N. O. PAPAVERACEÆ.
58. Papaver Rhœas, Linn, h.f.b.i., i. 117.
Vern.:—Lala, lal-posta (H.); Lai poshta, Lal-poshter-gaehh (B.); jungli-Mudrika (Bomb.); Tambadya-Khasa-Khesa-che jhada (M.); Lala; lal-khas-khas-nu-jhada (Guz.); Lal Khas-Khas-ka-jhar (Dec); Shivappu-gasha-gasha-chedi; Shigappu-postaka-chedi (Tam.); Erra-gassa-gasala chetbe; Erra posta-Kaya chethe (TelJ; Kempu-Khasa Khasa Gida (Kan.); Chovanna Kasha-Kashach-cheti (Malay.).
Habitat:—Kashmir.
An annual herb, with a milky juice; branched, hispid, 1-2 ft. high. Leaves 1-2-pinatifid; leaf-lobes more or less cut, ascending, awned. Scapes with spreading and adpressed hairs. Flowers scarlet, 3-4 in. diam. Sepals hairly above. Pairs of petal unequal; filaments filiform. Stigmatic rays overlapping, i. e., reaching or exceeding the edge of the disk. Capsule stalked, subglobose glabrous.
Parts used:—The capsules.
Use:—The milk from the capsules is narcotic and has slightly sedative properties. (Watt).
59. P. dubium Linn. h.f.b.i., i. 117.
Habitat:—Western Himalaya, from Garhwal to Hazara, in cornfields. Simla 4,000-7,000 ft., W. Asia, Europe.
It resembles P. rhoeas, but often glabrous, and leaf segments usually narrower; hairs of scape appressed. Petals scarlet, in unequal pairs. Capsule sessile.
An alkaloid has been extracted from it.
By extraction of the seed capsules of Papaver dubium with light petroleum, a previously unknown alkaloid, aporeine, is obtained. The thick, yellow, amorphous extractive product amounting to 0'0L5 p. c„ yields with 10 p. c. hydrochloric acid, the hydrochloride, which forms glistening scales, melting at about 230°, and gives precipitates with silver nitrate and phosphomolybdic acid. The base forms microscopic leaflets after crystallisation from ether, light petroleum, or chloroform. When a solution of the trace of the alkaloid or its hydrochloride in a drop of nitric acid of sp.gr. 1*3 is dropped into concentrated sulphuric acid, a violet, brown, and finally yellow
