Kachumba
Family • Papaveraceae - Argemone mexicana Linn. - PRICKLY POPPY - Lao chou Scientific names Argemone mexicana Linn. Other vernacular names CHINESE: Lao chou ?, Ji ying su. INDIA: Ghamoya. Common names Baruas (Iv.) Goatweed (Engl.) Diluariu (Tag.) Golden thistle of Peru (Engl.) Kachumba (Ilk.) Mexican poppy (Engl.) Kagang-kagang (C. Bis.) Prickly poppy (Engl.) Kasubang-aso (Ilk.) Queen thistle (Engl.) Bird-in-the-bush (Engl.) Ci ying su (Chin.) Gen info A plant used as "nourishment for the dead" by the Aztecs. The plant latex is collected into a pliable mass and fashioned into an image of an Aztec god. In a sacrifice ritual, the "god" image is killed and its "flesh" distributed among the worshippers. Its became cemented into the culture of poppy when Chinese residents in Mexico extracted from the latex a product with opium-effects. Botany Kachumba is an erect, rather stout, branched annual herb, about 1 meter high. Leaves are 5 to 11 centimeters long, more or less blotched with green and white, glaucous, broad at the base, half-clasping the stem, prominently sinuate-lobed, and spiny. Flowers are terminal, yellow, scentless, 4 to 5 centimeters in diameter. Capsule is spiny, obovate or elliptic-oblong, about 3 centimeters in length. Seeds are spherical, shining, black and pitted. Additional Sources and Suggested Readings (1) Argemone mexicana - Prickly Poppy / - K. Edley (2) Antibacterial potentiality of Argemone mexicana solvent extracts against some pathogenic bacteria / Indranil Bhattacharjee et al / Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz vol.101 no.6 Rio de Janeiro Sept. 2006 / doi: 10.1590/S0074-02762006000600011 (3) TOXICITY OF ARGEMONE MEXICANA [...]