Wild Lettuce Oil, (Lactuca spp.,), A.K.A.; Opium Lettuce, Prickly Lettuce, Horse Thistle, Compass Plant.
History has it that the Roman emperor Augustus built a statue of the physician who had prescribed Lettuce for him, as he believed that the plant had cured him of a serious disease.  No doubt it was Prickly Lettuce.  This ancestor of all lettuce plants was valued as a sedative and pain reliever.  It was considered an opium substitute into the 19th century.  Once known as ‘poor man’s opium’.  It is also called compass plant because its leaves turn to follow the sun during the day.  Prickly Lettuce is bitter to people but horses delight in it. It soothes chapped skin.  The leaves contain sedative properties that act like morphine, only milder.  It exhibits a mild sedative effect, which relieves pain.