Author: Urenus

The mother tincture is prepared from carefully dried ergot, a poisonous fungus which is growing on rye throughout Europe: Claviceps purpurea (Fries) Tulasne.

N.O. Clavicipitaceae.

The tincture of ergot, gathered just before harvesting, contains as active ingredients several alkaloids, such as ergometrine, ergotamine, ergosine, agro- clavine, xanthone derivates, including, among others, secalonic acid, ergoflavin and

anthracene derivates e.g. clavorubine and endocrocine as well as amines, also fatty oil, phosphates, potassium, magnesium, calcium and sodium.

The acute poisoning symptoms present as headache with enlargement of the pupils, abdominal pain, depressed pulse rate, nausea, retching, vomiting a sensation of increased warmth in the stomach, and salivation. Animal experiments produced negative results, however.

Typical of the longer-term action of Secale is the subcutaneous sensation of crawl- ing, ergotism, raphania, and also gangrene, “ergotismus gangrenosus”, in which there may be a preponderance of nervous symptoms such as lassitude, vertigo, crawling under the skin, formication and convulsive twitching alternating with spas- modic contractions of individual areas of muscle, and later possibly amaurosis, or else the tendency towards gangrene may predominate, primarily in the lower limbs, but also in the upper limbs and the nose. Glaucoma may also occur.

Apart from drowsiness with anxious dreams, there is usually a tendency towards despondency, depressive sadness, and melancholia with episodes of insanity and frenzy.

On the skin there are sensations of prickling and formication, with pains below the skin moving like lightning, the skin being withered, pale, cool and shrivelled, and possibly displaying anaesthesia when pricked, there being a certain emptiness of the capillaries. (Wounds do not bleed.) However, petechiae in the capillaries, ecchy- moses in the mucosa, cynaosis of various parts with purple eruptions and burn-blis- ters, and ulcers discharging pus may all be prominent.

The emotional and intellectual functions are particularly disordered. Predominant symptoms include difficulty in thinking and speaking, deficient understanding and comprehension, a certain dullness of intellect, great forgetfulness and weakness of reason with sensory delusions, even madness and delirium, which may reach the point of true insanity.

There is congestion of blood in the head with attacks of vertigo and a state as of intoxication or narcosis, with staggering and an inability to stand upright.

The head is heavy, with a pulsating sensation and a dull headache. The facial fea- tures are sunken, and show a pale, yellowish colouration, or else the face may be dark red with a sensation of heat, and possibly with lockjaw.

The eyelids may swell up, with either contraction or enlargement of the pupils (ac- cording to the dosage), and diplopia, strabismus, visual disturbance with sparks, spots or mistiness, or total paralysis of the sense of sight may occur.

In the ears there are roaring and rushing noises with hearing-impairment. Symp- toms of meningism may occur, with stiffness of the neck, muscular weakness and periodic muscular pain with spasm and heaviness of the limbs and with drawing and jerking pains. There may also be cramps, twitching and trembling of the limbs, or rigidity and stiffness of the limbs and joints, associated with anaesthesia and a sen- sation of numbness, crawling and formication, coldness and paralysis of the limbs, contractures with tetany of fingers and toes, cramps in the calf muscles, and also gangrene of the hands and feet.

There are spasmodic palpitations, possibly with initial hesitation in the heart-con- traction; the pulse is often small, frequent and misses beats, and there is burning in- ternal heat with great thirst and anxiety, general cold, sticky sweat, and also con- striction of the chest, air-hunger, and possibly haemoptysis or epistaxis.

In the digestive tract there is salivation, a creeping sensation of the tongue with burning and dryness in the gullet, an unaccustomed and scarcely quenchable thirst, possibly with extraordinary, ravenous hunger which, however, is impaired by eruc- tation of unpleasantly-smelling gas, by heartburn, disgust for food, nausea, vomiting of mucus, bile, worms or small quantities of food (without loss of appetite), by pressing, cramping pains in the stomach with flatulent abdominal distension. There may be tenesmus without evacuation, or else exhausting diarrhoea and involuntary passage of watery stools.

Also typical of Secale are difficulties in urination with burning in the urethra and urine passed seldom and drop by drop; also a sensation of spasmodic drawing in the spermatic cord, as if the testes were being drawn up towards the inguinal canal.

The menses may be absent, with violent contractions of the womb and intensified labour-pains.

The main action of Secale Cornutum affects the peripheral circulation where gan- grene may develop – the “St. Anthony’s Fire” of the Middle Ages, when rye-bread polluted with ergot was eaten.

