Poppy Seeds - Beneficial Foods

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. History and Culinary Traditions
3. What the Seed Is
4. Nutritional Profile
5. The Oil: Linoleic Acid and Tocopherols
6. What Research Exists on the Seed Itself
7. Opium Alkaloids on the Seed Surface
8. Poppy Seeds and Drug Tests
9. Poppy-Seed Tea: Dependence, Poisoning and Deaths
10. Poppy Seed Allergy
11. Poppy-Seed Oil in Medical Imaging
12. Buying, Storing and Preparing
13. Amounts Used in Studies
14. Who the Research Raises Concerns For
15. Connections
16. Key Research Papers
17. Featured Videos

Introduction

Poppy seeds are the tiny, kidney-shaped seeds of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. The same plant that is grown for morphine and codeine also supplies the blue-black and white seeds baked into rolls, bagels, strudels and cakes and ground into curries. The seed itself is a food: it is rich in oil, calcium, manganese and copper, and it has been eaten for thousands of years.

Poppy seeds also carry a problem that no other common seed has. The seeds do not make opium alkaloids themselves, but they can pick them up from the plant during harvest, and how much clings to the surface varies enormously from one batch to the next. That single fact explains most of the research on poppy seeds: food-safety assessments of morphine on the seeds, dozens of studies on positive drug tests after a poppy-seed bagel or pastry, and case reports of dependence and poisoning in people who drank tea made from unwashed seeds.

This page covers both sides: the seed as a food, with its USDA nutrient values and the little research that exists on its health effects, and the contamination question, stated as what assessments and studies have found.

History and Culinary Traditions

The opium poppy is one of the oldest cultivated medicinal plants. The Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, from about 1550 BCE, lists poppy as a sedative, and the plant was grown across the ancient Mediterranean (overview with sources). A Turkish study notes that Turkey remains one of the world's major legal opium poppy producers and that poppy seed paste is eaten there in large amounts, sometimes more than 100 g in a single meal (PMID 30579243).

Central and Eastern Europe

In German, Austrian, Czech, Hungarian and Polish baking the seeds are ground with sugar, milk or honey into a dark, sweet filling. German Mohnkuchen (poppy-seed cake) is common around Christmas, Polish makowiec is a rolled yeast cake spiralled with poppy paste, Czech and Slovak kolache are filled pastries, and the Jewish hamantaschen of Purim and the Hungarian beigli roll use the same filling. Blue-grey seeds dominate here. A US study of urine drug tests used a commercial poppy-seed kolache, a reminder of how directly this baking tradition meets modern toxicology (PMID 40929133).

India and Bengal

In India the white seed is called khus khus (or posto in Bengali). It is ground into a paste that thickens and enriches curries and kormas, and in Bengal it is the main ingredient of aloo posto, potatoes cooked in ground poppy seed and eaten with rice. Khus khus also flavours milk drinks such as thandai (overview with sources). A Malaysian study tested curry made with poppy seeds because the practice is common in South and Southeast Asian cooking and had raised questions in drug testing (PMID 31279278).

Elsewhere

Poppy seeds top bagels, bread rolls and pretzels in North America and Europe, go into salad dressings and muffins, and are pressed for a mild cold-pressed oil. Several countries restrict their import because of the alkaloid question or because viable seeds could be grown for opium (overview with sources).

What the Seed Is

The opium poppy forms a round seed capsule after flowering. Each capsule holds hundreds to thousands of seeds; a Croatian field study of white-seeded culinary poppies found an average of four capsules per plant and about 3.5 g of seed per capsule (PMID 39795355). The alkaloids that make the plant medically important — morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine and others — build up in the milky latex of the capsule, not inside the seed (PMID 24306419).

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) states plainly that poppy seeds do not contain the opium alkaloids themselves but can become contaminated with them through pest damage and during harvesting (EFSA 2018). A UK case report describes the same mechanism: insect damage to the plant and sub-optimal harvesting practices are associated with contamination of the seeds (PMID 34458851).

Seed colours and varieties

Seeds come in blue-black (slate-blue), grey, yellow and white forms. A Hungarian sensory study found that the typical poppy aroma and flavour were stronger in both the oils and flours of blue-seeded varieties than in white-seeded ones (PMID 37685099). Plant breeders have also developed low-morphine and latex-poor varieties, partly to reduce the narcotic risk of the crop (PMID 24306419); German researchers have analysed the seeds and oils of several low-morphine winter and summer varieties for food use (PMID 33722000).

