POPPY OIL (Oleum papaveris)  , a vegetable oil obtained by pressure from the minute seeds of the garden, or opium poppy, Pa paver somniferum . The white-seeded and black-seeded varieties are both used for oil-pressing; but, when the production of oil is the principal object of the culture, the black seed is usually preferred . The qualities of the' oil yielded by both varieties and the proportion they contain (from 50 to 6o%) are the same, By cold pressing seeds of fine quality yield from 30 to 40% of virgin or white oil (huile blanche), a transparent limpid fluid with a slight yellowish tinge, bland and pleasant to taste, and with almost no perceptible smell . On second pressure with the aid of heat an additional 20 to 25% of inferior oil (huile de fabrique or huile russe) is obtained, reddish in colour, possessed of a biting taste, and a linseed-like smell . The oil belongs to the linoleic or drying series, having as its principal constituent linolein; and it possesses greater drying power than raw linseed oil . Its specific gravity at 15° C. is 0.925 . Poppy oil is a valuable and much used medium for artistic oil painting . The fine qualities are largely used in the north of France (huile d' ceillette) and in Germany as a salad oil, and are less liable than olive oil to rancidity . The absence of taste and characteristic smell in poppy oil also leads to its being much used for adulterating olive oil . The inferior qualities are principally consumed in soap-making and varnish-making, and for burning in lamps . The oil is very extensively used in the valley of the Ganges and other opium regions for food and domestic purposes . By native methods in India about 30% of oil is extracted, and the remaining oleaginous cake is used as food by the poor .

Ordinary poppy-oil cake is a valuable feeding material, rich in nitrogenous constituents, with an ash showing an unusually large proportion of phosphoric acid . The seed of the yellow horned poppy, Glaucium luteum, yields from 30 to 35% of an oil having the same drying and other properties as poppy oil; and from the Mexican poppy, Argemone mexicana, is obtained a non-drying oil used as a lubricant and for burning .