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  WILD LETTUCE TINCTURE 4 OZ.
Tinctured Lactuca scariola fresh flowering and budding tops


 
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Product Code: WILDLETTUCETINC4OZ
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Description
 
4 oz. brown glass bottle (Lactuca scariola). Wild Prickly Lettuce is used as a tranquilizer and may be given to adults and children for anxiety, nervousness and sleeplessness. Combined with other herbs, it works well for quieting coughs.

Wild Lettuce is not a vegetable but actually a woodland member of the sunflower family. This biennial herb grows to a maximum height of 6 feet. The erect stem grows from a brown taproot. There are prickles on the lower part of short horizontal branches above. The numerous, large, radical leaves are from 6 to 18 inches long and obocate-oblong. The stem leaves are scanty, alternate, and small, clasping the stem with two small lobes. The heads are numerous and short-stalked, the pale yellow corolla being strap shaped. The rough, black fruit is oval, with a broad wing along the edge. The whole plant is rich in a milky juice that flows freely from any wound. This has a bitter taste and narcotic scent. The plants flower in July through August in our area.

Wild Lettuce was used in the 19th. century by physicians when opium could not be obtained. In the United States, the plant experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1970's. Today the plant is unscheduled by the FDA, meaning that it is legal to grow, purchase and own without perscription or licence.

The effects of ingesting Wild Lettuce tincture is similar to opium, although no opiates are present in the plant. The latex, however exists as an extract of the stem secretion, which is called lactucarium. Effects are felt quickly but do not last long (between half an hour to a couple of hours). Alcohol extracts are used to induce sleep and calm anxiety. Wild Lettuce also increases milk production in nursing mothers. Some herbalists prescribe the herb as a diuretic, for pain relief, and incorporate it into lotion for chapped, dried skin.

Constituents: Flavonoids (strong antioxidant properties), sesquiterpene lactones, N-methyl-B-phenethylamine, lactucopicrin, lactucin, apigenin, luteolin, quercetin, coumarins, mannitol, and hyosycamine.

PHOTOS: Wild Lettuce Ticture 4 oz.; underside of Wild Prickly Lettuce leaf; apprentices cooling off after a hot day of harvesting.




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