Lactuca virosa

Wild lettuce, bitter lettuce, laitue vireuse, opium lettuce, poisonous lettuce, tall lettuce, great lettuce, rakutu-karyumu-so

Enciam del bosc

🇪🇸 Lechuga silvestre, lactucario, lechacino, lecherina brava, lechuga asnal, lechuga brava, lechuga de asnos, lechuga ponzoñosa, lechuga silbestre

🇫🇷 Laitue vireuse, laitue sauvage

 

Principle Lactucin

Effects Diuretic, Expectorant, Hypnotic, Narcotic, Psychoactive, Sedative

A minor sedative. Wild lettuce was once used to adulterate opium, and has long been used as an opium substitute for minor pain, cough, and insomnia. The dried latex is often dissolved in wine, or dissolved in alcohol as a tincture. The latex can also be smoked the way opium latex is, and I have reports from experienced opium smokers who have derived some satisfaction from it. The dried latex is called lactucarium, and is listed as a hypnotic, sedative, expectorant, anodyne, and diuretic. An alkaloid comprising several percent of the weight of lactucarium is called lactucin, and is said to be molecularly analogous to morphine. If opium is available, it is superior to lactucarium in every way I can think of.