Argemone Mexicana

[Smarthead]

This brightly white-yellow flowering poppy plant, called "food of the dead" by the ancient Aztecs and sacred to their rain-god Tlaloc, has been introduced from Mexico long ago to China and is now growing wild in Xishuangbanna. The local Yao people who have been using opium for centuries are taking tea from the leaves to help them to quit smoking opium.





The herb and flowers are smoked to produce a mild sedating effect. The whole plant can be extracted to produce a substitute with much stronger sedative properties.





Argemone mexicana contains a complex mixture of alkaloids. The alkaloids berberine, protopine and argemonine are contained in the entire plant



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