting, the best grades of soap and varnishes. Poppy seeds are high in calories - in ancient Greece, athletes preparing for the Olympic Games consumed poppy seeds in abundance with wine and honey. Poppy meal (makuha), containing up to 12 percent fat and up to 36 percent protein, is used to feed livestock. All varieties of poppy are subdivided into oilseeds with an underdeveloped lactic system and poor latex, and opium poppies with a well-developed lactic system and abundant latex. Poppy seeds were found in objects belonging to the Sumerian culture (XNUMXth-XNUMXrd millennium BC), in excavations of Neolithic pile dwellings in Switzerland dating back to the XNUMXrd millennium BC. The Sumerians, Assyrians, the oldest inhabitants of Central Asia, apparently, were familiar with the soporific effect of the milky juice of the poppy. The ancient Egyptians used poppies to make sleeping pills. The ancient Greeks dedicated poppies growing among bread to the goddess of agriculture and harvest, Demeter. The goddess was depicted with a poppy in her hand. Poppy took a prominent place in the religion and mythology of the Romans. Poppy is included in the rites of modern peoples. If in Greece Hera - the goddess of marriage and conjugal love - poppy boxes were sacrificed, then in Germany poppy seeds are sacrificed to newlyweds - they are poured into their shoes. In the Belarusian wedding ceremony, millet porridge with poppy seeds was distributed. In England there is a "poppy day" when they and other beautiful flowers decorate the entrances of houses and lay them at the monuments to those who died in the war. Theophrastus was the first to mention the incisions of the boxes, the outflow of milky juice and its medicinal properties. According to him, poppy latex (in Greek "opion", from where the word "opium" or "opium" came from) was used as a sedative and analgesic by the Etruscans, Hellenes and Romans. But the danger of abuse hung over people's lives even in those ancient times, about which Pliny the Elder warned his and future generations. However, Europe was far from the predominant use of the poppy as a drug. The purpose of poppy culture here for a long time was the seeds and partly the oil obtained from them. Unlike American Indians who smoked tobacco, in the East (most likely in Central Asia) a much more harmful habit of smoking opium arose. Europeans, unfortunately, eventually adopted both vices. Already in the XNUMXth century BC, the Greeks learned to grow poppies for obtaining opium in Asia Minor, as reported in the Iliad. In China, poppy was not known until the XNUMXth century AD, and opium was not known until the XNUMXth century. There is no mention of opium in India until the XNUMXth century. During the Middle Ages, Egyptian opium was better known in Europe. Since the middle of the XNUMXth century, opium smoking has become a genuine national tragedy in one of the largest countries in the world - in China. It was mentioned by Jack London in the novel "John - Barleycorn": "China stopped the general smoking of opium, forbade growing it and importing it into the country. All philosophers, priests and doctors could talk about the dangers of opium for a thousand years until hoarseness, but until the poison was available, it continued to be smoked. Such is human nature." The cheapness and availability of opium, the light pleasant feeling of novice drug addicts, ignorance of the terrible consequences of addiction bewitched everyone - from rickshaws to the first mandarin of the state. With the accumulation of "experience" in smoking, the doses of opium increased: "record holders" smoked up to 200 pipes a day. Emaciated and pale, they turned into living corpses, and a little later - into genuine ones. The British East India Company established opium production in Bengal and monopolized opium imports to China. The Chinese government, partly because of the loss of gigantic profits in the opium trade, and partly because of concern about the increasing indifference to work among the people, tried to ban English exports of opium, which led to war with England and the final enslavement of China for many years. From China, the opium poppy made its way to Japan, where it was soon called the "flower of joy of the samurai." In ancient times (and in some places even now), opium and its derivatives were included in the classic composition of "witch's ointments." Those who read M. Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita remember that the heroine of the novel also used a similar ointment before flying to Satan's ball. Using authoritative literary sources, we have established one of the recipes for such an ointment, which is prepared from plant materials: black nightshade, belladonna, mandrake ("Adam's root"), poppy sleeping pills and hemlock - that is, exclusively narcotic plants that can cause when inhaled and ingested to loss of consciousness or nightmares, accompanied by incredible visions: participating in sabbaths or dancing at a ball with Satan. For the reader's information, opium is simply raw raw material, the dried milky juice of unripe poppy heads. At the beginning of the last century, a substance with much stronger narcotic properties was extracted from it. He was named after the ancient Greek god of dreams - the winged Morpheus - the son of Hypnos (the god of sleep), generated by Nikta - the goddess of the night - morphine. Morphine was the first poppy alkaloid isolated in its pure form. In 1847, its total formula was established, and in 1925-1927, its chemical structure. The morphine molecule is based on a phenanthrene core and a piperidine ring. Other opium alkaloids, codeine and thebaine, also appeared in the piperidinephenanthrene series. In total, over 30 alkaloids were found in opium, of which morphine, codeine, narcotine, narcein and papaverine began to be used in medicine. Morphine, unfortunately, has earned itself a bad reputation. After taking a small dose of morphine, a person falls into a state of euphoria - serenity, detachment from worries and sorrows. A few months are enough for persistent addiction to morphine. There are about 400 million people on the planet who are committed to the use of opium, morphine, and especially to the potent derivative of the latter - heroin (acetomorphine). Moreover, drugs for them are the essence and purpose of life. Drugs suppress hunger, thirst, love. The addict exhibits intense physical disorders called withdrawal syndrome - agitation, nervousness, accompanied by insomnia, shifty eyes with dilated pupils, increased lacrimation and a runny nose. Chills and vomiting appear, fever and blood pressure rise. Digestion is depressed, appetite is reduced, painful constipation is noted, sometimes followed by debilitating diarrhea. A disorder of cardiac activity develops, fainting appears, the sex glands atrophy, the ability to think and realize one's dependence on society is lost.
The symptoms of opium poisoning were described in great detail in the Russian "Complete Healing Herbalist": "When it acts on the brain and all nervous life, a special liveliness is noticeable in the spiritual life, at least in individual departures: the flow of thoughts is freer, the eyes shine, they feel kinder and stronger, the sexual impulse is often intensified, there is insomnia, and the pulse is frequent, the body temperature is elevated, and perspiration often occurs.Sooner or later, this increased excitation passes into a depressed state, and especially the nervous and mental life can fall below the physiological level.Thus, mental activity is relaxed; contractions of the heart and muscles are sluggish and deprived of their former strength.There is a feeling of emptiness in the head, often also a slight headache and drowsiness, and the pulse becomes rarer and smaller ... " "... In sensitive persons, after the use of opium, severe weakness, timidity, anxiety, pallor of the face, nausea, even choking and vomiting are often observed; then whirling and pain in the head, deafening, slight drowsiness, etc...." "... From slightly large doses (for example, from 2-3 grains) (grain - 0,062 grams), also with frequent repetition of small doses or in sensitive, irritable persons, the mentioned actions are intensified. A kind of hops occurs, almost like from alcoholic beverages There is often great mental excitement, which, however, soon passes into an irresistible inclination to sleep, or this inclination occurs from the very beginning, often with circling and pain in the head and weakness of the muscles. become rarer than in the normal state, and while before the skin was often hot and dry, it is now often covered with sweat. The sensory nerves of the skin and the nerves of external senses, like the brain, seem to be in a state of oppression, so that external impressions are perceived with less force and clarity, and lesions that previously produced great pain are now felt less clearly. If at last sleep comes, it is deep, and the pupil is constricted and more or less motionless, as already before the onset of sleep; breathing is calm and slower than usual. During sleep, there are often (especially, apparently, in voluptuous faces, Eastern inhabitants) extremely vivid dreams, usually with a special attitude towards sexual life; they seem to depend especially on the thoughts that were occupied before falling asleep. On waking, feel weak, dullness of the head, or complain of a dull pain near the forehead and occiput. It is noted that (a) Digestion is usually disturbed during the action of opium, and since at the same time the oral cavity and pharynx are dry, the secretion of saliva is reduced, it can be assumed that the formation of mucus on the gastric mucosa also decreases ... (c) As from other narcotic substances, so from opium, breathing and blood formation slow down, while irritation to cough, for example. in chest diseases, it may decrease and disappear ... (d) Sexual life, the genital organs in general, apparently, are not especially affected by the action of opium. However, opium is famous in the East as a stimulant to the reproductive parts, especially of the male sex, and from large doses of opium in poisoned, the reproductive shaft is often in prolonged tension. There is hardly a poison to which the body becomes accustomed more easily than to