The incarnation of Angel and Devil-poppy

Opium poppy "Flora of China" specifically refers to opium poppy, alias opium, smoke, rice shell flower, poppy, imperial rice, elephant valley, rice capsule, capsule, and hibiscus. It is the main raw material for the production of opium, and its extract is also a source of a variety of sedatives, such as morphine, tibaine, codeine, papaverine and narcodine.

Opium is made from the juice solidified in the fruit of the opium poppy family. Usually when the fruit is fully grown but not yet ripe, and the pericarp is still green or slightly yellow (when the content of morphine in the milk is the highest), use a sharp knife or a special sawtooth cutter to cut the peel (direct or oblique) on a sunny evening. Cut off the milk tube scattered in the pericarp tissue, and the white milk seeps out into droplets from the slit, gradually changes from reddish to brown in the air, and gradually solidifies into a sticky substance. Scrape the next morning with an oiled bamboo grate or bamboo knife, and opium can be scraped 3 or 4 times for each fruit.

The scraped opium is raw opium, black or brown; it smells of ammonia or stale urine, bitter and strong. After cooking and fermentation, it can be made into refined opium, brown or golden yellow. It contains 10% morphine and other alkaloids, which can relieve the spasm of smooth muscle, especially vascular smooth muscle, and inhibit myocardium, mainly for angina pectoris, arterial embolism and other diseases. Give off a sweet smell when inhaling. Opium was originally used as medicine, but it is still used in drugs, such as opioid powder, opioid, compound Platycodon grandiflorum powder, Tuoshi powder, Alcohol tablet and so on.

opium

Bitter; warm; poisonous

Lung; kidney; large intestine channel

[functional indications] collect the lungs, relieve cough, astringent intestines, and relieve pain. Treat chronic cough, chronic diarrhea, chronic dysentery, prolapse of anus, pain in heart, abdomen, muscles and bones

[taboo] it is addictive and should not be used continuously for a long time. Severe impairment of liver function, pulmonary heart disease, bronchial asthma, dampness-heat stagnation, infants and lactating women are all prohibited.

So how did opium evolve from a disease like a god to a sword?

The ancestors of mankind have known poppy for a long time. Archaeologists say the poppy was accidentally discovered by Neolithic people swimming in the mountains on the east coast of the Mediterranean. More than 5000 years ago, the Sumerians piously called it a "happy plant" and thought it was a gift from the gods. The ancient Egyptians also used it as a panacea for infant night cries, called "divine flowers". In the third century BC, a detailed description of opium appeared in the books of ancient Greece and Rome. In order to express their praise for opium poppy, the ancient Greeks asked the goddess Sigu, who was in charge of agriculture, to hold a poppy in her hand. The story of opium poppy is also spread in ancient Greek mythology. there is a demon god in charge of death called Hupnos. His son Mafeus, holding a poppy fruit in his hand, guarded his sleeping father so as not to wake him up. The great poet Homer called it "forgetful grass" and Virgil called it "hypnotic".

Thomas, an English doctor and founder of clinical medicine in the 17 th century. "Opium is not as valuable as opium in terms of the number of diseases it can control or its efficiency in eliminating diseases," Siddenham said. Without opium, medicine would be nothing but a cripple. As a result, the medical master also got the nickname "opium philosopher".

Poppies are full of hypnosis, rest and oblivion.

Morphine Latin is named after Morpheus, the god of dreams and sleep in Greek mythology.

At the beginning of the 6th century, poppy spread eastward to Persia. With the expansion of the Arab Empire, the opium trade expanded to China. The eastern Roman Empire sent envoys to offer "Diye Jia" to the Tang court, and its main ingredient was opium. Tang Dynasty "Xinxiu Materia Medica" recorded: "Diye Jia, taste pungent, bitter, flat, non-toxic." There are all kinds of diseases. Out of Xirong, red black. Hu people will be here, and it is also very precious, and the trial is effective. " At that time, it was the Arabs who studied opium more deeply. In the 9th century, Arab scholars had already begun to publish books on opium and its preparations. Later in the Song Dynasty, "Kaibao Materia Medica" has a record of "poppy", the description of opium poppy is extremely detailed, and it is used to treat diarrhea and prolapse of the anus, indicating that opium poppy has been used medicinally at this time.

