PAPAVERACEAE

(Poppy family)

• Medicinal / Folk-medicinal aspects: •
• Adverse effects: [Summary yet to be added] •
• Veterinary aspects: •

The family has recently increased significantly in size with the bringing together of members of the Papaveraceae, Fumariaceae, and Pteridophyllaceae into a single family (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group 2009). It now comprises over 2000 species in 43 genera. These annual or perennial herbs and shrubs are chiefly found in northern (especially warm) temperate regions, with a few on mountains of eastern and southern Africa.^a,b

A number of species are grown as annual or perennial ornamentals in gardens and parks, including Papaver glaucum Boiss. & Hausskn. (tulip poppy), Papaver rhoeas L. (corn poppy), Papaver somniferum L. (opium poppy), Papaver nudicaule L. [= Oreomecon nudicaulis (L.) Banfi, Bartolucci, J.-M.Tison & Galasso] (Iceland poppy), Papaver orientale L. (oriental poppy), and Papaver rupifragum Boiss. & Reut. (Spanish poppy). The popular annual Shirley poppies are derived from Papaver rhoeas L. (Hunt 1968/70).

^a https://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/orders/ranunculalesweb.htm#Papaveraceae; accessed November 2025
^b https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30000446-2; accessed November 2025

Argemone mexicana L.

[syn. Papaver mexicanum (L.) E.H.L.Krause]

Bermuda Thistle, Mexican Poppy, Prickly Poppy, Thistleroot, Yellow Thistle, Argémone du Mexique, Chardon du Pays, Faux Chardon du Mexique, Pavot Épineux, Mexikanischer Stachelmohn

The prickles on the leaves and fruiting capsules can cause mechanical injury to humans and grazing animals (Oakes & Butcher 1962). The acrid yellow sap has slightly corrosive properties (Dalziel 1937, Quisumbing 1951) and the plant can cause dermatitis in some individuals (Behl et al. 1966). Patch tests carried out using the leaves of this species crushed in a small quantity of normal saline elicited positive reactions in 2 of 20 contact dermatitis patients tested in New Delhi, India (Singh et al. 1978).

Stuart (1911) noted that in Chinese traditional medicine, the oil expressed from the seeds of this plant (which is known as lao shu le) is said to allay the irritation of herpes and many other eruptions of the skin. According to Chopra et al. (1960), the yellow juice that exudes from the plant has been used externally to treat scabies, [unspecified] cutaneous affections, and ophthalmia; and the oil is also used for [unspecified] cutaneous affections. Ghosh & Das (2011) noted that in the Darjiling District of West Bengal, India, the seeds are used [in an unspecified way] for [unspecified] skin diseases.

The seed is a common adulterant of mustard seed (Brassica) either by chance or for profit. Ingestion of argemone seed oil has caused epidemic dropsy in humans in Africa and India with hyperpigmentation of the skin and "sarcoidal" angiomatous swellings and glaucoma (Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk 1962).

Berberine, one of the alkaloids derived from the plant, produces intense pain when infiltrated into the conjunctiva for the treatment of trachoma or into the skin for the treatment of leishmaniasis (Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk 1962). Berberine, when injected as a local anaesthetic, occasionally produces hyperpigmentation at the site of injection (Seery and Bieter 1940). Reactions to berberine are also noted under Berberis.

Argemone platyceras Link & Otto

Crested Poppy, Rough Prickly Poppy, Thistle Poppy

This species can produce mechanical injury (Muenscher 1951).

Argemone polyanthemos (Fedde) G.B.Ownbey

[syns Argemone intermedia auct. non Sweet, Argemone intermedia var. polyanthemos Fedde]

Annual Prickly Poppy, Bluestem Prickly Poppy, Crested Prickly Poppy, Plains Prickly Poppy, Thistle Poppy, White Prickly Poppy

Pammel (1911), referring to this plant incorrectly as Anemone intermedia Sweet, noted that the prickly leaves [can] cause serious mechanical injury and inflammation, and added that the injuries are somewhat painful.

Argemone subalpina A.McDonald

McDonald (1991) described this spiny species from subalpine regions of Sierra Peña Nevada, Mexico as being closely related to Argemone platyceras Link & Otto [see above].

Bocconia arborea S.Watson

A crude alkaloid extract ("boconine hydrochloride") of this Mexican plant was found to induce local anaesthesia upon injection in a dog and subsequently also in human patients. Applied to the conjunctiva of the eye, it produced intolerable irritation and corneal opacity. The seed oil has been described as being useful for resolving tumours, abscesses, and swellings and for healing sores; further, when [the seeds ? leaves ?] are crushed and placed on warts, they corrode and remove them (Martínez 1969).

