What was a pain-killer of last resort?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
October 14, 2002
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The Romans cultivated and used the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum Linnaeus) [pap' a ver som nif' er um] to treat insomnia. "The calyx (sepals) of the cultivated white poppy is taken in wine to induce sleep....A sleep-inducing drug is also obtained from the dark poppy, by making incisions in the stalk when the buds are forming...or when the tree [plant] is dropping its blossoms...." (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book XX, trans. John Healy)
Pliny offered these warnings concerning its use, "It is not only sleep-inducing but, if too much is swallowed, brings about a fatal coma. Men call the juice opium. I am told that...a man of praetorian rank, died of opium poisoning...when an unbearable illness made his life not worth living...."
Opium use was completely rejected by some thinkers of Pliny's time, "forbidding it to be administered because it damages the sight...the only reason it does not cause immediate loss of sight is the fact that it is adulterated at Alexandria." (See Herbal Folklore, September 9, 2002)
John Gerard (The Herbal, 1633 ed.) recognized addiction even though the causes were not understood. He cautioned, "It mitigateth all kind of pains: but it leaveth behind it oftentimes a mischief worse that the disease itself, and that hard to be cured, as a dead palsy and such like." Opium addicts suffer from tremors.
Tinctures of opium were added to numerous apothecary preparations during Gerard's day. "So also colliries or eie medicines made with Opium have beene hurtfull to many; insomuch that they have weakened the eies and dulled the sight of those that have used it: whatsoever is compounded of Opium to mitigate the extreme paines of the eares bringeth hardnesse of hearing....not to be used but in extreme necessitie...when no other mitigater or asswager of paine doth prevaile."
The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University has posted a photograph of a red opium poppy. To view the photograph, click on the link:
http://www.pharm.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/yakusoen/kesi-e.html
Series: | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 |
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
What flower caused China to lose Hong Kong? Plants that Changed History - July 15, 2001
How did a rye disease relieve migraines? Plants that Changed History - July 22, 2003
What is ololiuqui? Herbal Folklore - July 14, 2003
What is LSD? Plants that Changed History - July 15, 2003
Why is wheat preferred to rye for making bread? Herbal Folklore - September 10, 2001
What was spiderwort? What's in a Name? - December 6, 2002
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