Species: Lactuca Virosa
Family: Astareaceae
Lactuca virosa is a biennial tall plant with a pale green central stalk, sometimes spotted with purple. The numerous, large, radical leaves are obovate-oblong, stem leaves are small and alternate, heads are numerous and shortly-stalked, while flowers are pale-yellow.
Wild lettuce grows best in loosely packed, well-drained soil and blooms during late summer. It grows freely in various regions of the world including Australia, America, India and southern/central Europe. It’s propagated by scattering seeds over the ground in spring. When bruised, the plant exhibits a smell very similar to that of opium poppy.
MEDICINAL PROPRIETIES
The whole plant is rich in a milky sap that flows freely from any wounds, which hardens and dries when in contact with oxygen. This sap can be made into an alcohol tincture or the fresh leaves and flowering tops can be tinctured, rather then dried, and taken as teas, smoked or less often in capsule form.
The sap contains “lactucarium“, which is used in medicine for its antispasmodic, digestive, diuretic, hypnotic, narcotic and sedative properties. Lactucarium has the effects of a feeble opium, but without its tendency to cause digestive upsets, nor creates addiction.
RECREATIONAL USE
The effects of smoking Lactuca Virosa include languid dream states and aphrodisiac highs. The sedative effects are said to be due to the sesquiterpene lactones found in the latex. Wild lettuce is said to facilitate entering a meditative trance states, and is a powerful tool for dream enhancement if smoked just before going to sleep.
