Austin, TX—Eurofins’ has adopted California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) through the American Botanical Council's (ABC) Adopt-an-Herb botanical research and education program. “As a third-party testing laboratory, we serve our community by providing education and analysis to support the safety, purity, and strength of botanical ingredients and products,” said Scott Kneedler, Business Unit Manager for Eurofins, in a press release. “The California state flower has a long history of traditional and novel medicinal applications. There are documented traditional uses of the whole plant, including roots, leaves and flowers, to treat children and adults for pain, neuralgia, anxiety, stress, depression, migraines, and to promote sleep. It is not considered an opiate or addictive. According to the State of California website, this flower was viewed as a floral representation of the ‘fields of gold.’ We adopted it to represent our company’s commitment to serving industry and the community in which we are located.”
Fast Facts About California Poppy
As outlined in the press release, California poppy:
- is a member of the poppy plant family (Papaveraceae); unlike the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), the actions of California poppy are mild and non-narcotic. Its benefits are believed to be due to the isoquinoline alkaloids that the plant contains.
- is a short-lived perennial native to Western North America from Baja California north to southern Washington.
- has naturalized on roadsides, meadows, and hillsides at low elevation throughout the West, Southwest, and Mountain West of the United States.
- features single, showy, 1-3 inch, four-petaled yellow-to-orange flowers that open on sunny days atop 1-2 foot loosely mounded, ferny, blue-green foliage.
ABC said that while there is limited published clinical research on the plant’s therapeutic benefits, the whole plant (aerial parts and roots) has a long history of traditional use for sleeplessness, restlessness, mental stress, overexcitement, reducing spasms, and as a mild analgesic.
ABC’s HerbMedPro database
Eurofins’ California poppy adoption supports ABC’s HerbMedPro database—a comprehensive, interactive online database that provides access to important scientific and clinical research data on the uses and health effects of more than 265 herbs, spices, medicinal plants, and fungi. The adoption makes the information on California poppy freely available to anyone visiting the adoption page on ABC's website.
“ABC is deeply grateful to Eurofins for its adoption of California poppy on ABC’s unique HerbMedPro database,” said ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal. “We truly appreciate Eurofins’ focus on this historically used plant that has such wide array of commercial and health-related applications.”
