266 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



Constituents. From 0.13 to 0.36 per cent of a mixture of alka- 

 loids consisting of morphine, codeine and narcotine. The upper 

 portions of the fruits contain the largest percentage of alkaloids, and 

 during ripening the amount of morphine decreases while the per- 

 centage of codeine and narcotine increases. The fruits also contain 

 narceine, papaverine, papaverosin and some of the other alkaloids 

 of opium. There is also present meconic acid, citric acid, tartaric 

 acid and wax; and ash from 10 to 15 per cent. 



Opium. The dried milk-juice of the capsules of Papaver som- 

 niferm (Fam. Papaveracese), an annual herb, probably indigenous 

 to Asia, and now cultivated in Asia Minor, China, India, Persia and 

 European Turkey. Experiments have been made both in this coun- 

 try and Europe to cultivate the opium poppy, but so far these experi- 

 ments have been unprofitable. Opium is obtained by making trans- 

 verse, oblique or longitudinal incisions in the unripe capsule (Fig. 

 119); the latex which exudes is collected when partly dry and made 

 into a mass. The latter is enclosed in a covering of rumex or poppy 

 leaves and further dried, subsequently being packed in bags with 

 rumex berries to prevent the masses from sticking together. While 

 there are a number of varieties of opium, that used in this country is 

 principally from Turkey and is exported chiefly from Smyrna and 

 Constantinople. There are two principal kinds of Smyrna opium, 

 namely, Karahissar, which occurs in spherical, somewhat flattened 

 masses, and Balukissar, which is in the form of flattened, plano- 

 convex masses, both kinds being wrapped in poppy leaves, packed 

 with Rumex seeds, and yielding about 13 per cent of morphine 

 (Fig. 120). 



Turkey Opium. In irregular, flattened, more or less rounded 

 masses of variable size and weighing from 250 to 1000 grammes; 

 externally grayish-brown, covered with remnants of poppy leaves 

 and with occasional fruits of a species of Rumex; internally dark 

 brown, granular, somewhat lustrous, more or less plastic when fresh, 

 but becoming hard and darker on keeping; odor distinct, heavy; 

 taste peculiar, bitter. 



Powder. (Fig. 121.) Light brown; in glycerin mounts showing 

 grayish-brown, irregular granular fragments, 0.035 to 0.40 mm. in 

 diameter; little or no starch; thick-walled polygonal cells of epi- 

 dermis of capsule; epidermal cells of Rumex leaves (used in wrapping 

 opium) somewhat polygonal on surface view, with elliptical stomata 

 about 0.070 mm. in length, having a narrow opening; fragments of 

 wings of Rumex fruits (used to prevent cohesion of opium masses), 

 with prominent, brown fibrovascular tissue composed of spiral 



