Opium latex is harvested just after the petals drop and before the fruit matures. The fruit type is a capsule, an example of a dry fruit that splits at maturity. The white, opium-containing sap oozes freely from vertical slashes made on immature capsules. It is white when collected and dries into a brown-black mass. Immature opium poppy capsules oozing latex from gashes made with a razor blade.
Alkaloids are a major class of natural products that have a physiological effect in other organisms.
They characteristically contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and in many cases, oxygen. Because of their potent pharmacological effects, alkaloids are the basis for many pharmaceuticals. Noscapine is used to treat coughs, and papaverine is a cerebral vasodilator that can also relieve muscle spasms. Morphine began to be used as a painkiller in the 1830s, but its use did not become widespread until 1853 with the advent of the hypodermic needle. In England, Godfrey's Cordial, a mixture of opium, molasses, and sassafras, was used as a teething syrup for children, a cough remedy, an antidote for diarrhea and dysentery, and a general cure-all for maladies of the elderly.