A further characteristic of Secale is the impairment of the central emotional con- trol by the brain, distinguished by exaltation, dullness or insane excitement, corre- sponding somewhat to the motivation of the “children’s crusades” of the Middle Ages; or else the impairment of the autonomic central control, with spastic symp- toms developing in the whole abdomen and not least in the genitalia, particularly characterised by a tonifying action on the uterus, in which area Secale has earned a commanding position in post-partum haemorrhages.

If the main symptoms are summed up, the result is the following typical remedy- picture:

1. Tendency to ward petechiae, ecchymoses, epistaxis, pulmonary haemorrhages, uterine haemorrhages.
2. Sensation of numbness. Formication. Cramps and paralysis of the extremities. Gangrene, especially in adipose diabetics. Intermittent claudication (“Smoker’s leg”). Varicose ulcers.
3. States of cerebral excitement with Sydenham’s chorea, hysterical spasms with maniacal states of excitement.
4. Stomach cramps, colics, exhausting diarrhoea, paralysis of the anal sphincter. Greedy appetite with craving for sour food. Hiccoughs. Vomiting. Distension. Stools as in cholera with icy coldness. Cannot bear to be covered up. Involuntary stools with the anus remaining wide open. (Boericke).
5. Copious menses, also post-partum haemorrhage. Relaxation of the uterus. Seep- ing haemorrhage from insufficiently contracted uterus post partum. When giving doses of the fluid extract, observe Pagot’s rule, “So long as anything remains in the uterus: child, placenta, afterbirth, do not give Secale!” (Boericke).

• 6.   Secale has a typical craving for the cold, and great, sometimes unquenchable thirst. Nash also points out the important leading symptom: great objective cold- ness of the body-surface, but the patient cannot bear to be covered up. This is found in both cholera and gangrene, likewise the symptom: burning in all parts of the body, as if sparks had fallen on them.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Secale cornutum, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for secale cornutum: spasmodic conditions of the uterus; muscular cramps; spasmodic conditions; paralysis; blood circulatory disorders associated with arterial diseases; tendency to haemorrhage.

The mother tincture is prepared from the fresh aerial parts, gathered before flower- ing, of Scrophularia nodosa L., a native of Europe, Asia and North America.

N.O. Scrophulariaceae.

The main indications are:

Breast tumours. Tubercular eye problems. Eczema. Supporting remedy in neo- plasm phases.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Scrophularia nodosa, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for scrophularia nodosa: general weakness and debilitation; hardening of the glands; rectal inflammation, crusta lactea.

The mother tincture is prepared from the fresh, flashy bulb scales of the red variety of the plant Urginea maritima (L.), which occurs in the Mediterranean countries. N.O. Liliaceae.

The main indications are:

Laryngeal and bronchial catarrhs with difficult expectoration. Pleurisy with effu- sion. Oedema in heart and kidney disease. Tenesmus of the bladder. Strangury.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Urginea maritima var. rubra, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Fed- eral Gazette) for scilla: cardiac insufficiency; disorders in voiding from the urinary bladder; common cold.

The mother tincture is prepared from the fresh aerial parts in flower of Saxifraga granulata L. N.O. Saxifragaceae.

The main indications are:

Problems arising from calculi. Left-sided renal calculi.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Saxifraga granulata, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for saxifraga: nephrolithiasis.

The mother tincture is prepared from the dried root of the plants Smilax regelii Kill. et C. V. Morton and Smilax medica Schlechtend. et Cham. or other related species, all of which occur in Central America. N.O. Liliaceae.

The main indications are:

Finger-tips as if ulcerated. Urinary gravel. Dribbling of urine when sitting. An in- creasing pain on micturition (strangury), dying away as soon as the urine has been passed. (Opposite of Cantharis.)

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Smilax, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for sarsapa- rilla: pruritic skin diseases; inflammations and irritations of the urinary organs; rheumatism.

The mother tincture is prepared from the dried root of the plant Saponaria officinalis L., which occurs in Europe, Asia and North America. N.O. Caryophyllaceae.

The action of Saponaria may be attributed to the saponins Saporubrin and Saporubrinic acid, which it contains.

Saponaria is used where there is an indifferent, apathetic temperament, and also in depressive states with sleeplessness, and when there are stabbing pains above the eye-sockets, worse on the left side, on movement and towards evening. There may also be throbbing above the eyes with congestion of blood in the head and a feeling of weariness in the neck, prickling in the eyeballs, ciliary neuralgia, photophobia and increased intraocular pressure. The symptoms might make us think of Saponar- ia in the kind of preliminary stages or complaints which are found in glaucoma.