Although there were medicinal uses for opium poppy in the Song Dynasty, the ancients were very cautious about its medicinal use. Zhu Zhenxuan of the Yuan Dynasty also pointed out that "opium is urgent to stop disease." The Ming Dynasty physician Gong Tingxian's "Medicinal songs including four hundred flavors" is summed up as "miliary astringency, diarrhea and cough, robbery like a god, and killing like a sword," which means that it is highly effective and toxic. As opium has definite efficacy as a medicinal material, it has also become one of the commodities frequently imported into China by foreign businessmen, and it has been included in the import duty under medicinal materials in the Ming Dynasty. However, the import volume is very small, and by the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the annual import of opium was less than 200 boxes (100 jin each).

In the first half of the 17th century, Sumatra people in Southeast Asia first invented the method of eating cooked opium. Soon, some areas along the southeast coast of China, especially those with more developed overseas trade, such as Xiamen and Taiwan, began to use the smoking method to enjoy opium. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, opium was popular in China. At this time, opium gradually changed its nature as a drug and became a drug. At that time, smoking was not only regarded as a fashion, but also became an indispensable thing in daily life and interpersonal communication. "it has become an unbreakable habit to entertain guests with heavy smoke." At the same time, the import of opium increased sharply, such as 1000 cases in the 32nd year of Qianlong and 4000 cases in the fifth year of Jiaqing.

During the Daoguang period, after extensive discussion from all walks of life, the Qing government finally decided to implement the anti-smoking policy and take measures such as controlling the source of opium and banning domestic smoking and trafficking of opium. However, these measures fundamentally touched the interests of the imperialist powers led by Britain. with the signing of the two Opium Wars and a series of unequal treaties, the opium trade changed from smuggling to legality, and its harm further increased. For this reason, the original proposition of banning domestic opium cultivation was gradually replaced by Li Hongzhang, a representative of the Westernization faction, which promoted domestic opium cultivation with local smoke to resist foreign smoke. However, the extensive cultivation of opium and the struggle for land with five grains led to a major famine such as the Ding Wuqi famine, which made the disaster of the broad masses of people more serious and the national strength further declined.

In 1909, the Universal Anti-smoking Conference was held in Shanghai. The greatest achievement of the conference was that the relevant countries reached a preliminary consensus on the issue of opium and morphine and established the principle of joint anti-drug and drug control. It opened the prelude to international joint drug control and laid the foundation for the formulation of an international drug control convention at the Hague Conference in the future. It was found that the poppy was a sword of Damocles hanging over the head of mankind. When it is treating people's diseases and making people forget pain and fear, it can also make people's lives wither in anesthesia and destroy in psychedelic.

Yu Meiren

Opium poppy

In the eyes of the Chinese people who are deeply affected by the disasters brought about by the Opium War, the poppy is the flower of the devil and a painful memory. This year, residents in Beijing, Hangzhou and other places reported a large number of poppies in public green spaces. After investigation, it is found that most of them are Yu beauties of the same family as opium poppy. There are 28 genera and more than 250 species in the Papaveraceae family (of which only opium poppy and scaly poppy can produce opium). Yu Mei and poppy belong to the same family, and they are very similar in appearance. Yu Beauty is a common ornamental flower, its posture is green and elegant, and it is like a colorful butterfly spreading its wings because of the wind. It can be called a wonderful product in flowers and plants, so it is widely planted. Now summarize three differences between the two, so that we can correct the difference between beauty and opium poppy.

The whole plant of Yumei has obvious hairs, milk, slender stems, many branches and slender branches, while the whole plant of opium poppy is powdered, the stems are stout and the branches are few.

The petals of Yu Mei are mostly four thin pieces, two big and two small, with deep red, purple, magenta, pink and white, sometimes complex flowers with a diameter of 5mi 6cm, while poppy petals are thicker, mostly semidouble or double, the flower color is mostly red, the flower is larger, and the flower diameter is about 10 cm.

