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Lettuce
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
The fresh lettuce plant, when cut, exudes a latex known as ‘lactucarium’ which contains lactucone, lactucin and lactucic acid. In addition the leaves may contain traces of a mydriatic alkaloid. Also contained in the sap are gum, essential oils, and mannitol.
Atlas of Autofluorescence in Plant Pharmaceutical Materials
Published in Victoria Vladimirovna Roshchina, Fluorescence of Living Plant Cells for Phytomedicine Preparations, 2020
Victoria Vladimirovna Roshchina
Chicory, Cichorium intybus (family Asteraceae), has been used as a medicinal and food (a coffee substitute) plant since ancient times in Europe and Asia. Its root useful features are covered in reviews (Nandagopal and RanjithaKumari 2007; Chandra and Jain 2016), and the species is recommended for treating different ailments from wounds to diabetes; antibacterial effects of the plant on Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella typhi have also been described. The whole plant contains a number of medicinally important compounds, such as inulin, esculin, volatile compounds (monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes), coumarins, flavonoids, and vitamins. It possesses hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, cardiovascular, antioxidant, hypolipidemic, anticancer, reproductive, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, sedative, immunological, antimicrobial, anthelmintic, anti-protozoal, wound-healing, and many other pharmacological effects (Al Snafi 2016) due to its content of sesquiterpene lactones (especially lactucin, lactucopicrin, 8-desoxy lactucin, and guaianolid glycosides, including chicoroisides Band C and sonchuside C) and caffeic acid derivatives (chiroric acid, chlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid, dicaffeoyl tartaric acid, etc.). The flower and leaf are also used in folk medicine to treat liver disorders and inflammation, because their extracts include cyanidin-3-O-(6″-malonyl-β-glucopyranoside) as the major anthocyanin (>95%), as described by some authors (Mulabagal et al. 2009).
Catalog of Herbs
Published in James A. Duke, Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, 2018
The seed oil contains 27% oleic-, 58% linoleic-, 12 to 15% palmitic-, and stearic-acids, beta-sitosterol, alpha-tocopherol, and squalene; also, contains caoutchouc and a mydriatic alkaloid similar to hyoscyamine.1 Lactucerin is considered to be a mixture of acetates of alpha- and beta-lactucerol. Alpha-lactucerol is identical with taraxasterol.1Hager’s Handbook adds beta-amyrin, germanicol (isolupeol), and, without questionmark, hyoscyamine, mannitol, up to 1% oxalic-, citric-, and malic-acids, sugar, resins, and proteins in the latex.33 Dried milky juice contains two bitter principles: lactucopicrin and lactucin, along with the very bitter lactucic acid and lactuceral.
Neuroprotective effect of standardized extracts of three Lactuca sativa Linn. varieties against 3-NP induced Huntington’s disease like symptoms in rats
Published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2022
Jai Malik, Supreet Kaur, Maninder Karan, Sunayna Choudhary
Lactuca sativa (LS) Linn. (Asteraceae), an important component of Mediterranean diet, is a leafy vegetable that is consumed fresh as a salad and is also used in the preparation of soups and vegetable curries because of its taste and high nutritional value.6 Besides its culinary uses, LS also has a great medicinal value and has been used traditionally in the treatment insomnia, neurosis, dry coughs, rheumatic pain and anxiety.7 Various studies have provided scientific proof about its potential as neuroprotective,8,9 antimicrobial, antioxidant, hypnotic,10 anxiolytic,11 memory enhancing12 and anti-inflammatory13 activities. All its activities have been attributed to the presence of phenolic compounds (caffeic acid, chlorgenic acid),7 flavonoids (quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol) and their glycosides, anthocyanins, carotenoids (lutein, β-carotene, neoxanthin, etc.)14 and sesquiterpenoids (lactucin, lactucopicrin, 8-deoxylactucin, etc.).15
Standardized extract of Lactuca sativa Linn. and its fractions abrogates scopolamine-induced amnesia in mice: A possible cholinergic and antioxidant mechanism
Published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2018
Jai Malik, Jagpreet Kaur, Sunayna Choudhary
Lactuca sativa (LS) Linn. (Asteraceae), commonly known as lettuce or garden salad, an important part of Mediterranean diet, has been used traditionally for its nutritional and medicinal properties since the time of Romans and Egyptians. Traditionally, LS has been used to improve memory, in rheumatic pain, neurosis, dry cough, diabetes, cardiac disorders, for its anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, hypnotic and antihypertensive activities.5,6 Leaves of LS have exhibited anticonvulsant and sedative-hypnotic,7 anti-inflammatory,8 antianxiety,9,10 antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral11,12 and neuroprotective13,14 activities. The diverse biological activities of LS have been attributed to its various phenolic phytoconstituents, mainly sesquiterpene lactones (lactucin, deoxylactucin, lactucopicrin, etc.) and flavonoids (quercetin, rutin, luteolin, and their glycosides).8,10,15