Poppy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the plant. For other uses, see Poppy (disambiguation).
A poppy is any of a number of showy flowers, born one per stem, belonging to the poppy family. These can be enjoyed in the wild, but are also grown for ornament.
There are white, pink, yellow, orange, red and blue poppies; some have a dark centre. The centre has a whorl of stamens. Poppies have 4–6 petals. Prior to blooming, the petals are crumpled in bud.
Poppies may be found in the genera:
- Meconopsis (Himalayan poppy, Welsh poppy and relatives)
- Papaver (Iceland poppy, Oriental poppy, Opium poppy, corn poppy and about 120 other species)
- Romneya (Matilija poppy and relatives)
- Eschscholzia (California poppy and relatives)
The pollen of the oriental poppy, Papaver orientale, is dark blue. The pollen of the field poppy or corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is dark blue to grey. Bees will use poppies as a pollen source.
The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, is grown for opium, opiates or seeds to be used in cooking and baking, eg. Hungarian Poppy seed rolls.
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[edit] Symbolism
The poppy of wartime remembrance is the red corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas. This poppy is a common weed in Europe and is found in many locations, including Flanders Field. In many Commonwealth countries, artificial, paper versions of this poppy are worn to commemorate the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I and other wars, during the weeks preceding Remembrance Day on November 11. It has been adopted as a symbol by The Royal British Legion in their Poppy Appeal.
Poppies are used as emblems on tombstones to symbolize eternal sleep.
The golden poppy, Eschscholzia californica, is the state flower of California.
[edit] False positive drug tests
Although the drug opium is produced by "milking" latex from the unripe fruits ("seed pods") rather than from the seeds, all parts of the plant can contain or carry the opium alkaloids, especially morphine and codeine. This means that eating foods (e.g., muffins) that contain poppy seeds can result in a false positive for opiates in a drug test.
This was considered "confirmed" by the presenters of the television programme MythBusters. One participant, Adam Savage, who ate an entire loaf of poppy seed cake tested positive for opiates just half an hour later. A second participant, Jamie Hyneman, who ate three poppy seed bagels, first tested positive two hours after eating. Both tested positive for the remainder of the day, but were clean 18 hours later.
The results of this experiment are inconclusive by current standards, because a test was used with an opiate cutoff level of 300 ng/mL instead of the current SAMHSA recommended cutoff level used in the NIDA 5 test, which was raised from 300 ng/mL to 2,000 ng/mL in 1998 in order to avoid false positives from poppy seeds [1]. However, according to an article published in the Medical Science Law Journal, after ingesting "a curry meal or two containing various amounts of washed seeds" where total morphine levels were in the range 58.4 to 62.2 µg/g seeds, the urinary morphine levels were found to range as high as 1.27 µg/mL (1,270 ng/mL) urine [2]. Another article in the Journal of Forensic Science reports that concentration of mophine in some batches of seeds may be as high as 251 µg/g [3]. In both studies codeine was also present in the seeds in smaller concentrations. Therefore it is possible to cross the current standard 2,000 ng/mL limit of detection, depending on seed potency and quantity ingested. Some toxicology labs still continue to use a cuttoff level of 300 ng/mL [4].
[edit] Trivia
In an episode of Seinfeld, the character Elaine tested positive for opioids in a round of tests mandated by her workplace. She eventually found out that this was coming from her poppy-seed muffin habit.
The sale of poppy seeds from Papaver somniferum is banned in Singapore due to the morphine content.
[edit] Gallery
A poppy bud and plant |
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Papaver rhoeas |
Close up view of a poppy bloom (and buds in the background). Papaver Somniferum. See Opium Poppy. |
Field of poppies, from a photograph by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, taken ca. 1912. |
Closeup of a poppy flower at the Monastery of Lorch (Baden-Württemberg), Germany. |
Immature crowning Opium Poppy, top view |
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A wild field of poppies, above the Wye Valley/UK in June 2006. |
Poppy seeds. |
[edit] See also
zh:罂粟 da:Valmue (Papaver) de:Mohn eo:papavo fr:Pavot it:Papaver he:פרג אגסני nl:Papaver ja:ケシ no:valmuefamilien pt:Papoila sl:Mak uk:Мак
