A natural remedy that’s been used since ancient times, wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) is an effective natural pain reliever that’s just as good as over-the-counter medicines.

For more people, feeling any sort of pain usually sends them running to the medicine cabinet to take some pills. Most pharmaceutical pain relievers, however, come with a host of negative side effects.

Before all these painkillers were developed, however, people turned to natural medicinal herbs to treat their pain. Wild lettuce is one such herb. Native to North America, Europe and the Middle East, wild lettuce was used by ancient peoples as natural medicine.

Even until up to the 19th century, doctors were still using it as both a pain reliever and a treatment for certain conditions such as whooping cough.

How wild lettuce relieves pain

Wild lettuce has bright green leaves sprouting from a green stem with occasional purple spots. When scratched, it secretes a milky, white substance known as lactucarium that is the secret behind its pain-relieving properties.

Lactucarium resembles opium when dried and indeed, can also deliver similar sedative effects. Because of this wild lettuce was often referred to as opium lettuce in the past due to its pain-relieving properties. Lactucarium, however, not have the same negative effects as opium. This is because lactucarium does not actually contain any opioids – the compounds that give opium its narcotic side effects.

The pain-relieving power of wild lettuce is such that, even when opium was still legal, it was already seen as an effective alternative with fewer side effects. One catalog of medicinal plants from 1917 listed it as “highly esteemed to quiet coughing and allay nervous irritation, a good safe remedy to produce sleep, to be used when opium and other narcotics are objectionable.”

The pain-relieving effects of lactucarium come from the fact that it contains lactucin and lactucopicrin. These are bitter substances that act on the central nervous system to produce pain-relieving and sedative effects.

Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of these compounds as pain relievers. One animal study found that 7 and 13.5 mg per pound of bodyweight of lactucin and lactucopicrin combined had comparable pain-relieving effects in mice as 30 mg of ibuprofen.

Beyond its pain-relieving and sedative properties, lactucarium has other benefits as well. One Iranian study found that lactucarium also has diuretic and laxative effects and that it can relieve dyspnoea and can decrease gastrointestinal inflammation and uterus contractions.

How to get wild lettuce

One thing you must note about wild lettuce is that you generally won’t be able to find it in your local supermarket or even health food store. For the most part, you will need to forage for it in the wild.

Foraging for wild lettuce, however, can be quite tricky as the plant looks quite similar to a few other related species.

One way to identify wild lettuce is through its flowers. It has yellow flowers that some have said look like dandelions. Unlike dandelions, which only have leaves close to the ground, wild lettuce has leaves all the way up the stalk.

In addition, compared to similar-looking lettuce species like prickly lettuce – which has similar yellow flowers – wild lettuce has rounder leaves and a softer stalk. In addition, its stalk will also have a slight purple tint to it.

If you do get prickly lettuce by mistake, don’t fret as the plant supposedly has similar benefits wild lettuce, though milder.

How to use wild lettuce

There are a number of ways to use wild lettuce, the most common which is to brew it as a tea or a mix it into a tincture.

Wild lettuce tea

As with most teas, wild lettuce tea is made by drying out the leaves and steeping them. Not everyone likes the taste of wild lettuce tea, however, while some enjoy the taste, others may find it strong and bitter.

If you find that the taste of wild lettuce tea too strong, you can combine it with other herbs such as chamomile and green tea leaves to make it more palatable.

Wild lettuce tinctures

Wild lettuce tinctures may be even better at providing you with the plant’s pain-relieving effects. This is because lactucarium is alcohol soluble.

When creating a wild lettuce tincture, experts recommend using 95 percent alcohol, mixing two parts alcohol with one part chopped wild lettuce leaves, before running them through a tincture press.

To use a wild lettuce tincture, apply it directly to the skin or even administer it directly to the gums or tongue.

Even before companies started pumping out medicines, natural cures and remedies have already existed in nature. Wild lettuce is one of these remedies that can give the same pain-killing benefits as over the counter drugs but without the latter’s side effects.

Sources:

HappyPreppers.com

WebMD.com

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov

PracticalSelfReliance.com

ScienceDirect.com 1

ScienceDirect.com 2

CaseReports.BMJ.com

SkilledSurvival.com

7Song.com