Wild lettuce
wild lettuce is one of the plants of the family called Asteraceae or Asteraceae; in Latin the name of this plant will be as follows: Lactuca scariola L.
As for the name of the wild lettuce family itself, in Latin it will be: Asteraceae Dumort. (Compositae Giseke).
Description of wild lettuce
Wild lettuce is a biennial herbaceous plant, endowed with white milky juice, the height of which will be about sixty to one hundred and fifty centimeters. This plant will be endowed with a tap root and a rather dense, furrowed stem, colored in whitish or yellowish tones. The leaves of wild lettuce are sessile, the lower and middle ones are lyre-pinnately dissected, and their lobes will be curved back. Along the midrib of the leaves of this plant there are peculiar hard spines. The leaves are arranged edgewise, and their ends will point north and south. The flowers of wild lettuce are small and ligulate, they are endowed with pubescence in the form of a tuft and form small baskets, which in turn are collected in a pyramidal paniculate inflorescence. The fruits of wild lettuce are brownish achenes endowed with volatiles.
This plant blooms from July to August. Under natural conditions, this plant is found in Ukraine, Belarus, the European part of Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the south of Western Siberia. For growth, this plant prefers places near housing and roads, vegetable gardens, fields, weedy places and places among bushes.
Description of the medicinal properties of wild lettuce
It should be noted that wild lettuce contains poisonous milky white juice, which in turn contains lactucin, bitterness, alkaloids, resins, lactucyrin and lactucycline.
As for traditional medicine, a water decoction prepared from the wild lettuce herb is quite widespread here. In addition, a resin obtained from the milky sap of this plant is also used. Such drugs are used as sedatives and painkillers, and are also used for whooping cough, bronchial asthma, laryngitis, chronic bronchitis, shortness of breath, persistent cough and insomnia. Also, this healing agent is used as a diuretic for various diseases of the bladder, gout and dropsy. It should be noted that wild lettuce is sometimes used in homeopathy.
An infusion prepared from the wild lettuce herb is recommended for use as a gargle for various throat diseases, gingivitis, abrasions, stomatitis and bleeding gums. In addition, in folk medicine, crushed leaves of wild lettuce are applied to wounds and cuts to speed up their healing, while the boiled herb of this plant should be applied to the throat for a variety of colds.
To prepare an infusion based on this plant, you will need to take one teaspoon of dry crushed wild lettuce, which is placed in two glasses of boiling water for four hours. After this, such a healing mixture should be filtered very carefully. Take the resulting medicinal product based on wild lettuce three times a day before meals, one tablespoon.
The resins of the milky juice of this plant are used in one third of a gram. However, we should not forget that the incorrect use of such a healing agent can cause poisoning, which will be accompanied not only by vomiting and nausea, but also by confusion. Therefore, it is so important not to exceed the recommended dosage in any case.
