Herb. No. 039 · Papaveraceae
West Asian and Mediterranean origin. Culinary seed is a crop; latex is a controlled substance.
Native · Mediterranean · West Asia
Opium poppy
Papaver somniferum
The garden poppy that also yields opium — a beautiful annual whose latex is the source of morphine, codeine, and a century of addiction medicine.
The plant is widely sold as an ornamental and as breadseed poppy. Extracting opium, morphine, or heroin from any part of it is a serious crime. Concentrated poppy-seed tea has caused deaths. Seeds as food are legal; 'unwashed' seed sold for tea is a gray, dangerous market.
Handle as a poison-garden specimen. See Safety before any use.
P. somniferum is both a bakery seed and the opium poppy. Scoring a green capsule releases white latex that dries to raw opium. That act, and any home extraction, is illegal and lethally easy to get wrong. Pharmaceutical opioids exist because dose matters; kitchen chemistry does not provide a dose. This plate teaches recognition and law, not production.
Flavor
Culinary seed is nutty and bakery-sweet. Latex is not a flavor to seek.
Parts used
Ripe dry seed (food only) · Latex — pharmaceutical / illegal
In favor
- Food seed is ordinary
- Ornamental forms are legal garden flowers
Against
- Opioid overdose and addiction from latex or seed tea
- Extraction is a crime
- Unwashed seed is unpredictably potent
- Respiratory depression kills