Nutritional Profile

The values below are for dried poppy seed from the USDA FoodData Central database (SR Legacy entry 171330, "Spices, poppy seed") (USDA FoodData Central). USDA lists one tablespoon as 8.8 g and one teaspoon as 2.8 g. Because poppy seeds are usually eaten a spoonful at a time, the tablespoon column is the realistic one; 100 g is a large amount, though Turkish and Central European fillings can use that much in one dish. Percent Daily Values (%DV) use the US FDA's label reference amounts (FDA Daily Values).

Macronutrients

Minerals

Vitamins and other compounds

What stands out

• Calcium. At 1,438 mg per 100 g, poppy seed is one of the most calcium-dense plant foods in the USDA tables — more than a day's Daily Value in 100 g. In a single tablespoon that comes to about 127 mg, roughly a tenth of the Daily Value. How much of the calcium in poppy seeds the body actually absorbs has not been measured in the studies reviewed for this page.
• Manganese and copper. A tablespoon supplies about a quarter of the Daily Value for manganese and a sixth for copper; per 100 g the seeds give nearly three times the manganese Daily Value and almost twice the copper Daily Value.
• Fiber. Nearly a fifth of the seed's weight is dietary fiber.
• The fat is mostly linoleic acid. About two-thirds of the fat is the omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid; omega-3 is almost absent. The next section looks at the oil in more detail.

The Oil: Linoleic Acid and Tocopherols

Poppy seed is roughly 40% oil by weight, and lab analyses agree closely on its make-up. In cold-pressed oil from Croatian white-seeded culinary poppies, linoleic acid made up 76.3% of the fatty acids, oleic acid 13.5% and palmitic acid 7.9% (PMID 39795355). In 13 samples of low-morphine German varieties, linoleic acid was 70.7–75.2% of the fatty acids (PMID 33722000). A Hungarian comparison of industrial and culinary varieties found the same three fatty acids dominating both the oils and the flours (PMID 37685099).

A Polish study that compared 13 kinds of seeds sold as functional food ingredients — including blue poppy, chia, flax, hemp, sesame, pumpkin and sunflower — found that polyunsaturated fatty acids dominated in all of them and that linoleic acid was the main fatty acid in most. Only chia and flax stood apart, with very high alpha-linolenic (omega-3) acid (PMID 36676166). Poppy seed therefore sits with sunflower and sesame as an omega-6 seed, not with flax and chia. Questions about the balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fats in the diet are covered on the site's Seed Oils page.

Vitamin E forms

Most of the vitamin E in poppy seed is gamma-tocopherol rather than the alpha form that food labels count. USDA lists 8.8 mg of gamma-tocopherol per 100 g against 1.8 mg of alpha-tocopherol. In the German low-morphine varieties, gamma-tocopherol reached 287 mg per kg of oil in one variety (PMID 33722000).

Why poppy seeds turn bitter

Linoleic acid oxidises readily. German food chemists identified a set of bitter-tasting compounds in poppy seeds — oxidised fatty acids and their breakdown products, formed when the seed's fat reacts with oxygen — with very low taste thresholds (PMID 31841329). In the German sensory study, tasters separated samples by attributes including "rancid" (PMID 33722000). The bitterness of old poppy seeds is therefore a sign of fat oxidation.

What Research Exists on the Seed Itself

Compared with flax, chia or sesame, there is very little health research on poppy seed as a food. No human trial of eating poppy seeds for a health outcome turned up in the PubMed searches behind this page. Most published work on the seed is about its composition, its flavour, its alkaloid contamination and its effect on drug tests.

Animal work

A 2025 study in rats fed a high-fat diet compared washed and unwashed poppy seeds with a weight-loss drug. The authors report that washed seeds reduced weight gain and improved blood lipids, lowering triglycerides and LDL and VLDL cholesterol, and that the treated groups had lower glucose. Higher doses of unwashed seeds caused modest liver stress (raised ALT and AST enzymes) and mild kidney inflammation in the rats (PMID 40193308). This is a single animal study; it says nothing yet about effects in people, and the authors themselves call for further research.

What the nutrient profile suggests, and its limits

The seed's calcium, manganese, copper and fiber are real, measured amounts. What is not known is how much they contribute to health in the amounts people normally eat — usually a teaspoon or tablespoon on bread, or a few spoonfuls ground into a filling or curry. The site's pages on Calcium, Manganese and Copper cover what those nutrients do.