Xu et al. (2014) reviewed the now extensive literature on the various alkaloids found in this and related species of Bocconia L. and Macleaya R.Br.

Chelidonium majus L.

Celandine, Greater Celandine, Nipplewort, Rock Poppy, Swallowwort, Tetterwort, Chélidoine Éclaire, Chélidoine Élevée, Éclaire, Grande Chélidoine, Grande Éclaire, Herbe à la Verrue, Schöllkraut

Dioscorides (1st Century A.D.) referred to a bitter and biting nature of the plant (Gunther 1959). The fresh juice — which is bright orange in colour — when applied to the skin, is acrid, irritant and vesicant, and even escharotic (Loudon 1855, Van Hasselt & Henkel 1882, Oesterlen 1856, White 1887, Piffard 1881, Pammel 1911). Lacassagne & Joly (1927) described how various irritant plants, including Chelidonium majus, had been used by ex-soldiers in France in the 16th Century to ulcerate the skin in order to attract pity. Massey (1941) included Chelidonium majus in a list of plants described as "less troublesome" causes of dermatitis, but did not cite the source of his information. According to North (1967) the plant, which is commonly found near old walls and ruins in most parts of England and Wales, can produce dermatitis. Hardin & Arena (1974) also refer to dermatitis from the plant in the USA and Canada.

The sap of the plant is also irritating to the eye (Hilbert 1916) but was at one time used to treat opacities of the cornea to improve eyesight.

Piffard (1881) noted that the juice of the leaves and root, pure or mixed with water, applied on lint to ill-conditioned ulcers, modifies them beneficially, and promotes cicatrization. According to Remington et al. (1918), the irritant juice has long been used locally upon corns, warts, eczema, and other diseases of the skin. Wren (1975) also notes that the fresh juice makes an excellent application for corns and warts, adding that an infusion of the herb has been used orally in the treatment of jaundice, scrofulous diseases and eczema. In traditional Chinese medicine, the dried whole plant (bai qu cai; 白屈菜) is applied externally in the form of an ointment or paste to treat insect bites and infections (Huang 1993).

The plant contains a variety of alkaloids including chelidonine, chelerythrine, and berberine, and also chelidonic acid, a gamma pyrone dicarboxylic acid. Repeated subcutaneous injections of chelidonic acid for the treatment of an epithelioma of the eyelid produced much reaction and pain after each injection and the lids sloughed and scarred up to the orbital margin (Duke-Elder & MacFaul 1972b).

The plant is botanically unrelated to the lesser celandine, Ranunculus ficaria L., fam. Ranunculaceae.

Fumaria officinalis L.

Common Fumitory, Drug Fumitory, Earth Smoke, Fumewort, Fumée de Terre, Fumeterre Officinale, Gebräuchlicher Erdrauch, Gemeiner Erdrauch

Fumaria (fumitory) was mentioned as a remedy for ingrowing eyelashes by Dioscorides in the First Century A.D. (Gerarde 1636).

In traditional Chinese medicine, a decoction prepared from the herbage of this plant (which is known as tzu hua ti ting) is used as an application to glandular swellings, strumous [= scrofulous] sores, carbuncles, and every kind of abscess (Stuart 1911).

Glaucium flavum Crantz

[syn. Chelidonium glaucium L.]

Yellow Horned Poppy, Glaucière Jaune, Pavot Jaune des Sables, Gelber Hornmohn

Pammel (1911), citing several earlier authors, lists this species as having irritant properties.

Lamprocapnos spectabilis (L.) Fukuhara

[syns Dicentra spectabilis (L.) Lem., Fumaria spectabilis L.]

Bleeding Heart

A male greenhouse worker, aged 19 years, developed dermatitis of the hands, forearms and neck. A second attack followed re-exposure to this plant. Patch tests with the pulverised leaves were positive: negative with the pulverised leaves of primrose, chrysanthemum, begonia, geranium and aster. Patch tests with an alcoholic solution of an ether extract of the plant were also positive. Control tests were not recorded (Harville 1933).

Meconopsis horridula Hook.f. & Thomson

[syn. Papaver horridulum (Hook.f. & Thomson) Christenh. & Byng]

Blue Thorned Poppy, Prickly Blue Poppy, Spiny Meconopsis, Tibetan Poppy

This plant, which is occasionally grown as an ornamental for its showy blue flowers (Hunt 1968/70), has spiny foliage and stems.

