[Sca-cooks] poppyseeds?

[Terry Decker]

As I recall, raw opium is extracted by nicking the seed pod and letting
gravity collect the sap at the bottom end of the cut.  There is a certain
amount of skill required in making a proper cut.  While the seeds do not
produce opium, they do contain trace amounts of the alkaloids that
constitute opium and will produce positive results in tests for those
alkaloids.

Bear

>Ah, but was that poppy seeds? The sap of the opium poppy was dried and
>concentrated and used as a painkiller/soporific in period (that's what
>morphine, codeine, and heroin are derived from- they're all "opiates"),
>which is what this seems to refer to, but I understand the seeds are simply
>a garnish and a flavoring, since they haven't any of the opiate compounds
in
>them.
>
>Saint Phlip,