Opium Alkaloids on the Seed Surface

Because the seeds come from the opium poppy, their surface can carry morphine, codeine, thebaine and other alkaloids picked up at harvest. The amount varies enormously with variety, growing region, harvest method and processing.

EFSA's assessment

In its 2018 update, EFSA's contaminants panel assessed data on morphine, codeine, thebaine, oripavine, noscapine and papaverine in poppy seed samples (EFSA Journal 2018;16(5):5243). Its main findings:

• Acute reference dose. The panel confirmed an acute reference dose (the amount that can be eaten in one day without appreciable risk) of 10 micrograms of morphine per kg of body weight. Codeine is counted too, converted to "morphine equivalents" by multiplying by 0.2, so the limit is a group value for morphine plus codeine.
• Two groups of seeds. The panel divided samples into a high-morphine group, with a mean morphine content of 147 mg/kg, and a low-morphine group, with a mean of 16.4 mg/kg (full text).
• Exposure. For the high-morphine seeds, mean and high dietary exposure exceeded the acute reference dose in most age groups by up to 33-fold.
• Processing. Washing, soaking, heat treatment and grinding may reduce the alkaloid content of raw seeds by 25–100% in the final product.
• Thebaine. No quantitative risk assessment was possible for thebaine, but the panel noted that its LD50 values (the dose lethal to half of test animals) are 3- to 10-fold lower than those of morphine, suggesting the estimated exposures might pose a health risk.

EU legal limits

Since 1 July 2022 the EU has set maximum levels for opium alkaloids, measured as morphine plus 0.2 × codeine: 20 mg/kg for whole or ground poppy seeds sold to the final consumer, and 1.5 mg/kg for bakery products containing poppy seeds (Regulation (EU) 2021/2142). As of a 2024 news investigation, the US FDA had not set comparable limits for poppy seeds (KFF Health News, republished by Scientific American).

What processing does

A 2010 review of 95 references concluded that normal poppy seed consumption is generally regarded as safe and that food processing reduces morphine content considerably, by up to 90%. It also noted that most earlier drug-test studies did not account for these processing losses and so overestimated the morphine people actually ate (PMID 19901868).

Measured contents

Measured values in studies span a wide range. Turkish white, yellow and blue-black poppy seed pastes contained 1.9, 4.0 and 2.6 mg of morphine per kg (PMID 30579243). A 1990 US study used Australian seeds with 108 micrograms of morphine per gram (108 mg/kg) and a bakery cake whose seed contained 169 micrograms per gram (PMID 2263066). A US government-funded study gave volunteers raw seeds in doses of 45 g, each containing 15.7 mg of morphine and about 3 mg of codeine (PMID 24887324). Some products are codeine-predominant rather than morphine-predominant (PMID 37987376), and in 2022 seeds high in thebaine entered the Australian food market (PMID 37917043).

Poppy Seeds and Drug Tests

Eating ordinary poppy-seed foods can produce a positive opiate drug test. This is sometimes called the "poppy seed defence," and it has been studied repeatedly because a positive test can affect jobs, driving licences, court cases and treatment programmes (PMID 30579243).

Urine tests

• Rolls with poppy seed (1990). Four volunteers ate one to three poppy-seed rolls, each with 2 g of seed. Of 264 urine samples, only 16 exceeded 300 ng/mL by any method, and only three exceeded 400 ng/mL by the confirmatory GC/MS method. Total opiates were below 150 ng/mL in every case 24 hours after eating (PMID 2263066).
• Controlled raw seed doses (2014). In 22 volunteers given two 45 g doses of raw seed eight hours apart, 83.4% of urine samples were morphine-positive at a 300 µg/L cut-off and 26.6% at 2,000 µg/L. Peak morphine reached up to 7,522 µg/L. No sample was codeine-positive at 2,000 µg/L (PMID 24887324).
• Turkish seed paste (2019). Ten adults ate 100 g of poppy seed paste at breakfast over three days. Urine stayed opiate-positive for up to 48 hours at a 300 ng/mL cut-off and up to 12 hours at 2,000 ng/mL — positive even at the higher cut-off Turkey adopted in 2016 (PMID 30579243).
• Malaysian curry (2019). Curry with 1 g of poppy seed per 100 mL produced no positive tests. At 5 g per 100 mL, one of six people was positive after a single meal and five of six after two meals a day for three days. Drinking more water lowered urine concentrations (PMID 31279278).
• Codeine-only results (2023). Guidance has held that high codeine with little morphine points to codeine use rather than poppy seeds. Yet when 11 people ate one of 10 poppy-seed foods, 6 of 33 urine samples (18%), from three of the products, were codeine-positive and morphine-negative at 300 ng/mL. The authors conclude that poppy seed foods cannot reliably be told apart from codeine use by the published concentration ratios (PMID 36181466).
• Ten days of daily eating (2024). Ten people ate one of five products each morning for 10 days. Three products gave negative results throughout; two gave positive results at every point after baseline, all codeine-predominant, with one codeine peak of 13,161 ng/mL. No sample reached 15,000 ng/mL, and there was no clear build-up over the ten days (PMID 37987376).
• One pastry, long detection (2026). Fifteen adults ate as much as they liked of a commercial poppy-seed kolache. At a 300 ng/mL cut-off, seven were still positive at 48 hours and four at 72 hours; at the very low cut-offs used in some clinical settings, opiates were detectable for up to 108 hours (PMID 40929133).

