Lactuca virosa

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Wild lettuce
Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Lactuca
Species:
L. virosa
Binomial name
Lactuca virosa
L. 1753 not Thunb. 1800 nor Luce nor Hablitz
Synonyms[1]
Synonymy
  • Lactuca ambigua Schrad.
  • Lactuca flavida Jord.
  • Lactuca lactucarii Lamotte
  • Lactuca patersonii Menezes
  • Lactuca romana Garsault
  • Lactuca schimperi Jord.
  • Lactuca serratifolia Sennen
  • Lactuca sinuata Forssk.
  • Wiestia virosa (L.) Sch.Bip.
Lactuca virosa

Lactuca virosa is a plant in the

L. sativa), and is often called wild lettuce, bitter lettuce, laitue vireuse, opium lettuce, poisonous lettuce, tall lettuce, great lettuce[3]
or rakutu-karyumu-so.

Description

Lactuca virosa is

Mycelis muralis but showing more than 5 florets.[5]

The

pappus is the same as Lactuca serriola.[4]

In the northern hemisphere, it flowers from July until September.[4]

Distribution

Found coastally in Great Britain,[6] rarely in north-east of Ireland.[7] Lactuca virosa is widespread across much of central and southern Europe.[8] It can be found locally in the south east and east of England. In the rest of Great Britain it is very rare, and in Ireland it is absent. It is also found in the Punjab region of Pakistan and India and Australia where it grows in the wild.

In North America, it has been documented as introduced in

Washington, DC, and grows wild in other parts of the continent.[9]

History

Lactuca virosa was used in the 19th century by physicians when opium could not be obtained. It was studied extensively by the Council of the

Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1911. They discovered two chemicals responsible for the properties of L. virosa; lactucopicrin and lactucin. In the United States, the plant experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s. Today the plant is un-scheduled by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), meaning it is legal to grow, purchase, and own without prescription or license.

"Wild Salad" has long been known in the world of "natural remedies" or "alternative treatments". It is often referred to as the poor man's opium.[10]

Pharmacology

A

Lactuca sativa and Lactuca canadensis var. elongata, and even that lettuce-opium obtained from Lactuca serriola or Lactuca quercina was of superior quality.[11]

Lactuca virosa contains flavonoids, coumarins, and N-methyl-β-phenethylamine.[12][unreliable source?] A variety of other chemical compounds have been isolated from L. virosa. One of the compounds, lactucin, is an adenosine receptor agonist in vitro,[2] while another, lactucopicrin, has been shown to act as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor in vitro.[13]

References

  1. ^ The Plant List, Lactuca virosa L.
  2. ^
    PMID 16621374
    .
  3. ^ BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-7232-2419-6
    .
  5. ISBN 978-185918-4783
  6. ISBN 0-521-04656-4
  7. ISBN 0-85389-446-9
  8. ^ Altervista Flora Italiana, Lactuca virosa L. includes photos and European distribution map
  9. ^ Flora of North America, Lactuca virosa Linnaeus, 1753.
  10. ^ "Nature's Strongest Painkiller is More Effective Than Morphine & is Likely to Grow in Your Garden". 24 May 2019.
  11. ^ Wickes Felter, Harvey; Uri Lloyd, John (1898). King's American Dispensatory. Cincinnati: Ohio Valley Co. pp. 1114–1117, see Lactuca.—Lettuce and Tinctura Lactucarii (U. S. P.)—Tincture of Lactucarium.
  12. ^ Holistic Online herb information: Wild Lettuce
  13. PMID 16472227
    .

General references

  1. Blanchan, Neltje (2005). Wild Flowers Worth Knowing. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lactuca virosa.
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