Papaver dubium L.

[syn. Papaver rhoeas subsp. dubium (L.) Kuntze]

Blindeyes, Doubtful Poppy, Long-Headed Poppy, Long Smooth-Headed Poppy, Saat-Mohn

Gardner & Bennetts (1956) include this species in a list of plants known or suspected of causing dermatitis.

Papaver rhoeas L.

Common Poppy, Corn Poppy, Field Poppy, Flanders Poppy, Red Poppy, Shirley Poppy, Coquelicot, Grand Coquelicot, Pavot Coquelicot, Klatsch-Mohn

Pammel (1911), citing several earlier authors, lists this species as having irritant properties.

Papaver somniferum L.

Oilseed Poppy, Opium Poppy, Schlaf-Mohn

Opium, the dried latex of the unripe capsule, yields about 20 alkaloids including morphine. Contact dermatitis occurred in a worker in a morphine factory who had washed some cloths through which morphia had been filtered (Lewin 1908), and in nurses who made morphine tablets (Dore and Thomas 1944, Jordon and Osborne 1939). Crude morphine produced dermatitis in factory-workers and patch tests with morphine hydrochloride produced negative results (Dore and Thomas 1944, Colman Green 1944). Morphine itself has produced strong sensitivity; a nurse showed a positive patch test reaction to morphine solutions diluted to 1 in 1,000,000 and exposure to the air in a ward produced clinical symptoms (Jordon and Osborne 1939). Ethylmorphine has caused dermatitis of the eyelids (Duke-Elder 1965, Cummer 1931). Opium applied to the skin caused dermatitis of the genitals (Heller 1931). Contact dermatitis from morphine or its unidentified impurities is most likely to occur at the factory level where mechanical handling is avoided and the compounds are worked largely by hand. Panniculitis can occur in morphine addicts (Barquin Lopez et al. 1961).

The plant was cultivated as a source of cooking oil by Egyptians as early as 1500 B.C. The seed which is free of narcotic properties provides oil and the treated seed is used as a condiment for poppyseed cake and bread.

Roemeria hybrida (L.) DC.

[syns Chelidonium hybridum L., Papaver roemeria Christenh. & Byng, Roemeria violacea Medik.]

Purple Horned Poppy, Violet Horned-Poppy, Wind Rose, Roemérie Hybride, Roemérie Intermédiaire, Roemérie Violacée

Pammel (1911) lists Roemeria violacea as having irritant properties.

Sanguinaria canadensis L.

[syn. Sanguinaria rotundifolia Greene]

Blood Root, Red Puccoon, Tetterwort

The genus Sanguinaria Dill. ex L. comprises this single species, which is found growing naturally in eastern North America (Mabberley 2017). The name sanguinaria refers to the fact that the plant, when wounded, throws out a copious blood-like sap — a property well known to the American Indians, who used the red sap as a dye (Felter & Lloyd 1898).

The rhizome of this plant provides Sanguinaria, which was formerly included in both British and US Pharmacopeias. According to Felter & Lloyd (1898), the dried and powdered root, when inhaled, is exceedingly irritant to the nasal passages and provokes sneezing — this property evidently contributing in some way to its reported use as a snuff for the treatment of nasal polyps. Felter & Lloyd (1898) also state that:

Sanguinaria is of value in syphilitic skin eruptions, and, as an ointment, has been employed, locally, in tinea. The powder, made into a cataplasm with slippery-elm, has been used in domestic practice as a local dressing for frozen feet. An infusion, made in vinegar, has been found valuable in several cutaneous diseases, as eczema, ringworm, and warts. At one time the root was extensively employed in the treatment of carcinomata, and was also applied to exuberant excrescences for its escharotic action, and to ill-conditioned ulcers, to create a healthy energy in the sores.

Both Wren (1975) and Stuart (1979) allude to these early uses.

Pammel (1911) listed this species as having irritant properties and, citing earlier authors, added that "[the drug] is very irritant to mucous surfaces, so much so that the dust is very disagreeable, and we presume that [it] would have a similar irritating action on the skin". Massey (1941) included Sanguinaria canadensis in a list of plants described as "less troublesome" causes of dermatitis, but did not cite the source of his information.

A female laboratory worker developed a vesicular eruption on the fingers, face, neck and chest one day after handling "sanguinaris powder". It is possible that she had been exposed to poison ivy (Toxicodendron) three days previously (Fox 1921).

[Further information available but not yet included in database]

References

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