Oral fluid and hair

In a controlled study of 17 adults given 45 g of raw seed (15.7 mg morphine), every saliva sample screened positive half an hour after dosing. Depending on the cut-off used, confirmed morphine-positive results were possible for 0.5–1 hour after eating (PMID 25345619). In the ten-day US study, two people's hair contained measurable codeine (41 and 51 pg/mg), but no hair sample reached the common reporting threshold of 200 pg/mg (PMID 37987376).

Telling poppy seeds from heroin

Heroin breaks down to 6-acetylmorphine (6-AM), a marker that poppy seeds do not produce. The Turkish paste study found no 6-AM in any sample but found thebaine in all of them, and suggested thebaine as a supporting marker of poppy seed consumption (PMID 30579243); the 2026 kolache study also points to thebaine (PMID 40929133). In the 2014 study, one commercial 6-AM screening immunoassay had 91% specificity while another gave no false positives (PMID 24887324). A 2018 German review explains that most heroin biomarkers can also come from poppy seed products, opium preparations or medicines, and that analysing several markers together gives the most reliable result (PMID 28681463). The 2010 review adds that no unambiguous marker separates poppy food from heroin or pharmaceutical morphine, and that no amount of poppy food is known to guarantee a negative test (PMID 19901868).

Poppy-Seed Tea: Dependence, Poisoning and Deaths

The serious harms tied to poppy seeds do not come from bagels or cakes. They come from tea made from large quantities of unwashed or unprocessed seeds, which can carry far more alkaloid than food-grade seed. This section reports what clinicians and investigators have documented. It deliberately gives no preparation details.

Dependence and opioid use disorder

• A review and case study describes poppy-seed tea as containing enough opioid to produce psychoactive effects and withdrawal symptoms when stopped abruptly, notes that few clinicians are aware of it, and reports that some people use it habitually or for pain (PMID 30719627).
• A 2023 US case report describes a 65-year-old man with chronic pain who began using poppy-seed tea after his opioid prescriptions stopped, developed dependence and was diagnosed with opioid use disorder; he was treated with buprenorphine/naloxone (PMID 36698302).
• A US telehealth practice identified 18 patients treated for poppy-seed tea use disorder between 2021 and 2022, living in 10 states; 83% were men, with a mean age of 40. Their stabilising buprenorphine dose (median 16 mg a day) was similar to that used for other opioid use disorders (PMID 37909343).
• In a 2007 questionnaire at a drug clinic in Wellington, New Zealand, 11 of 24 opiate-dependent patients (46%) reported having used poppy-seed tea, and for five current users it was their main source of opiates (PMID 17364857).

Poisoning

• Opium-like overdose symptoms after eating contaminated seeds include reduced consciousness and respiratory depression (dangerously slowed breathing). A 2021 UK report describes a 21-year-old man with severe heart failure and cardiogenic shock after drinking homemade poppy-seed tea, the first reported case of acute heart toxicity; it reversed with high-dose naloxone and heart-support drugs (PMID 34458851).
• In 2022, high-thebaine seeds on the Australian market poisoned people who drank tea made from them. Three patients studied in Sydney had muscle jerking and rigidity, metabolic acidosis and acute kidney injury; one needed dialysis, had seizures and muscle breakdown, and spent 18 days in hospital. All three survived (PMID 37917043). This poisoning pattern differs from classic morphine overdose, matching EFSA's concern about thebaine.

