Castoreum – Beaver-secretion

The mother tincture is prepared from the dried glandular secretion of the beaver, Castor fiber L. or Castor canadense Kuhl. N.O. Castoridae.

The main indications are: Nerve remedy. Hysteria. Slimy green or whitish diar- rhoea. Lassitude and prostrating sweats following feverish illness.

All the symptoms point to emotional overloading, with a great sensitivity to a wide variety of external impressions. Many complaints arise or are aggravated by toxic overloading, e.g. during menses. Generally there is amelioration from rubbing the affected parts and from warm applications.

The mood alternates between peevishness in the morning and light-hearted exu- berance in the evening; in between there are melancholy episodes.

Sleep is generally restless with anxious dreams.

The picture of Castoreum includes rheumatic and neuralgic conditions with spas- modic tension in the intercostal region and the musculature of the neck, shoulders and back, neuralgias of the arm, ameliorated by rubbing, painful sensations along the sciatic nerve with great fatigue of the lower limbs and feeling of heaviness in the head. There may also be lack of clarity of vision with increased lachrymation, and tinnitus with tearing, ringing and roaring sounds.

In the circulatory system there are distended veins with slow pulse and a sensation of constriction in the heart and cold shudders, none of these complaints having any essential objective cause.

In the respiratory organs there are also catarrhal conditions with coughing and stabbing pains in the chest. These pains are also found in the digestive system, along with stomatitis and glossitis, eructations, disgust for food, nausea, feeling of fullness with pressure in the stomach, with the symtpom: “as if a feeling of coldness domi- nated the stomach”, which can point to Castoreum.

The menses usually come on too early with pains in the sacrum and many nervous complaints, the menses recurring again after a few days.

Thus Castoreum is particularly suited to inflammatory and spasmodic conditions of various organs, especially in emotionally overcharged cases.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Castoreum, published the fol- lowing indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for castoreum: nervous disorders and emotional discord or upset; spasmodic condi- tions of the gastrointestinal tract; paramenia.