Family: Papaveraceae
Genus: Papaver
Species: somniferum
(i) General background on the plant
An annual herb originating from southwest Asia, poppy was domesticated in Europe in Neolithic times. It was cultivated by the Greeks and cultivation spread to India and China by the 18th century. The poppy is a herbaceous annual with a tap root and erect stem of 60 - 150 cm in height. Vegetative portions are light green, often greyish or with a silvery sheen, stems are frequently branched. Leaves may grow quite large are generally elliptical, with wavy or toothed margins and a prominent midrib. Basal leaves form a rosette while upper ones clasp the stem. Flower buds are produced singly and point downwards until the day before they open. The flowers are up to 18 cm in diameter with white, pink or lilac petals which have a thumb print at the petal base which may be pink or blue. The capsules are 3-9 cm round with longitudinal ridges and ripen from green to tan. Each capsule is internally compartmented. containing up to 2000 black or white seeds.
Originally opium poppies were grown for the pharmaceutical industry for morphine production. Otherwise morphine free varieties have been developed for baking and confectionery purposes.
(ii) Details of quality characters
Poppy seeds contain up to 50% of a high quality oil similar to sunflower oil. Poppy seed oil is a typical semi-drying oil which is used in artists’ paints, soaps after dehydrogenation and in oleochemical processing as a source of linoleic acid (C18:2)
Composition of poppy fatty acids:
| C16:0 (palmitic acid) | 10% |
| C18:0 (stearic acid) | 2% |
| C18:1 (oleic acid) | 11% |
| C18:2 (linoleic acid) | 72% |
| C18:3 (linolenic acid) | 5% |
(iii) Current production and yields
Seed yields are between 0.2-2 t/ha, and are typically 1.5 t/ha, with similar yields of capsule material. Opium is only formed in warm temperate climates and this is where most of poppy seed oil is produced. Opium does not occur in the seeds but is obtained from unripe capsules after manual scarring. They are grown in the Champagne region of France as a morphine producing crop, also in parts of Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary, where drug production is carefully controlled, also in Tasmania, Australia.
(iv) Constraints on production
- Heavy soils should be avoided
- Desiccation required in weedy crops
- Adequate moisture is required when drilled, followed by warm, dry weather after the crop has established. (Harvey, 1988)
(v) Markets and market potential
Cultivated poppies are the source of opium - dried latex obtained from the green capsules - and the refined narcotic drugs morphine and heroin are produced from it. Substances contained in the opium include over 20 recognised alkaloids, the most valuable being morphine and codeine. Morphine is illegally refined to heroin on a large scale. The seeds are also used in confectionery and bakery trades, and high quality artist paints, cosmetics and medicines.
(vi) Other information
Poppies prefer open sunny situations on medium textured soils. Drilled into a fine seedbed in late March. A plant density of 50 - 60 plants m2 is optimum. Nitrogen should be applied at 75kg/ha in the seedbed and another 40kg/ha before flowering. Phosphate should be freely available. Ripe capsules may be harvested in late July using a combine harvester sealed against loss of fine seeds.
Capsule material must be separated from seeds soon after harvest.
Little agronomic work is being done on poppy at present.
See the following pages in the NF-2000 Database
Crops for Pharmaceuticals/Cosmetics
Crops for Paints/Coatings/Plastics
(vii) Contacts
Springdale Crop Synergies Ltd,
Mr Clifford Spencer, Springdale Crop Synergies
Ltd, Rudston, Driffield, East
Yorkshire, YO25 4DJ
Telephone: +44 (0) 1262 421100
Website: www.springdale-group.com
(viii) References
Toward a UK Research Strategy for alternative crops. Published by Silsoe Research Institute July 1994.
Harvey. J. (1988) Alternative crops on Starcross experimental plots in 1988.