Laudanum Pin with Poppies

Laudanum bottle adorned with opium poppies and seed pods secreting opium latex.

Laudanum is a tincture made up of alcohol and opium. It was used mainly in the 19th century as a pain killer and was believed to cure all sorts of ailments including sleeplessness, diarrhoea and even teething pain in children! It was banned in the early 20th century. Opium comes from the Papaver somniferum, a type of poppy. Opium poppy seed pods secrete a latex and this dried latex is the opium. If you'd like to read more about opium and pain killers you can learn all about it in my Historical Medicine
zine!

★ Acrylic pin

★ Pin dimensions: 31mm x 44mm