Poppy Seeds

Nutty and pleasant in taste, poppy seeds are nutritious oilseeds used as condiment in cooking. They are the seeds obtained from the dry fruits (pods) of the poppy plant (opium poppy) and entirely free from any sinister side effects of other poppy plant products such as opium poppy. 

Poppy plant is a biennial herb of East Mediterranean, and Asia Minor origin belonging to the Papaveraceae family of the genus: Papaver. Scientific name: Papaver somniferum.

Ancient Egyptians were aware of seeds extraction from the poppy head. Through the Arab traders, opium cultivation spread to Persia, ancient Khorasan, and India. Today seeds poppy is a well established commercial crop in many parts of the world Mediterranean countries including Turkey, France, India, and East European region.

The poppy plant grows up to 5 feet in height. It requires full sunlight and fertile soil to flourish. Depending upon variety, lilac, blue, red or white flowers appear during spring on long peduncles which subsequently turn into globular or oval shaped fruits (capsules).

Health benefits of poppy seeds

• Poppy seeds contain many plant derived chemical compounds that are known to have anti-oxidant, disease preventing and health promoting properties.
• Their unique nutty aromatic flavor is because of many fatty acids and essential volatile oils, which comprise about 50% of  net weight. The seeds are especially rich in oleic and linoleic acids. Oleic acid, a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, helps lower LDL or "bad cholesterol" and increase HDL or "good cholesterol" levels in the blood. Research studies suggest that Mediterranean diet which is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids helps to prevent coronary artery disease and strokes by favoring healthy blood lipid profile.
• Poppy seeds outer coat is a good source of dietary fiber. 100 g raw seeds provide 19.5 g or 51% of recommended daily levels (RDA) of fiber. Much of this fiber is metabolically inert content which helps increase bulk of the food by absorbing water down the digestive tract and thereby easing constipation problem.
• Additionally, dietary fiber binds to bile salts (a product of cholesterol) and decrease their re-absorption in the colon. It thus helps in a further decrease in blood LDL cholesterol levels.
• The seeds are excellent source B-complex vitamins such as thiamin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, riboflavin, niacin, and folic acid. Many of these vitamins functions as co-factors in substrate metabolism especially fat and carbohydrates. 
• Poppy seeds contain good levels of minerals like iron, copper, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc andmagnesium. Copper is required in the production of red blood cells. Zinc is a co-factor in many enzymes that regulate growth and development, sperm generation, digestion and nucleic acid synthesis. Potassiumis an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure.Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the powerful anti-oxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase.
• Dried poppy seeds contain very small levels of opium alkaloids such as morphine, thebaine, codiene, papaverine etc. When consumed in food, these compounds produce a minimal effect when consumed on the human nervous system. On the contrary, the chemicals have beneficial effects on the human body; soothe nervous irritability, act as painkillers, and used in pharmacy as well as in many traditional medicines in the preparations of cough mixtures, expectorants etc.