Deaths

Deaths from morphine overdose after drinking tea made from unwashed poppy seeds have been reported in the United States. A 2024 KFF Health News investigation describes such deaths and cites a 2021 study that found more than 100 reports to US poison control centres between 2000 and 2018 involving intentional abuse or misuse of poppy seeds (KFF Health News, republished by Scientific American). The same reporting notes that a US consumer advocacy group petitioned and then sued the FDA over the lack of limits on opiate content in poppy seeds, and that bills on the issue had been introduced in Congress. PubMed lists further case reports. The site's Opioid Overdose page describes how opioid overdose is recognised and treated.

Legal status

The case literature describes US legal status differently. One review says unwashed seeds are sold legally in the United States (PMID 30719627); a 2023 case report says purchase and possession of unwashed or unprocessed seeds is not legal, while food-grade seeds are (PMID 36698302). The disagreement itself shows how unsettled the regulation is.

Poppy Seed Allergy

Poppy seed allergy is uncommon but can be severe. A 2026 Italian review reports that most case reports involve children, that cake made with ground poppy seed is the food most often associated with anaphylaxis (a sudden, whole-body allergic reaction), and that reactions can follow even trace amounts. Four IgE-reactive poppy seed proteins have been identified, and cross-allergy with sesame and buckwheat, as well as cross-reactions with cashew, walnut, wheat, rye, rice and kiwi, are described. The review describes allergy management as based on eliminating the food (PMID 41814618).

• Allergens and tree nuts. A 2024 Vienna–Odense study of 36 sensitised patients identified four poppy seed allergens: Pap s 1 (a vicilin), an alpha-hairpinin fragment of it, Pap s 2 (a legumin) and Pap s 3. Blood IgE to whole poppy seed and to alpha-hairpinin separated allergic from tolerant patients well. The vicilin and legumin cross-reacted strongly with hazelnut and buckwheat, and alpha-hairpinin with an almond allergen (PMID 38734371).
• Sensitised is not the same as allergic. In a Turkish children's allergy centre, only 38 of 191 children sensitised to poppy seed (19.9%) were clinically allergic; 10 of those 38 had anaphylaxis. Many had other food allergies, most often to sesame and tree nuts. Skin prick-to-prick testing and alpha-hairpinin levels were the best diagnostic markers (PMID 41371442).
• Inhaled allergen. A 2006 report describes a 16-year-old boy who developed swelling, conjunctivitis and breathing difficulty from inhaling poppy seed; he was also sensitised to hazelnut, chickpea and peanut (PMID 16948357).

More on diagnosis and labelling is on the site's Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis pages.

Poppy-Seed Oil in Medical Imaging

Poppy-seed oil has an unusual second life in medicine. Iodine bonded to the fatty acids of poppy-seed oil makes an oily contrast medium, ethiodized poppy-seed oil, which shows up on X-rays. It was first made in 1901, became mainly a diagnostic contrast agent from the 1920s, and is now also used therapeutically in imaging and treating the lymphatic system, for example to close lymph leaks (PMID 31283538).

Fertility imaging

In hysterosalpingography (an X-ray of the uterus and fallopian tubes used to check whether the tubes are open), oil-based contrast has been reported to have a fertility-enhancing effect of its own. A retrospective Chinese study of 1,053 infertile patients who had the test with ethiodized poppy-seed oil reported a total pregnancy rate of 53.8% and a live birth rate of 42.7% over follow-up; adverse events were mainly pain (20.6%) and contrast reflux into tissue (7.9%), described as mild (PMID 35492317). That study had no comparison group.

A 2025 randomised trial in 224 women with unexplained repeated implantation failure tested a 5 mL infusion of ethiodized poppy-seed oil into the uterus before frozen embryo transfer. Clinical pregnancy rates were higher with the oil (56% vs 37.4%), but the primary outcome, live birth, did not differ significantly (39% vs 27.1%); the authors concluded the infusion did not increase live births in this group (PMID 41029675). This is a medical procedure involving an iodinated drug, not a use of culinary poppy-seed oil. The site's Female Infertility page covers the wider context.

Buying, Storing and Preparing

Food-grade seed

The contamination findings above separate two products: food-grade seed sold for baking and cooking, and unwashed or "non-food grade" seed. The 2023 case report describes commercially available baking seeds as not carrying the alkaloids on their seed coats (PMID 36698302), while the Australian thebaine poisonings and the drug-test studies show that alkaloid levels in seed on the market still vary from product to product (PMID 37917043) (PMID 37987376).

