Wild lettuce

Lactuca virosa

Also: Bitter lettuce, Opium lettuce, Lactucarium

CoolingDryingRelaxing

For the pain that won't let you sleep.

A tall, prickly biennial whose stems bleed a white, bitter latex when cut. Wild lettuce cools pain and quiets an agitated body enough for sleep, and its sap was once sold as a mild sedative.

Energetics: Cooling, drying, relaxing
Taste: Bitter
Family: Asteraceae (daisy family)
Parts used: Leaves, stems, and milky sap

Medicinal uses 4

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Trouble sleepingTLC
Helps sleep come when pain or agitation keeps a person awake.
Aches & painTLC
Takes the edge off nerve, muscle, and other stubborn pain.
Anxiety & stressTLC
Settles the restlessness and nerves that ride along with pain.
Dry coughTLC
A traditional ingredient in syrups for a dry, nighttime cough.

Preparations

Bedtime tincture and tea that include the stems, and pain and sleep blends.

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Cautions

Leave it out with kidney disease.
Can deepen the effect of sedatives, sleep medicines, and alcohol; don't drive after a full dose.
Large amounts can cause dizziness and nausea.

Medication interactions

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyAvoid

Its sedative action and the lack of pregnancy research keep it out of pregnancy.

BreastfeedingAvoid

Its sedative action could reach a nursing baby.

Folklore

Dried and sold as lactucarium, the sap was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia for about a century as a gentle sedative and cough remedy, and earned the name lettuce opium, though it contains no opiates. Ancient Egyptians grew a tall, milky lettuce as the sacred plant of Min, god of fertility, and set it before his statues.

How to grow

A biennial that forms a leafy rosette the first year and a tall flowering stalk the second. Sow in spring in full sun and ordinary soil. Gather leaves and stems as the stalk rises, before the flowers turn to fluff.

In the wild

Native to Europe and the Mediterranean; its cousin prickly lettuce grows along roadsides and waste ground throughout North America.

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