Lettuce as a Medicine.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 27, 3 July 1902, Page 29

Lettuce as a Medicine.

Various medical properties have been ascribed to lettuce, and it has especially been recommended as a good soponJic, inducing pleasant sleep after eating it at night. There has been some doubt in the medical world as to the value of lettuce for iinv medirmal purport; ami Iho medicinal preparations from the plant! were finally dropped m Knghuid aml the United States. But recent investigations and experiments show, says Dr. Atkinson, that the narcotic constituents of the plants are very noticeable and of value. It is now established by the proper authorities that there is present hyoscyamine, the principal alkaloid of belladonna and henbane, not only in the cabbage and cos, varieties of the common lettuce, but also in the wild lettuce. The amount in young plants is not -very great, but in the green extract the alkaloid occurs, to the extent of over two per cent. The value of both the wild and cultivated lettuce for medicinal purposes has consequently increased in the minds of niuny. The soporific value is not in the meantime lessened by this discovery. The plants were used years ago by many people for inducing sleep, and science has simply proved that there was some truth in their belief by tracing the sopomfic properties to their source.