Medicine

What is opium?

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... opium substance derived by collecting and drying the milky juice in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy , Papaver somniferum… Its chief active principle is the alkaloid morphine , a narcotic... Morphine, heroin, and codeine are addicting drugs; papaverine and narcotine are not. A tincture of opium is called laudanum ; paregoric is a mixture of opium, alcohol, and camphor.

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