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More than 50 people have died and thousands made seriously ill in northern
India in the past few weeks after eating mustard oil contaminated with poisonous
poppy seeds. The seeds of the poppy Argemone mexicana are being
surreptiously used as a cheap alternative to mustard seeds by unscrupulous
suppliers and manufacturers. Mustard oil is used in cooking by millions of
Indians. The poppy seeds look similar to mustard seeds but produce a toxin when
digested that disrupts the capillaries that drain fluids from tissues, causing
dropsy.