Pulvis Opii Et Ipecacuanhae

Morphinecodeinenoscapinepapaverinethebaine MyanmarAfghanistanColombiaLaosMexicoIndiaPakistanThailandTurkeyChinaAustralia AU:S8(Controlled drug)BR:Class A1(Narcotic drugs)CA:Schedule IDE:Anlage III(Special prescription form required)NZ:Class BUK:Class AUS:Schedule IIUN:Narcotic Schedule IControlled unless and except for medical use under a license. Opium(also known aspoppy tears, orLachryma papaveris) is the driedlatexobtained from the seedcapsulesof the opium poppyPapaver somniferum.Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of theanalgesicalkaloidmorphine, which is processed chemically to produceheroinand other syntheticopioidsfor medicinal use and for theillegal drug trade. Opium's mainpsychoactivealkaloids, primarilymorphine, act onμ-opioid receptors, causinganalgesia, with long-term use leading to tolerance and dependence. The latex also contains the closely relatedopiatescodeineandthebaine, and non-analgesicalkaloidssuch aspapaverineandnoscapine. The traditional, labor-intensive method of obtaining the latex is to scratch ("score") the immature seed pods (fruits) by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off and dehydrated. The English word for opium isborrowedfromLatin, which in turn comes fromAncient Greek:ὄπιον(ópion), adiminutiveof ὀπός (opós, 'juice of a plant').The wordmeconium(derived from the Greek for "opium-like", but now used to refer tonewbornstools) historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of the opium poppy or different species of poppies.TheMediterraneanregion holds the earliest archaeological evidence of human use of opium poppies dating back to before 5000 BCE, with cultivation beginning around 3400 BCE inMesopotamia. Opium was widely used for food, medicine, ritual, and as a painkiller throughout ancient civilizations includingGreece,Egypt, andIslamicsocieties up tomedievaltimes. The production methods have not significantly changed since ancient times. Through selective breeding of thePapaver somniferumplant, the content of thephenanthrenealkaloids morphine, codeine, and to a lesser extent thebaine has been greatly increased. In modern times, much of the thebaine, which often serves as the raw material for the synthesis foroxycodone,hydrocodone,hydromorphone, and othersemisyntheticopiates, originates from extractingPapaver orientaleorPapaver bracteatum. In preparation for the Second World War, the U.S. Army contracted farmers in the State ofSinaloa, Mexico, to grow opium crops. This was to provide morphine (the gold standard of analgesia) for injured soldiers. Modern opium production, once widely prohibited, still involves large-scale cultivation—especially inAfghanistan—where it is harvested by scoring poppy pods to collect latex used for both illicit drugs and legal medicines, with recentTaliban-led reductions cutting cultivation in Afghanistan by over 95%. For the illegal drug trade, themorphineis extracted from the opium latex, reducing the bulk weight by 88%. It is then converted toheroinwhich is almost twice as potent.