Aconitum – Monk’s Hood, Wolfsbane

The mother tincture is prepared from the whole fresh plant and root, gathered when beginning to flower. Aconitum napellus L. N.O. Ranunculaceae.

The active ingredients of the mother tincture are aconitic acid and aconitin, one of the most toxic of vegetable substances. Milligrams of it are capable of killing a horse.

Aconite is one of the most important homoeopathic fever-remedies, especially when the patient displays hot skin, great anxiety, rapid, tense pulse, strong and pos- sibly irregular heartbeat, alternating fever and chills, possible hyperthermia (temper- atures up to 41 °C) and with aggravation of all fever-symptoms in the evening. There are surges of blood towards various organs, with a tendency for the capillaries to rupture with consequent petechial haemorrhages in the nasal and respiratory mu- cosa. There may be cramping, gouging, burrowing pains in the praecordium, with stitching pains in the chest, coryza, catarrh of the mucosa, tickling in the larynx causing coughing which in turn leads to soreness of the larynx. The heart complaints

of Aconite may also occur without fever symptoms, as for example in angina pec- toris or in acute myocardial infarction.

Apart from great motor restlessness and fear, the remedy also has a characteristic sensation of internal freezing, as if ice were running through the arteries, and paraes- thesia, which may occur in neuralgia (e.g. in sciatica, after sitting on a cold surface), as well as other neuralgic pains.

Formerly in general medicine, Aconite was frequently used in the form of oint- ment. However, this practice was abandoned because of the difficulties of control over the dosage, the preparation being highly toxic with the possibility of acute poi- soning.

Through the whole picture of Aconite there run the sudden onset of symptoms and the violence of the complaints, which often arise as feverish chills from exposure to cold east winds. The restlessness and anguish are always to be seen, as are also the redness of the mucosa, the sensation of distension, heaviness, pressure and tension in the gastro-intestinal tract. Stools contain mucus and bile. There is flatulent disten- sion with small, frequent stools, and an urging to defaecate – all characteristic of the remedy. So is congestion of the kidneys with blood, with scanty and painful urina- tion and haematuria, or dark-coloured urine due to precipitation of salts.

Aconite symptoms may not necessarily occur as a consequence of chill; they may also arise from shock, localising at the point of least resistance.

Low potencies are normally given in pyrexia and organic complaints, catarrhs, neuralgic symptoms with paraesthesia etc., hyperthermia, encephalitis with very high temperatures (e.g. post-vaccinial encephalitis or meningo-encephalitis which may be activated by the implantation of living cells, e.g. in a child with a history of chronic middle-ear infections); however, in angina pectoris higher potencies (i.e. above 6!) should always be given.

Nash sees in Aconite not only an outstanding fever-remedy, but also a great pain- remedy in neuralgias with sensations of numbness, crawling or formication, and also in fear of death. (Aconite and Arsenicum album are the two most important remidies for anxiety.)

If we sum up the most important symptoms of Aconitum, we have the following remedy-picture:

1. Fever with dry, hot skin, coughing and stabbing pains in the chest. Internal freez- ing in influenza and chills. Hyperthermia.
2. Consequences of chill from exposure to dry, cold winds; (cystitis, acute gastroen- teritis, etc.).
3. Paraesthesia, neuralgia with formication.
4. Restlessness, fear/anguish, consequences of fright. Angina pectoris and myocar- dial infarction. Violent, acute complaints.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Aconitum napellus, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for aconitum: hyperacute inflammatory disorders; painful nervous disor- ders; hyperacute cardiac sensations with anxiety.