Chemistry
Poppy seeds are notable for being especially high in tocopherols other than vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol). Poppyseed oil from one source has been reported to contain 30.9 mg gamma-tocopherol per 100 g. It also contains alpha and gamma tocotrienols, but not others. Compared to other vegetable oils, poppyseed oil has a moderate amount of phytosterols: higher than soybean oil and peanut oil, lower than safflower oil, sesame oil, wheat germ oil, corn oil, and rice bran oil. Sterols in poppyseed oil consist almost entirely of campesterol, stigmasterol, sitosterol and delta 5-avenasterol. Poppyseed oil is high in linoleic acid. Although not generally higher than safflower oil, it can be as high as 74.5%. Other triglycerides present in notable quantities are oleic acid and palmitic acid.
It is less likely than some other oils to become rancid. It is more stable than safflower oil and linseed oil.
Poppyseed oil is a carrier oil, having little or no odor and a pleasant taste. The primary aroma compound responsible for its flavor is 2-pentylfuran; also present are the volatile compounds 1-pentanol, 1-hexanal, 1-hexanol, and caproic acid.
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“If thought makes free, so does the moral sentiment. The mixtures of spiritual chemistry refuse to be analyzed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world.... I would watch the buds swell in spring, the mica glint in the granite, my own hands, and I would say to myself: “I will understand this, too, I will understand everything.””
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