In addition to delicious desserts, poppy seeds are the raw material for many of our medicines

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Poppy seeds traditionally play an important role in Hungarian gastronomy, primarily as the main ingredient for various sweets and desserts. They take on special significance during the end-of-year holidays, as Christmas bagels would be unthinkable for many people without a rich poppy seed filling.

According to the National Chamber of Agriculture, the poppy cultivation area in our country has expanded from 9 thousand hectares to more than 12 thousand hectares in the past 10 years

This means that the sowing area of ​​various poppy varieties has almost doubled since joining the EU. This is primarily due to the extremely diverse use of poppy seeds as a raw material for food, pharmaceuticals and flower arrangements. Poppy cultivation is strictly regulated in the EU. Accordingly, it can be grown for personal use on an area of ​​less than 500 m2, using varieties with a low alkaloid content of less than 0.06 percent. Its cultivation on a larger area or the sowing of varieties with a high alkaloid content for pharmaceutical use requires a permit.

Most people like poppy seeds for their rich flavor

Few people know that the mineral content of poppy seeds is also remarkable, they contain many trace elements and minerals that are essential for the functioning of our body. They are high in calcium and iron, phosphorus also strengthens bone tissue, and manganese is needed for collagen production, so it is good not only for bones and joints, but also for the skin. Poppy seeds can therefore be consumed not only as a food ingredient, but also as a dietary supplement: mix the ground poppy seeds with a little water, season with honey, heat them slightly over steam, put them in a steamer, and then store them in the refrigerator. Consume at least 1 tablespoon of it daily.

Poppy seeds are a genus of the family of the buttercup family, which also includes the poppy, and are a temperate and cold climate plant

In addition to the gastronomic use and health-protective effects of poppy seeds, poppy varieties with high alkaloid content are also the raw materials for many medicines. The pharmaceutical industry primarily uses the dried milky sap of poppy seeds, which is rich in alkaloids, especially morphine, codeine, narcotine, thebaine, and papaverine. The alkaloids produced from the milky sap extracted from poppy seeds are primarily analgesic and antispasmodic. Accordingly, many pharmaceutical preparations contain as active ingredients papaverine, which relieves spasms of the gastrointestinal tract, biliary tract and urinary tract, narcotine and codeine, which relieve cough, and morphine, which has a strong analgesic effect.

NAK