[Sca-cooks] poppyseeds?

[Terry Decker]

>> > They were certainly used as a medicinal:
>> >
>> > "Not poppy, nor mandragora,
>> > Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
>> > Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
>> > Which thou owedst yesterday."
>> >
>> > Shakespeare - Othello, Sc. 3.
>> >
>> > - Doc
>
>My bet that was referring to the sap.  In the new world, at least, the home
>remedy opiate was/is prickly lettuce.  I recall getting it as a child when
I
>broke my collar bone.
>Olwen

I would think that it refers to the forerunner of laudanum (tincture of
opium or opium dissolved in alcohol), opium dissolved in wine, hence a
"drowsy syrup."  Raw opium is a gum

Bear