OPIUM

Opium

Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains approximately 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes the alkaloid codeine and its similarly structured cousin thebaine. It also contains non-analgesic alkaloids such as papaverine and noscapine. The traditional, labor-intensive, method of obtaining the latex is to scratch the immature seed pods by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off, and dehydrated. The word "meconium" historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from ...

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opium

Noun

  1. A yellow-brown, addictive narcotic drug obtained from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.
  2. Anything that numbs or stupefies.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: opium
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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