Storage and rancidity

Because the oil is dominated by linoleic acid, poppy seeds are prone to oxidation, which produces the bitter compounds identified by German researchers (PMID 31841329). Oxidation of fats speeds up with warmth, light and air, which is why ground poppy seed, with its larger exposed surface, tends to turn bitter sooner than whole seed.

Cooking and baking

According to EFSA, the usual kitchen and industrial steps — washing, soaking, heating and grinding — may cut the alkaloid content of raw seed by 25–100% (EFSA 2018), and the 2010 review reports reductions of up to 90% during food processing (PMID 19901868). The drug-test studies show that baked goods can still produce positive tests (PMID 40929133).

Amounts Used in Studies

No study has tested a health-promoting amount of poppy seed in people. The amounts in the literature come from drug-testing and safety research:

• Poppy-seed rolls containing 2 g of seed each, one to three rolls (PMID 2263066).
• Curry containing 1 g or 5 g of poppy seed per 100 mL (PMID 31279278).
• Two doses of 45 g of raw seed, eight hours apart, in controlled US research studies (PMID 24887324) (PMID 25345619).
• 100 g of poppy seed paste at breakfast, an amount the Turkish authors describe as typical of local eating (PMID 30579243).
• For reference, EFSA's acute reference dose of 10 micrograms of morphine equivalents per kg of body weight works out to 700 micrograms in one day for a 70 kg adult (EFSA 2018).

Who the Research Raises Concerns For

• People subject to drug testing. Workplace, roadside, court-ordered and clinical drug tests can come back positive after ordinary poppy-seed foods, sometimes for several days and sometimes as codeine-only results (PMID 36181466) (PMID 40929133). The 2010 review notes the same problem in heroin-assisted maintenance programmes, which require abstinence from other opiates (PMID 19901868).
• People with opioid use disorder or chronic pain. The case series and reports above describe dependence on tea made from unwashed seeds, sometimes starting after prescription opioids were stopped (PMID 36698302) (PMID 37909343).
• Anyone drinking tea from unwashed seed. Documented outcomes include dependence, heart failure, thebaine poisoning with kidney injury, and deaths (PMID 34458851) (PMID 37917043).
• Children, and others eating large amounts. EFSA found that exposure from high-morphine seeds exceeded the acute reference dose in most age groups, because the limit scales with body weight (EFSA 2018).
• People with seed or tree-nut allergies. Poppy seed allergy is linked with sesame, hazelnut, almond, cashew, walnut and buckwheat allergy through cross-reacting proteins (PMID 38734371) (PMID 41814618).
• Women undergoing fertility imaging. Ethiodized poppy-seed oil is an iodinated contrast drug, and the reported side effects include pain and reflux of contrast into tissue (PMID 35492317); questions about iodine-containing contrast belong with the treating clinician.

This page is general food information. Decisions about allergies, drug testing and medicines belong with a clinician.

Connections

• Seeds — all seed pages
• Sesame Seeds — the other calcium-rich baking seed, and a cross-reacting allergen
• Chia Seeds — the omega-3 contrast
• Flaxseed — the other high-ALA seed
• Sunflower Seeds — another linoleic-rich seed
• Hazelnuts — allergen cross-reactivity
• Black Seed — a different seed, often confused by name
• Calcium — poppy seed's standout mineral
• Manganese — a quarter of the Daily Value per tablespoon
• Copper — a sixth of the Daily Value per tablespoon
• Seed Oils — the omega-6 linoleic acid debate
• Opium Poppy and the Chemistry of Morphine — the plant's alkaloids
• Opioid Overdose — recognition and treatment
• Food Allergy — diagnosis and labelling
• Anaphylaxis — the severe reaction
• Female Infertility — where the contrast oil is used

