Poppy is the common name with which a variety of wild plants are known, typical of North America, Asia and Europe, as well as its flower. The word, as such, derives from ababol.
Poppies are annual plants, of the Papaveraceae family, usually with red flowers, the stem covered with bristling hairs, the capsule fruit and the blackish-colored seed. It grows frequently in the fields.
The poppy, also known as opium poppy, is a plant from which substances that have narcotic, analgesic and sedative effects can be extracted, and which came to have medicinal use in the past, for the relief of aches and pains, before was declared as an illegal substance.
The poppy contains large amounts of alkaloids, for this reason, with it you can produce various narcotic substances, such as opium, morphine or heroin, considered as drugs in many countries and, consequently, of illegal production, sale and consumption due to its detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of people.
However, some substances, such as codeine, produced from poppy seeds, continue to be used by the pharmaceutical industry to relieve pain because they have a delayed effect and are less likely to generate dependence.