opium. When you are already accustomed to it, then its big tricks have little or no effect. This is seen especially in habitual opioid eaters and opium smokers in the east, in China, also in England and North America. When opium is taken, smoked or chewed for a long time, digestion is usually upset, appetite disappears, and diarrhea often occurs instead of the previous constipation. The genitals, previously very irritated, weaken, as do the muscles; comprehension and memory are lost, and people remain in this inactive and dull state until they resort again to opium. At the highest degree of action of opium, acute poisoning soon occurs, and for this, apparently, receptions of at least 10-16 grams are usually required, although in some cases half is also sufficient, in children there may already be a few drops of lavdan, and on the contrary, in other cases, much larger methods do not produce such a strong effect. But dizziness, stupor, and a decline in muscle strength occur with great speed, and the poisoned person soon falls into a deep sleep. He lies still, and the skin or other sensitive parts show no trace of sensitivity; the muscles are relaxed, the lower jaw drops, the peace of death is expressed on the pale face, and the pupil is small and completely motionless. The action of the heart is almost stopped, the pulse is thus extremely small, often irregular and hardly perceptible. Breathing is free at first, but soon it becomes less frequent, deeper, and often interrupted by sighs; there were even cases that only one breath was taken every 3-5 minutes and the pulse was barely noticeable. Mucus gradually accumulates in the respiratory branches, the palatine curtain becomes numb, storage occurs, and finally complete paralysis of the respiratory muscles. The skin is usually cold and damp, urine stops, constipation also occurs, and finally a complete paralysis of the locking muscles (sphineteres), which, even during life, are relaxed to such a degree as is usually only the case with the dead, so that for example. one or two fingers can be inserted into the anus without any difficulty. A poisoned person cannot be awakened in any way from the sleep of death, and if this is even possible, then he remains in an unconscious state and raves calmly and quietly. Only very rarely are convulsions before death. For the most part, poisoning ends in death within 15 to 30 hours; if at this time the patient does not die, then death generally occurs rarely. But from great receptions, hibernation and imminent death can immediately appear ... " Another phrase from the herbalist is not without interest: "It should be noted that if children are often drunk with poppy tincture, then they become feeble-minded." Drug addiction and alcohol are the most terrible diseases of our century. The only way to cure drug addiction is pretty wild, but it is the only one: long-term forced isolation with complete deprivation of morphine and the absence of any opportunities for the addict to commit suicide. The starting substance for the synthesis of opiates (morphine and codeine) by the plant is the amino acid tyrosine and mevalonic acid, from which the alkaloid thebaine is synthesized, from it - codeinone, codeine, from codeine - morphine. At present, the oil poppy variety Galle III has been created in Germany (the variety was bred at the Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle), which practically contains only thebaine. It is not difficult to convert thebaine into codeine in a purely chemical way in production (and in the laboratory) conditions. This is one of the first steps towards the complete abandonment of the cultivation of morphine poppy and the production of morphine. In Iran, to obtain thebaine, thebaine forms of poppy bract (Papaver bracteatum) are used, covering vast areas on the slopes of the mountains facing the Caspian Sea (1700-2300 meters above sea level). The latex from the incisions of poppy pods is dried and turned into a powder, from which thebaine (98 percent of the total alkaloids) is extracted. bract poppy is found in Pyatigorye on the slopes of the mountains, on the Tersky and Sunzhensky ridges, at an altitude of 200-700 meters above sea level. Throughout the range, the species is rare (it is listed in the Red Book) and is represented by single specimens. Expeditionary botanical searches for plants in the region of the mountainous Talysh (Azerbaijan) near the border with Iran and the introduction of samples from Iran into the botanical gardens and the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Medicinal Plants are necessary. Chemical research on thebaine content and experiments on introduction into culture and involvement in interspecific hybridization are aimed at synthesizing forms that can give a sufficiently high yield of thebaine. Unfortunately, this type of poppy did not attract the attention of herbalists. Timid attempts to introduce it into interspecific crossings were carried out at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Medicinal Plants, but, it seems, were not completed. Author: Laptev Yu.P.
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