Lactuca virosa, also called Wild Lettuce (Wild Lettuce), contains psychoactive ingredients. These ingredients are called lactucopicrin & lactucin. These ingredients have sedative and anesthetic properties and are therefore sometimes compared to opiates. Natural medicinal plants have been used since ancient times to treat many symptoms and complaints. Lactuca Virosa is certainly one of them!
Wild Lettuce is a one-and-a-half meter high stem-like plant with large leaves and yellow flowers. The plant is found in South and Central Europe and North America. Wild Lettuce is a relative of our regular lettuce.
Wild Lettuce is a plant used for its pain-relieving properties. It is mainly used by people interested in alternatives to contemporary medicines. Under the influence of a certain touch, the plant secretes a milky, white substance known as lactucarium. This substance may have similar effects to opium, an analgesic agent extracted from unripe seed pods of the poppy.
Traditionally, doctors used Wild Lettuce as a pain reliever and treatment for conditions such as whooping cough. Today, this lettuce is used in powders, oils and pills to treat many ailments.
Use
Wild Lettuce can be drunk as a tea: let 1 – 2 teaspoons steep in a cup of boiled water for 15 minutes. This should be drunk 3 times a day.
Another method is to make an extract. Soak 1 gram in warm water (not boiling!) For 8 hours. Strain and squeeze out all the moisture. Put the dark liquid in a pan and let the moisture evaporate. Putting the pan with the liquid in a larger pot of boiling water will prevent it from burning. At the end you are left with a kind of gum-like substance.