Tall European biennial whose stem and unripe seed-heads exude a bitter milky latex when cut. The dried latex (lactucarium) contains lactucin and lactucopicrin and was a recognised European materia medica from antiquity into the 19th century. Mildly sedative and analgesic.
ECOLOGY & HABITAT
Roadsides, waste ground, hedgerows. Native across most of Europe and Western Asia, naturalised in North America.
Distribution
EuropeWestern AsiaNorth AfricaNorth America (introduced)
TRADITIONAL USE
- Hippocratic and Galenic European materia medica — listed as a calming, sleep-bringing simple
- 19th-century pharmacopoeial use as lactucarium, a substitute for opium during shortages
- Folk use as a mild herbal sleep aid into the present
REFERENCES
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- Sayyah 2004
- Wesołowska 2006
