Does The California Poppy Contain Opium

The California poppy like most other poppies does not contain opium, however it does contain certain properties that allowed it to be used in American folk medicine by early settlers and Native Americans.

Plant medicine was the only type of medicine the early settlers in California had to depend on and the California poppy, which is the state flower adopted as the state flower on December 12, 1890. Voted in against two other flowers had the most medicinal uses and along with its beauty could have been one of the main reasons for it being chosen as the state flower.

These early pioneers used the native California poppy for pain, headaches, and menstrual pain. It was also used to treat nervous disorders, as a diuretic and for colic in babies. There were other ailments that the properties of this plant were used for along with the ones mentioned.

They made an herbal tea using this flowers sap to treat these many ailments and others, by boiling the sap in water. They also made a type of compress by soaking the sap in water to relieve some ailments such as muscle spasms.
Although the settlers used the sap for medicinal purposes, there is no record of them using the sap to smoke as they did with the opium poppy in opium dens.

The California poppy seeds were also used by these early settlers in baking much the same as the poppy seeds of the Papaver somniferum or opium poppy are used in baking.