History of Opium
Opium is a narcotic drug prepared from the
juice of the opium poppy, Pa paver somniferum,
a plant probably indigenous in the south of
Europe and western Asia, but now so widely
cultivated that its original habitat is uncertain. The medicinal properties of the juice
have been recognized from a very early period.
It was known to Theophrastus and appears in
his time to have consisted of an extract of the
whole plant, since Dioscorides, about A.D. 77,
draws a distinction between it and an extract of
the entire herb derived from the capsules alone. From the 1st to the 12th
century the opium of Asia Minor appears to have
been the only kind known in commerce. In the
13th century opium is mentioned by Simon
Januensis, physician to Pope Nicholas IV., while
meconium was still in use. In the 16th century
opium is mentioned by Pyres (1516) as a
production of the kingdom in Bengal, and of
Malwai. Its introduction into India......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: Opium
Approximate Word Count: 1253
Approximate Pages: 6 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on Opium, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!