Key Research Papers

1. Lachenmeier DW, Sproll C, Musshoff F. Poppy seed foods and opiate drug testing--where are we today? Therapeutic drug monitoring. 2010;32(1):11-8. PubMed PMID: 19901868
2. elSohly HN, elSohly MA, Stanford DF. Poppy seed ingestion and opiates urinalysis: a closer look. Journal of analytical toxicology. 1990;14(5):308-10. PubMed PMID: 2263066
3. Smith ML, Nichols DC, Underwood P, et al. Morphine and codeine concentrations in human urine following controlled poppy seeds administration of known opiate content. Forensic science international. 2014;241:87-90. PubMed PMID: 24887324
4. Concheiro M, Newmeyer MN, da Costa JL, et al. Morphine and codeine in oral fluid after controlled poppy seed administration. Drug testing and analysis. 2015;7(7):586-91. PubMed PMID: 25345619
5. Özbunar E, Aydoğdu M, Döğer R, et al. Morphine Concentrations in Human Urine Following Poppy Seed Paste Consumption. Forensic science international. 2019;295:121-127. PubMed PMID: 30579243
6. Gan CY, Zainuddin Z, Muhamad Noh H, et al. Profiling of morphine and codeine in urine after the ingestion of curry containing poppy seed as an evidence for opiates defence in Malaysia. Forensic science international. 2019;302:109865. PubMed PMID: 31279278
7. Reisfield GM, Teitelbaum SA, Jones JT. Poppy Seed Consumption May Be Associated with Codeine-Only Urine Drug Test Results. Journal of analytical toxicology. 2023;47(2):107-113. PubMed PMID: 36181466
8. Reisfield GM, Teitelbaum SA, Jones JT, et al. Urine and hair drug test results associated with daily consumption of codeine-predominant poppy seed food products. Journal of analytical toxicology. 2024;48(1):27-36. PubMed PMID: 37987376
9. Reisfield GM, Teitelbaum SA, Mathias KT, et al. Extended urinary opiate detection following ad libitum ingestion of poppy seed pastry. Journal of analytical toxicology. 2026;50(2). PubMed PMID: 40929133
10. Maas A, Madea B, Hess C. Confirmation of recent heroin abuse: Accepting the challenge. Drug testing and analysis. 2018;10(1):54-71. PubMed PMID: 28681463
11. Haber I, Pergolizzi J Jr, LeQuang JA. Poppy Seed Tea: A Short Review and Case Study. Pain and therapy. 2019;8(1):151-155. PubMed PMID: 30719627
12. Kauppila GR, Eagen KV. Opioid Use Disorder from Poppy Seed Tea Use: A Case Report. The American journal of case reports. 2023;24:e938675. PubMed PMID: 36698302
13. Tan YPA, Alexander PDG, Knowles S. Acute cardiotoxicity following 'poppy seed tea' consumption. Anaesthesia reports. 2021;9(2):e12130. PubMed PMID: 34458851
14. Burgess A, Craig J, Miller EN, et al. Treatment of poppy seed tea misuse with buprenorphine in a telehealth practice: a case series. Journal of addictive diseases. 2024;42(4):572-577. PubMed PMID: 37909343
15. Braye K, Harwood T, Inder R, et al. Poppy seed tea and opiate abuse in New Zealand. Drug and alcohol review. 2007;26(2):215-9. PubMed PMID: 17364857
16. Penafiel R, Yoo D, Turner C, et al. Toxicokinetics of thebaine in those consuming non-food grade poppy seeds as a tea. Clinical toxicology (Philadelphia, Pa.). 2023;61(9):644-648. PubMed PMID: 37917043
17. Gillani Q, Mehreen A, Bakhtawer R, et al. Investigating Anti-Obesity Potential of Papaver Somniferum Seeds in Obese Rat Model. Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE. 2025;(217). PubMed PMID: 40193308
18. Varga I, Moslavac T, Flanjak I, et al. White-Seeded Culinary Poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) Se Biofortification: Oil Quality, Fatty Acid Profile, and Seed Yield. Plants (Basel, Switzerland). 2024;14(1). PubMed PMID: 39795355
19. Luhmer K, Schulze-Kaysers N, Feuereisen M, et al. Fatty Acid Composition, Tocopherols, Volatile Compounds, and Sensory Evaluation of Low Morphine Yielding Varieties of Poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) Seeds and Oils. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry. 2021;69(11):3439-3451. PubMed PMID: 33722000
20. Lainer J, Dawid C, Dunkel A, et al. Characterization of Bitter-Tasting Oxylipins in Poppy Seeds (Papaver somniferum L.). Journal of agricultural and food chemistry. 2020;68(38):10361-10373. PubMed PMID: 31841329
21. Czerwonka M, Białek A. Fatty Acid Composition of Pseudocereals and Seeds Used as Functional Food Ingredients. Life (Basel, Switzerland). 2023;13(1). PubMed PMID: 36676166
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