Anyone ever tried this stuff? A friend of mine was telling me about this stuff.  I have never heard of it before..  

Did a quick google search and apperently it is 100% legal and its use goes back to ancient times....

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––


What is Wild Lettuce?


Wild Lettuce commonly refers to the more bitter cousins of common garden lettuce. This group of plants is used in everything from sleep tonics to soap to teas.

The three main species of this group are Lactuca Virosa, Lactuca Canadennis, and Lactuca Serriola.

They have been used in herbal medicine throughout history mainly as a sleep aid. You may have noticed in your local supermarket that lettuce comes in many different varieties. Just click on the link to http://www.botany.com/lactuca.html to get a description of some popular breeds. The wild relations are edible but more bitter in taste. Just look at any bag of mixed field greens and you will see many varieties of wild Lettuce.

The history of Wild Lettuce can be traced way back to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptian god of fertility, Min, is closely tied to the plant and he is often depicted holding a rosette of Lactuca Serriola. A few good articles on the Egyptians and the use of Wild Lettuce as an aphrodisiac and sex enhancer can be found here:

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1403295.htm

http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/min.html

Wild Lettuce was also used by the Romans and Augustus was said to have raised a statue in honor of the Lettuce infusion that he claimed saved his life. The Roman naturalist Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD - 79 AD) , better known as Pliny the Elder wrote extensively of Lactuca in his work Naturalis Historia:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?lookup=lettuce&collection=Perseus%3Acollection%3AGreco-Roman&group=typecat

Lactucarium was produced by pharmaceutical companies until about the 1940's.







Many studies of the medicinal qualities of Wild Lettuce have been made. Several chemicals which constitute a mild sedative and cough suppressant can be found in the wild Lactuca species. The two main chemicals are Lactucopicrin and Lactucin, represented here:



When a stem or leaf from a Wild Lettuce plant is broken or cut, it will bleed a thick milky sap. The dried sap is often referred to as Lettuce Opium, though it contains no opiates. This sap can be extracted many ways, but the most common is by soaking plant material in alcohol. After several weeks, the plant material is filtered out. This extract is usually called Lactucarium. The usual way of consuming Lactucarium is by dissolving a few drops into tea.








For holistic healers, here is some information on why Wild Lettuce is effective:

LACTUCARIUM, A CONDENSED LATEX FROM LACTUCA VIROSA L. INHIBITS THE ACTIVITY OF NEP

I. Funke, M. F. Melzig
Institut für Pharmazie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Goethestr. 54, 13086 Berlin, Germany

Lettuce opium, the condensed brown latex from Lactuca virosa L. (Prickly Lettuce) has been used for many years as an analgesic and antitussive agent since its invention by Kore in 1792. Some hundred years ago the effects of Lactuca virosa L. or other Lactuca species have been known in ancient Egypt and Greece. Lactucin and lactucopicrin, two guaiane-type sesquiterpene lactones, were isolated in 1939 by Schenck et al. [l] and recent phytochemical examination of the plant led to the isolation of other sesquiterpene lactones, namely jacquinelin, 8-desoxylactucin, 11?, 13-dihydrolactucin and lactuside A [2, 3]. The analgesic potency of those substances has been shown by Gromek et al. [4].
With a view to find a possibility to account for pharmacological effects of the drug, the material was tested for its ability to inhibit the activity of NEP (enkephalinase), which is the common name given to the enzyme that cleaves methionine5- or leucine5- enkephalin at the Gly3- Phe4- bond. For determination of NEP activity we used a two-step assay according to Bormann et al. [5]. Tests with aqueous and methanolic extracts of the dried latex showed a distinct inhibiting effect on NEP in a concentration-dependent way. We tested two types of lettuce opium, one gathered from the annual plant and the other from the biannual plant. Differences were found between the two types: Annual Lactucarium showed a more pronounced inhibition, in particular the aqueous extract. The aqueous extract of the annual plant was the more active one with an IC50 value of 90 µg/ml. Tests with aqueous extracts of the biannual plant led to an IC50 value of 530 µg/ml.
On account of well-known inhibitory potency of flavonoids on NEP the extract was tested for their presence by TLC. We could exclude the presence of flavonoids. Additionally, we tested opioid receptor binding in mice brain membranes by receptor binding assay but no effects of lettuce opium on opioid receptors were seen.

1. Schenck, G., Graf, H., Schreber, W. (1939) Archiv der Pharmazie 277: 137-145
2. Gromek, D. (1989) Polish Journal of Chemistry 63: 297 - 301
3. Gromek, D. (1991) Polish Journal of Chemistry 65: 1979 - 1981
4. Gromek, D., Kisiel, W., Klodziñska, A., Chojnacka - Wójcik, E. (1992) Phytotherapy Research 6: 285 - 287
5. Bormann, H., Melzig, M.F. (2000) Pharmazie 55: 129-132

I don't see this going well.

put down the bong man...

Jonesing much?

Shhhhhhhh!  You can do the same thing with tame lettuce if you score the thick part of the outer leaves.

I wish it was true, then we could watch legislators heads explode as they try to ban lettuce.

Me thinks buying some opium will be easier than dealing with that crap. Plus, the local dealer won't charge you shipping to personally drop it off.

But opium is illegal....

Wild Lettuce "opium".... has nothing in common chemically to real opium....

Dude get real. Basically ANY substance that makes you feel good is banned. if this was good............

The only exceptions being Alcohol and Tobacco.

Alcohol because well, we tried that, didn't work. Too easy to make booze from water sugar and bread.

And Tobacco? Its on its way out anyway.









PS- Fight da Pawa bra! Fight da pawa!

Must be almost outta Oxys huh?

A mild sedative?

Wow, go nuts on that. Sounds like a blast.

do you enjoy salvia too?

I wonder what smoking 2lbs of lettuce would be like to catch a buzz...?

 you'd probably get long floppy ears doing that.

A few years back some kids around here got admitted to a local hospital from smoking or eating some plant common around here? I guess they were whacked pretty good. I can't remember what it was now, it grew wild in Ohio though.

It's OK. The wild lettuce sounds like a real dissapointment though. I want me some peyote buttons, I want to find my animal spirit.

ITs only illegal, because they havent figured out how to tax it.....

I admit that I am continually surprised how many people here will smoke and ingest damn near anything.  

You should get on Suboxone man.



LOL, thats what I was thinking. Fiending and out of money or nobody is answering.

There isn't even any opiates in that lettuce crap. What state are you in?



I used to sell Salvia at college back in 2001/2002..maybe into 03' as well. Made a lot of money off of it, until eBay crushed my business and my supplier upped their prices. I moved on to bigger and better things. I only tried it about 3 times myself. Crazy stuff. Did not like, did not like at all. I saw a lot of people fuxer'd up on that stuff. I've always been more into selling stuff than using it.

I am living in a VERY LIBERAL shithole....

You can grow opium poppies legaly if you wanted to, why bother?  Look for Papaver somniferum seeds.

So you live in California? Oxy, H, and others should be no problem for you. Opium is actually not easy to find.

A little disclaimer here, I don't use drugs, nor do I thinks its a good idea. I just have info ok.

So you tried the lettuce opium??  I am very curious what the experience was like....

Can you please describe what it was like.  I am just very curious and would like an honest opinion....

No I haven't tried that and never will because it is surely lame. I said I've tried Salvia which does in fact work, and is a legitimate hallucinogenic substance.

Man just go get some hydrocodone or something like that. I think you likely have a problem and should look into suboxone.