Opium is a narcotic drug prepared from the juice of the opium
poppy, Pa paver somniferum, a plant probably indigenous in the south of
Europe and western Asia, but now so widely cultivated that its original
habitat is uncertain. 
The medicinal properties of the juice have been
recognized from a very early period. It was known to Theophrastus and appears in his time to have consisted of an extract of the
whole plant, since Dioscorides, about A.D. 77, draws a distinction
between it and an extract of the entire herb derived from the capsules alone.
From
the 1st to the 12th century the opium of Asia Minor appears to have been
the only kind known in commerce. In the 13th century opium is
mentioned by Simon Januensis, physician to Pope Nicholas IV., while
meconium was still in use. In the 16th century opium is mentioned by
Pyres (1516) as a production of the kingdom in Bengal, and of Malwai.
Its introduction into
India appears to have been connected with the spread of Islam. The opium
monopoly was the property of the Great Mogul of Persia and was regularly
sold. In the 17th century Kaempfer describes the various kinds of opium prepared in Persia, and
states that the best sorts were flavoured with spices and called theriaka.
These preparations were held in great estimation during the middle ages,
and probably supplied to a large extent the place of the pure drug.
