In the centre of the peninsula Afium Karahissar (literally opium-black-castle) and Ushak are important localities for opium, which is also the case with Isbarta, Buldur and Hamid farther south. The product of these districts finds its way to Smyrna, in the immediate neighbourhood of which but little opium is produced. The export from Smyrna in 1871, in which year the crop was very large, was 5650 cases, valued at £784,500.[207]
Turkey Opium, as it is generally called in English trade, occurs in the form of rounded masses which according to their softness become more or less flattened or many-sided, or irregular by mutual pressure in the cases in which they are packed. There appears to be no rule as to their weight[208] which varies from an ounce up to more than 6 lb.; from ½ lb. to 2 lb. is however the most usual. The exterior is covered with the remains of poppy leaves strewn over with the Rumex chaff before alluded to, which together make the lumps sufficiently dry to be easily handled. The consistence is such that the drug can be readily cut with a knife, or moulded between the fingers. The interior is moist and coarsely granular, varying in tint from a light chestnut to a blackish brown. Fine shreds of the epidermis of the poppy capsule are perceptible even to the naked eye, but are still more evident if the residue of opium washed with water, is moistened with dilute chromic acid (1 to 100). The odour of Turkey opium is peculiar, and though commonly described as narcotic and unpleasant, is to many persons far from disagreeable. The taste is bitter.
The substances alleged to be used for adulterating Turkey opium are sand, pounded poppy capsules, pulp of apricots or figs, gum tragacanth or even turpentine. Bits of lead are sometimes found in the lumps, also stones and masses of clay.
2. Egyptian Opium,—though not abundant little as formerly is still met with in European commerce. It usually occurs in hard, flattish cakes about 4 inches in diameter covered with the remnants of a poppy leaf, but not strewn over with rumex-fruits. We have also seen it (1873) as freshly imported, in a soft and plastic state. The fractured surface of this opium (when hard) is finely porous, of a dark liver-colour, shining here and there from imbedded particles of quartz or gum, and reddish-yellow points (of resin?). Under the microscope an abundance of starch granules is sometimes visible. The morphine in a sample from Merck amounted to 6 per cent.
According to Von Kremer who wrote in 1863,[209] there were then in Upper Egypt near Esneh, Kenneh, and Siout, as much as 10,000 feddan (equal to about the same number of English acres) of land cultivated with the poppy from which opium was obtained in March, and seed in April. Hartmann[210] states that the cultivation is carried on by the government, and solely for the requirement of the sanitary establishments.
S. Stafford Allen in 1861 witnessed the collection of opium at Kenneh in Upper Egypt,[211] from a white-flowered poppy. An incision is made in the capsule by running a knife twice round it transversely, and the juice scraped off the following day with a sort of scoop-knife. The gatherings are collected on a leaf and placed in the sun to harden. The produce appeared extremely small and was said to be wholly used in the country.
Gastinel, director of the Experimental Garden at Cairo, and government inspector of pharmaceutical stores, has shown (1865) that the poppy in Egypt might yield a very good product containing 10 to 12 per cent. of morphine, and that the present bad quality of Egyptian opium is due to an over-moist soil, and a too early scarification of the capsule, whereby (not to mention wilful adulteration) the proportion of morphine is reduced to 3 or 4 per cent.
In 1872, 9636 lb. of opium, value £5023, were imported into the United Kingdom from Egypt.
3. Persian Opium.—Persia, probably the original home of the baneful practice of opium-eating, cultivates the drug chiefly in the central provinces where, according to Boissier, the plant grown to furnish it is Papaver somniferum, var. γ album (P. officinale Gm.) having ovate roundish capsules. Poppy heads from Persia which we saw at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, had vertical incisions and contained white seeds.
The strongest opium called in Persia Teriak-e-Arabistani is obtained in the neighbourhood of Dizful and Shuster, east of the Lower Tigris. Good opium is likewise produced about Sari and Balfarush in the province of Mazanderan, and in the southern province of Kerman. The lowest quality which is mixed with starch and other matters, is sold in light brown sticks; it is made at Shahabdulazim, Kashan, and Kum.[212] A large quantity of opium appears to be produced in Khokan and Turkestan.