From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
From the genus Papaver and the Middle English popi, a bright flower with copious seeds. In times of famine, the leaves were used as a substitute for spinach. The petals, which yield a potent red coloring, can be used to make inks. Somniferum, the poppy's botanical name, means "sleep-bringing", a reference to the milky juices from the unripe pods, which are the source of opium and its well-known derivatives, morphine and codeine. Paracelcus (1493-1541), a Swiss alchemist credited with the introduction of opium and mercury into pharmacopoeia, was the first one to extract laudanum, an opium-based painkiller, from the poppy for medical research. In 1530, he published the ingredients of certain of his concoctions, including gold leaf and other whimsical bits and pieces, but it was later revealed that he was really only making a distillation of opium.
