Feature Article

My Experiences with Herbal Plants and Drugs as I Knew XXIX
Local Survey of Lucknow and Opium Poppy Cultivation in Barabanki

N.C.Shah

Abstract

The Assyrian Herbal and the Eber's Papyrus referred to the opium poppy plant and to the opium. The culture of
opium poppy from these lands spread to Greece, Rome and slowly eastwards. Its introduction in India and
China, the Arabs disseminated the medicinal uses of the poppy and opium along with their religion Islam.The
article deals with the plants nativity, botany, defines opium, its history in pe- historic days, its uses in
Mesopatamia and Egypt, in Greece and Rome, and in the Middle East. Its introduction in India and China. The
chemistry of opium, its cultivation in India. The medicinal alkaloids present in the opium, The Yield of seeds
used for edible purpose known as 'poshta' or 'khas khas', the poppy straw, and the medicinal & pharmacetical
uses of opium, The use of heroin and the use of opium in indigenous system of medicine, present status, and
export of opium through the Govt. factories from Ghaziabad (U.P.) and Neemuch (M.P.) The facts about Golden
triangle and the Golden Crescent, the terrorist area which supplies illicit opium. Poppy seeds are also a
byproduct of the opium crop much used in culinary and for extraction of oil.

*Corrsponding Author : E-mail:shahncdr@gmail.com