Wild Lettuce Products
Wild Lettuce was known to the Egyptians and the ancient Greeks for its ability to calm the mind and body. Here at Indigo Herbs we are delighted to offer our Wild Lettuce Herbal Tea, Wild Lettuce Tincture and from within our guest brands, Wild Lettuce Capsules.
In Egypt Wild Lettuce was thought to be good for eye complaints and an aphrodisiac since it was regarded as the favourite plant of the fertility deity Min. The Egyptians would place a statue of Min in a patch of Wild Lettuce and then parade the statue so all could be benefitted by the god’s benediction. In ancient Greece this botanical was thought to have the exact opposite effect. Whilst the Egyptians thought it would heighten the sexual appetite, Greek priests used the herb to suppress their sexual urges. Until the 1890’s Wild lettuce was thought to have the same narcotic effect as opium and was given to patients undergoing painful operations before chloroform was discovered.
Wild Lettuce is a biennial herb with a thick branched root. In the first year of vegetation it produces a rosette of basal leaves and in the second year an erect stem (60-180cm) branched in the upper part. Leaves are bluish-green and the plant flowers in June-August with yellow elongated pyramidal panicles. The roots, leaves and stems all produce a white latex. Wild Lettuce grows singly or in clusters, on rocky soil and on plains and uplands up to 1000m above sea level.
