Wild Lettuce

Jul 15

2 min read

Also known as prickly lettuce, wild opium and compass plant. This common weed can be used as a pain reliever and the sap is a wonderful natural wart remover.

Printable for Herbal

Lactuca virosa

Family: Asteraceae- daisy

Parts used: leaves, sap, seeds

Energetics/Body Systems Affected

Cooling

Bitter

Liver

Lung

Uses

Pain reliever (opium substitute)
Cramps, muscle, and joint pain.
Sleep aid and helpful for nightmares.
Calming and relaxing; helps with restlessness, nervousness, anxiety, and stress.
Whooping cough and other types of coughs.
Urinary tract problems
Milky sap dissolves warts and helps with aging spots.
Milky sap can also disinfect wounds.

Herb Preparations

Milk (sap)
Tea
Extract
Herbal oil, salve
Fresh leaves

Foraging/Harvesting

Can be found in dry, sandy, or rocky areas and waysides. Long, deeply lobed, sharply toothed leaves. Abundant with milky sap.

Can be harvested anytime. I usually "harvest" by weeding my garden.
Can be dried for future use or tincture fresh leaves.
To collect sap just snap a leaf off or pull the plant up.

Safety

Use in moderate doses internally. May cause contact dermatitis in some individuals that are more sensitive. Not enough research for pregnant and nursing mothers so best to avoid internal use.

Personal Experience

This is my favorite plant for disolving warts. My daughter had multiple, painful wart on her knee, and foot. Everyday I pulled this "weed" from the garden and applied the milky sap generously over the warts. As the sap dries it turns a brown color, don't wash it off. It took a couple of weeks to dissolve but it did. I have used this same process mulitple times with great succcess.