ABSTRACT
Although the psychological effects of opium may have been known to the ancient
Sumerians
, the first undisputed reference to poppy juice is found in the writings of
Theophrastus
in the third century
.
. The word
opium
itself is derived from the Greek name for juice, the drug being obtained from the juice of the poppy,
Papaver somniferum
. Arabian physicians were well versed in the uses of opium; Arabian traders introduced the drug to the Orient, where it was employed mainly for the control of dysenteries.