The capsule of Yu Mei is truncated spherical and the seed is reniform, while the capsule of poppy is spherical or oval.

It must be noted that the whole plant of Yumeiren is poisonous and contains toxic alkaloids. Accidental ingestion will cause inhibition of central nervous system poisoning, which can be life-threatening.

If you do find poppies, you must report them to the public security department. According to Article 71 of the Law of the people's Republic of China on punishment for Public Security Administration, whoever commits any of the following acts shall be detained for not less than 10 days and not more than 15 days, and may also be fined not more than 3000 yuan; if the circumstances are relatively minor, shall be detained for a maximum of five days or fined not more than 500 yuan:

(1) illegally growing opium poppy of less than 500 plants or other original plants of a small amount of drugs

(2) illegally buying, selling, transporting, carrying or holding a small amount of seeds or seedlings of original plants of drugs such as opium poppy that have not been inactivated

(3) illegally transporting, buying, selling, storing or using a small amount of poppy shells.

Those who commit the first act mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall not be punished if they are eradicated by themselves before maturity.

morphine

But as the earliest and most subjective inner feeling in everyone's life, "pain" is a problem we often encounter. Because people have an one-sided understanding of pain for a long time, they think that pain is only a symptom of the disease, as long as the disease is cured, the pain will disappear, there are still many patients are suffering from pain. The World Health Organization put forward "chronic pain is a kind of disease" in 2000. According to authoritative statistics, 35% of people in Europe and the United States suffer from chronic pain, while in China, this figure is only high or low; about 5.5 million people in the world suffer from cancer pain every day, and about 57% of Chinese urban residents have experienced headaches to varying degrees.

The International pain Society has decided to designate October 11 each year as the World Analgesia Day from 2004. Morphine is an important part of opiate drugs. Various preparations of its derivative morphine hydrochloride have been commonly used in clinical anesthesia. They have strong analgesic effect. They are mostly used for severe pain caused by trauma, surgery and burns. They are also used for angina pectoris caused by myocardial infarction, and can also be used as analgesic, antitussive and antidiarrheal agents. We need to correctly understand and use analgesics.

The first Pharmacopoeia of the people's Republic of China contains poppy shell, which is nicknamed as imperial rice shell, chestnut shell, pipe and opium fruit. Harvest after "cutting cigarettes" in summer, remove pedicel and seeds, dry vinegar stir-fry or honey roast and set aside.

Sexual taste meridian: flat; sour, astringent; lung, large intestine, kidney meridian; toxic.

Functional indications: restrain the lungs, astringent intestines, relieve pain. For chronic cough, diarrhea, prolapse of anus, epigastric pain.

Usage: oral administration: fried soup, 3g to 10g; or into pills, powder.

Taboo: cough, diarrhea, dysentery at the beginning, or long-term dysentery stagnation does not disappear. This product is addictive and should not be taken regularly; it is prohibited for children.

Compared with opium and heroin, the content and purity of "toxic substances" in opium poppy shell are not high, but its ingredients also include more than 30 kinds of alkaloids, such as morphine, codeine, narcotin, papaverine and so on. For "addicts", eating poppy shells has little effect, but for the vast majority of people who have never been exposed to drugs, especially those who are highly sensitive to drugs, the "skill" should not be underestimated. After eating, these people will feel light and happy more or less, physiologically, some people may blush slightly, some people may have a faster heartbeat, some people may be easy to doze off, and some people may not be able to fall asleep.

Even people who are not sensitive to drugs are bound to have a certain degree of dependence if they eat food with poppy shells for a long time. When people eat this kind of food for a long time, they will have symptoms such as chills, sweating, fatigue, yellowing and muscle loss; in severe cases, it may cause damage to the nervous system, digestive system, and even endocrine disorders, and eventually become addicted to it. It has a potential tendency to take drugs, which has a very bad impact on society.

Poppy shells are included in the "list of non-edible substances and easily abused Food Additives that may be illegally added to Food" issued by the State in 2009, and marked the main food categories that may be added: hot pot, hot pot base and snacks, it may also be used in lo mei products or even medium beverages. Long-term consumption of foods containing poppy shells may cause chronic poisoning.