Otherwise included in the symptomatology are difficulties in swallowing, nausea, heartburn, and a sensation of fullness in the stomach which is not relieved by eruc- tations. Palpitations with a slow pulse and anxiety-states may also be an indication for Saponaria, whilst otherwise it is almost exclusively used in the treatment of acute colds, coryza and throat pains, tonsillitis, pharyngitis and laryngitis.

If Saponaria is used in combination-remedies, this is because of a certain blood- cleansing action which Saponaria, as an old folk medicine, is supposed to have. It fa- cilitates the elimination of homotoxins which have been freed through harmless ca- tarrhal symptoms such as an acute cold, or in serious cases tonsillitis. Saponaria then compensates for this by inhibiting inflammation in a biological way by chang- ing the homotoxic “soil”.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Saponaria officinalis, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for saponaria: headaches and eye aches.

The attenuations of this sarcode are prepared from fresh blood, removed from  healthy pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus).

The main indications are:

Generally in dyscrasias, severe homotoxic states and at the commencement of courses of detoxifying treatment.

This sarcode should be interpolated in all degeneration phases at definite intervals (every 1–2–3 weeks or so) in the biotherapeutic treatment otherwise being given, since the blood, as the great conveyor-belt, also transports numerous homotoxins which, by the Reversal effect, also develop antihomotoxic therapeutic action.

Thus additional indications are: Leukaemia. Agranulocytosis. Anaemia. Allergic states. Skin diseases. Metabolic illnesses, particularly diabetes mellitus and arte- riosclerosis, also cholesterolaemia, polycythaemia rubra vera and Simmonds’ cachexia.

The attenuations are prepared from the mixture of alkaloids from the underground parts of Sanguinaria canadensis L., where the alkaloids are present as nitric acid salts.

The main indications are:

Chronic mucous polypi in the nose. Enlarged adenoids. Bronchiectasis. Acne vul- garis.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Sanguinarinum nitricum crudum, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (Ger-

man Federal Gazette) for sanguinarinum nitricum: inflammations of the respirato- ry passages.

The mother tincture is prepared from the dried underground parts collected in au- tumn of the plant Sanguinaria canadensis L., which occurs in sparse woodlands of North America, from Canada to Florida and Mexico. N.O. Papaveraceae.

Sanguinaria Canadensis gives a red tincture which has a burning, acrid taste. It is commonly used in America as a domestic remedy, also in the form of a tea prepared from the root. Kent describes Sanguinaria as a routine remedy for colds, because the provings gave extensive confirmation of Sanguinaria’s relationship to chest com- plaints and colds. There are typical violent pains and burning in the mouth, chest, larynx and trachea when speaking, coughing and breathing, aggravated at night, and the patients are unable to lie in a cold room. A typical symptom is the eructation dur- ing or after coughing, and during chest complaints there is frequently heat in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, and a circumscribed hectic redness of the cheeks.

A sensation of burning runs through the whole remedy, so that Arsenicum is often prescribed in such cases but fails to work because of the imprecise indications. This burning also occurs in the stomach, associated with nausea, the patient continually needing to vomit. However, vomiting brings no relief. This sensation of dry burning is also particularly marked on the tongue, which is fiery-red with a feeling as if there were hot food in the mouth.

The feeling of burning soreness also appears in hay fever, the burning in the nose and throat being so marked that there is a sensation as if the mucous membranes were cracking from drying out. In such states one may in fact find dry, wrinkled, hot palms, possibly associated with congestive headaches, with a hot, painful head espe- cially on the right side.

The Sanguinaria headache is a typical migraine above the right eye. It begins in the morning in the occiput, moves upwards and settles above the right eye and in the right temple, the pain being aggravated by light and during the day. There is an ame- lioration, dependent on vomiting of bile, mucus, bitter masses and food, and also from discharge of flatus and from eructation (regressive vicariation into the excre- tion phases). General experience has shown, however, that Sanguinaria alone is not sufficient as a remedy for migraine; it must be supported by deeply acting detoxify- ing remedies, and especially liver remedies, such as Chelidonium, or by nosodes such as Psorinum and others.

The headaches, which are pulsating and aggravated by movement (cf. Bryonia), may possibly also be accompanied by other neuralgic complaints, which manifest themselves above all in the right shoulder and neck areas. The patient cannot raise the arm and has pains in the deltoid muscle, aggravated particularly at night. San- guinaria is also recommended in gout of the hip with sore, bruised pain and in stiff- ness of the wrists.

