This is what I found : ( It does not sound like something a lactation or any
mom should take!)

lactuca virosa among the narcotics, which include opium and its derivatives,
there is lactucarium, the smokable extract derived from lactuca virosa.
Lactucarium smells and tastes like opium. When smoked or swallowed, it is so
mildly intoxicating it remains legal. There are no visions but the euphoria
and dreamy intoxication last slightly longer. Although lactucarium is
structurally unrelated to the opiates, it will still soothe irritating
cough, ease minor pains, and help induce sleep, hence its more common name
of 'lettuce opium.'



Wild lettuce Lactuca virosa

Lettuce species are indigenous to Europe and Northern Asia.  Wild lettuce is
similar to garden lettuce but lthe eaves are much narrower, wavy in outline
with stiff bristles on the underside.  The stems when cut bleed a white
sticky juice from channels called lactifers.

The white juice contains the sesquiterpene Lactucin which is a mild
sedative.   Wild lettuce is used for irritable coughs and insomnia

Lettuce, Wild
Botanical: Lactuca virosa (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Compositae
Habitat
Constituents
Medicinal Action and Uses
Dosages
---Synonyms---Lactucarium. Strong-scented Lettuce. Green Endive. Lettuce
Opium. Laitue vireuse. Acrid Lettuce.
---Parts Used---The dried milk-juice (Lactuarium), the leaves.
---Habitat---Western and Southern Europe, including Britain.


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----
---Description---The name lactuca is derived from the classical Latin name
for the milky juice, virosa, or 'poisonous.'
It is a biennial herb growing to a maximum height of 6 feet. The erect stem,
springing from a brown tap-root, is smooth and pale green, sometimes spotted
with purple. There are a few prickles on the lower part and short horizontal
branches above. The numerous, large, radical leaves are from 6 to 18 inches
long, entire, and obovate-oblong. The stem leaves are scanty, alternate, and
small, clasping the stem with two small lobes. The heads are numerous and
shortly-stalked, the pale-yellow corolla being strap-shaped. The rough,
black fruit is oval, with a broad wing along the edge, and prolonged above
into a long, white beak carrying silvery tufts of hair. The whole plant is
rich in a milky juice that flows freely from any wound. This has a bitter
taste and a narcotic odour. When dry, it hardens, turns brown, and is known
as lactucarium.

---Habitat---The Wild Lettuce grows on banks and waste places, flowering in
July and August. It is cultivated in Austria, France, Germany and Scotland.
Collectors cut the heads of the plants and scrape the juice into china
vessels several times daily until it is exhausted. By slightly warming and
tapping, it is turned out of its cup mould, is cut into quarters and dried.

In the United States, after importation from Germany via England it is said
to be used as an adulterant for opium. It is usually found in irregular,
reddish-brown lumps the size of a large pea, frequently mouldy on the
outside. In the United States the German and French lactucarium is
considered inferior to the British product.

All lettuces possess some of this narcotie juice, Lactuca virosa having the
most, and the others in the following order: L. scariola, or Prickly
Lettuce, L. altissima, L. Canadensis, or Wild Lettuce of America, and L.
sativa, or Garden Lettuce. Cultivation has lessened the narcotic properties
of the last, but it is still used for making a lotion for the skin useful in
sunburn and roughness. The Ancients held the lettuce in high esteem for its
cooling and refreshing properties. The Emperor Augustus attributed his
recovery from a dangerous illness to it; built an altar to it, and erected a
statue in its honour.

Lactucarium is not easily powdered, and is only slightly soluble in boiling
water, though it softens and becomes plastic.

Thridace, or the inspissated juice of L. capitata, is now regarded as inert.

A mild oil, used in cooking, is said to be obtained from the seeds in Egypt.

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---Constituents---L. virosa has been found to contain lactucic acid,
lactucopicrin, 50 to 60 per cent lactucerin (lactucone) and lactucin.
Lactucarium treated with boiling water and filtered is clear, but on cooling
the filtrate becomes turbid. It is not coloured blue by iodine test
solution. The usual constituents of latex are albumen, mannite, and
caoutchouc.

The fresh juice reddens litmus paper.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---The drug resembles a feeble opium without its
tendency to upset the digestive system. It is used to a small extent as a
sedative and narcotic.

Dissolved in wine it is said to be a good anodyne.

Dr. Collins stated that twenty-three out of twenty-four cases of dropsy were
cured by taking doses of 18 grains to 3 drachms of extract in twenty-four
hours. It is used in Germany in this complaint, but combined with more
active drugs. It is said to be also a mild diaphoretic and diuretic, easing
colic, inducing sleep and allaying cough.

Water distilled from lettuce (eau de laitre) is used in France as a mild
sedative in doses of 2 to 4 OZ., and the fresh leaves boiled in water are
sometimes used as a cataplasm.

Moderate doses given to the lower animals act as a narcotic poison, an
injection having even caused death.

---Dosages---Of powder, 10 to 20 grains or more. Of tincture, 30 to 60
drops. Of alcoholic extract, 1 to 5 grains. Of Lactucarium, 5 to 20 grains.
Of fluid extract leaves, 1/4 to 1 drachm. Of syrup, U.S.P., 2 drachms.
Tincture, U.S.P., 30 drops.

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Cindy Curtis,RN,IBCLC
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/cindyrn

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