PAPAVERACEAE - POOPY FAMILY
Scientific Description:
Herbs, often woody at the base, with coloured or transparent sap. Leaves usually alternate, occasionally opposite, exstipulate, often much divided. Sepals 2(−3), free, usually caducous. Petals 4(−6), free, or slightly united at the base. Corolla actinomorphic or zygomorphic. Stamens numerous to 6 to 4. Ovary superior, syncarpous, of 2−20 carpels. Fruit a capsule, nut, lomentum, or siliquiform. Seeds 1 to numerous.
Reference:
Davis PH (1965). Papaveraceae, In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1: 213.
Public Description:
The “poppy family” contains usually annual or perennial herbs, rarely shrubs and small trees in temperate and subtropical climates (mostly in the northern hemisphere). All parts contain a well-developed duct system which is copmposed of "laticifers", producing a milky latex, a watery white, yellow or red juice. The family is outstanding for its many garden ornamentals and pharmaceutically important plants. Especially, Papaver somniferum L. contains opium which is supposed to contain some 25 alkaloids; the better known are morphine, codeine, papaverine, narcotine etc. Morphine is used extensively to relieve pain, moving on sensory cells in the brain, and providing an artificial sleep in the patient. Codeine is used as a mild sedative in cough syrups. Papaverine is approved to treat spasms of the gastrointestinal tract, bile ducts and ureter and used as a smooth muscle relaxant in microsurgery. Australia (Tasmania), Turkey and India are the major producers of poppy for medicinal purposes
References:
Anonymous 1 (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaveraceae/,Accessed date: 03.03.2016.
Anonymous 2 (2016). http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/papaver.htm/,Accessed date: 03.03.2016.
Anonymous 3 (2017). http://www.biologydiscussion.com/angiosperm/dicotyledons/papaveraceae-characters-distribution-and-types/47934/,Accessed date: 27.03.2017.
Anonymous 4 (2016). https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/family/papaveraceae/,Accessed date: 03.03.2016.