Certain Sanguinaria symptoms are often found in the menopause, viz. hectic red- ness of the cheeks and excessive heat, burning in the skin and mucosa; so that San-

guinaria may also be successfully used for hot flushes. The action of Sanguinaria here, as is generally the case in other indications also, is comparatively fleeting. Ei- ther the doses must be repeated quite frequently or else another supporting remedy is required. Thus the burning of the soles of the feet and palms of the hands, forcing the patient to stick the limbs, especially the feet, out of the bed, usually suggests Sul- phur and Sepia; the thick, viscous, stringy expectoration with spastic coughing, ac- companied by eructations of air and empty eructations, burning in the chest, violent pains in the larynx and trachea on speaking may possibly call for Coccus Cacti; and descending catarrhs also require Arum Maculatum.

When Sanguinaria is used against nasal polypi, when it is likewise capable of very good results, a constitutional remedy such as Calcium Carbonicum should also be prescribed, whilst in influenzal, feverish catarrhal conditions, in addition to Aconi- tum, Bryonia, Eupatorium Perfoliatum and others, the typical descending burning sensation in all the mucosa of the respiratory tract should bring Causticum to mind; this remedy also has tearing pains in the limbs as a particular feature of its picture. Sanguinaria is especially indicated when there is coryza with a rough throat, pains in the chest and diarrhoea.

We may mention one or two more particular symptoms, especially a feeling of weakness and hunger during headache, and a sensation of destruction and emptiness during migraines; these are referred to by Kent. However, in contrast to Psorinum there is simultaneously an aversion to food – even the mere thought of it – and to the smell of cooked food.

Sanguinaria can also develop a similar action to that of Nux Vomica in gastric ca- tarrhs of drinkers, particularly when very small amounts of fluid are vomited and neither food nor drink remains in the stomach (cf. Phosphorus) and when possibly headache and diarrhoea are present simultaneously. When coughing the patient often complains of pains in the left hypochondrium, likewise when this area is being pal- pated and on bending to the left.

Stauffer reports that Sanguinaria has seldom produced the results which he expected of it in headaches. This can be confirmed, insofar as lasting results from Sanguinaria are rare unless supporting remedies are prescribed at the same time.

Stauffer recommends Sanguinaria in the typical right-sided pneumonia, particularly in the lower lobes, where Sanguinaria rivals Chelidonium.

Burning in the anus with dryness and soreness fits the general picture of the mucosa being affected; in the same way the trachea feels sore and so does the oesophagus, so that every bolus hurts as it passes down and the patient can say exactly in which area it is situated at that point in time.

Sanguinaria (in the 30X) has served the author well in many a case of bronchiectasis with tough, thick, offensive expectoration, usually associated with hectic flushing of the cheeks; however, in such cases there must be strict abstention from sutoxins (pig- meat). Obviously in the case of bronchiectasis it is a question of a site of least resist- ance (following retoxic treatment of influenzal bronchitis), which is then used as an elimination-route all the time for intermediary homotoxins introduced in the food and otherwise, particularly through sutoxins.

If the symptoms of Sanguinaria are summed up, the result is the following typical remedy-picture:

1. Predominantly right-sided remedy: right-sided headache of a migrainous type, right-sided pneumonia (of lower lobe).
2. All mucosa affected by burning catarrhs. Coryza. Pharyngitis. Tracheitis. Nasal polypi. Bronchitis with tough, thick mucus. Bronchiectasis with spastic cough. Hay fever with burning in the nose and in the throat. Burning gastric pains after over-eat- ing and consumption of alcohol. General acridity of discharges.
3. Heat in the feet and the skin. Hot flushes in the head, possibly with pulsation and palpitation throughout the body and circumscribed red patches (hectic flush) on the cheeks.
4. Migrainous headaches, especially on the right side with a feeling of hunger, yet with simultaneous aversion to eating and the smell of cooked food.
5. Simultaneous stomach and liver complaints with sour eructations in asthma, hay fever, headaches, etc. Tendency to diarrhoea in catarrhal illnesses of all kinds.
6. Rheumatic complaints, particularly in the arms (primarily the right one) with ag- gravation at night. Hip-pain (coxalgia), especially at night with shooting, stabbing pains. Accompanying anxious and worried mood, possibly also irascible, peevish and impatient.
7. Sanguinaria has a comparatively superficial action, although bringing speedy relief; for the permanent removal of chronic conditions it needs to be accompanied by a suitable constitutional remedy, Calcium Carbonicum, Sepia, Sulphur, Phosphorus, Thuja, Psorinum, Mercurius compounds and others being possibilities.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Sanguinaria canadensis, pub- lished the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for sanguinaria: inflammation of the respiratory organs; menopausal com- plaints; rheumatism.

The mother tincture is prepared from the fresh leaves of the plant Salvia officinalis L., a native of Central and Southern Europe. N.O. Labiatae.

The main indications are:

Tickling cough in pulmonary tuberculosis. Night sweats.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Salvia officinalis, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for salvia officinalis: perspiration disorders.