the Economic Products of India.
3
The Opium or White Poppy.
P A P A V E R s o m n i f e r u m .
Opium" in Central India and certain parts of Rájputana. It nowhere
manifests in India a tendency to escape from cultivation or to become na
-
turalised; it thus confirms so far the historic facts which point to its
introduction within comparatively recent times, though long anterior to the
British conquests and influence.
Oil.—In France a form of poppy is specially grown on account of its
oil-yielding SEED. In India this is very rarely the case, permission to grow
the plant being, in British India, governed by the regulations regarding
opium. The seed obtained from the ripe capsules (after the removal of the
drug) constitutes, however, a regular article of trade. It is also to some
extent eaten or employed in the preparation of certain curry-powders. At
the same time poppy-seed oil is edible or is employed for illumination,
and the cake left after the expression of the oil is an article of diet amongst
the poor or is used for feeding cattle. The yield of oil is said to be propor-
tioned to the freshness of the seed, and as much as 14 ozs. are sometimes
obtained from 4lb. The oil readily bleaches by exposure to the sun, and
becomes transparent and almost tasteless. Mr. Bingham wrote an
account of the oil and seed in connection with Sasseram (Four. Agri.-Hort.
Soc. Ind., XII., 345); he there states that the yield of oil is about 30 per
cent. It has no intoxicating properties; the seed has a sweet taste and
is eaten parched, and largely employed by the sweetmeat-makers as an
addition in their wares. In 1862 oil sold at about 5 seers to the rupee.
"It appears to me that this oil, if properly prepared, would, from its thin
and limpid character, be admirably adapted to supersede many of the
purposes, if not all, where the more expensive olive oils of Southern France
and Italy are now used, and would be an admirable watch-maker's oil."
Hawkes furnished for 1855 more detailed information regarding the Malwa
source of this oil:—"There are three lakhs of bíghás under poppy cultiva-
tion in Malwa, the average produce of seed per bíghá being 2 maunds,
each of 40 seers, or 82lb, which gives a total of 6,00,000 maunds of seed,
worth from R1 to 1¾ per maund. From these six lakhs, deduct 1¼ seed
per bíghá required for seed, and there remains 5,90,623 maunds of seed,
for oil. The oil extracted from one maund of seed being about 13 seers,
the above quantity of seed would yield a total of 1,91,952 maunds of oil,
which sells at from R4-8-8 to R5 per maund, or £40-6 per ton. The whole
of the oil at present made here appears to be consumed in Malwa. Mr.
Anson, the First Assistant to the Governor General and Superintendent
of the Opium Department at Indore, concludes that 5,000 maunds might
be available for export at Indore alone." Hawkes then discussed the ad-
vantages of the two possible routes by which the seed or oil could pass
from the "Malwa" poppy fields, namely, to Bombay, or to Calcutta; and
he concluded his account of this oil in the following words:—"By simple
exposure to the rays of the sun, in shallow vessels, this oil is rendered
perfectly colourless. It is supposed by the Natives to produce sleep and to
strengthen the brain. Poppy oil is peculiarly suitable for mixing with
paints; 'with white lead it leaves a beautiful surface which does not after-
wards change by the action of light into a dirty yellow'" (Hawkes,
31-32). " In Oudh, each rayat sows from two to four bíghás in the month
of October. The oil is extracted by the common native press. The cost
of the seed is 10 seers for the rupee, and the oil sells for 3 seers for the
rupee; two-fifths of the weight of the seed employed is about the proportion
of oil yielded by the native process. The poppy seed is eaten by the
Natives made into sweetmeats, provided the opium has been extracted
from the seed vessels, otherwise, it is bitter and narcotic, and under these
circumstances the oil extracted is also bitter" (S immonds, Trop. Agri.,
423).
OIL.
Seed.