National laws have clear provisions on the use of opium poppy shells and prohibit illegal supply, transport and use. However, there are still some food processors who disregard national laws, regulations and people's health and mix poppy shells into their food to attract repeat customers. In 2011, the State once again affirmed in the "Emergency notice on strengthening the Supervision and Management of Food condiments and Food Additives" that food safety regulatory authorities at all levels should severely crack down on such practices in accordance with the requirements of the Food Safety Law and its implementing regulations.

On January 20, 2016, the State Food and Drug Administration announced that the State Food and Drug Administration was organizing a law enforcement action to crack down on illegal addition of food. it was found that the food operated by 35 catering service units contained poppy shell ingredients such as papaverine, morphine, codeine, nacodine and tibaine, which were suspected of illegal addition. Five of them have been transferred to the public security organs and prosecuted, 20 have been transferred to the public security organs for investigation, and 10 are being investigated by the food and drug regulatory authorities.

Opium poppy seed is the seed of opium poppy, according to the Great Dictionary of traditional Chinese Medicine, opium poppy seed, also known as Imperial Rice, Ganping non-toxic, treatment of nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, prolapse of the anus. It is a kind of seasoning widely used all over the world, which is generally used by adding raw grains or ground to baked goods or sauces to increase the flavor of the food. In Europe and the Middle East, poppy seeds are used in bread, cakes, stuffing, biscuits, etc.; in Turkey, they are usually ground and mixed with sauces; in India, they are also ground and mixed with sauces; in Germany and Slavic peoples, they are often used in pasta, vegetables, and fish dishes. The common poppy seed is dark blue with gray (looks like black, smaller than sesame), hard and round, with a light core flavor. After drying and baking, poppy seeds for baking are no longer toxic. The main compounds related to the aroma of opium poppy seeds are aldehydes, furanones, pyrazines, limonene and butyl isobutyrate.

In 1991, China promulgated the standard "determination of names and contents of spices and condiments", "Table of names of spices and condiments" also clearly marked: poppy, usable parts, such as seeds. In addition, the United States Federal Government regulations Manual, Encyclopedia Britannica and so on, all record poppy seeds as safe edible substances.

Under the influence of modern drugs, the state forbids any institution to develop poppy seed products. China's criminal law stipulates that anyone who privately grows more than 7 poppies violates the law. The poppy seeds, which are used as seasoning materials, are likely to take root and grow. Opium poppy cultivation sites are uniformly managed by the state, and China's only legal opium poppy cultivation base is in Gansu, blocked by a million miles of wire and steel mesh, and guarded by armed police soldiers 24 hours a day. Opium poppies are extracted and used in state-designated pharmaceutical factories, and their appendages are burned and buried.

Cihai describes that opium poppy seeds contain 50% oil and can be squeezed. The oil extracted is called poppy seed oil or royal rice oil. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, after opium poppy was introduced into China and planted in Gansu, Yunnan and other places, opium poppy seeds were mainly used for cooking porridge and meals, and then pressed oil from the middle to serve as edible oil. Over time, farmers in the planting land found that poppy seed oil had many magical effects on health. Local officials regarded it as a precious treasure for the emperor, and many imperial doctors used it as a panacea, hence the name "imperial rice oil". Royal rice oil contains oleic acid, linoleic acid, vitamin E, trace elements and other nutrients, which is easily absorbed by the human body and is very beneficial to human health. It is widely used in salads all over the world.

On September 4, 2005, opium poppy seeds were jointly approved by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Food and Drug Administration, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the State Administration of quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. On June 6, 2006, the Ministry of Health approved royal rice oil (poppy seed oil) as a new resource food, and the ban on royal rice oil (poppy seed oil), a natural green and rare vegetable oil with great nutritional value, was finally lifted.

In 1987, the 42nd session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution formally designating June 26 of each year as the "International Drug Control Day." At this time, the public will settle the evil of opium, and the increasingly serious drug problem has become a global disaster. But poppy is beautiful, and its proper use will bring beauty and health to mankind. I hope everyone will cherish life and stay away from drugs. Let the poppy continue along the path for the benefit of mankind.

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