Drosera – Sundew

The mother tincture is prepared from the fresh whole plants of Drosera intermedia Hayne, Drosera anglica Huds. and Drosera rotundifolia L., gathered at the com- mencement of flowering. N.O. Droseraceae.

The sundew (Drosera species) occurs in Eastern Europe, Asia and North America and is an insectivorous plant, growing in peat-bogs, marshy meadows and on the banks of ponds. One can scarcely discover the plant, because only the hair-thin stalks rise out of the surrounding moss. On each of the purple glandular hairs which spread out like rosette around the stem, is a small drop of clear, sticky fluid, like a dew-drop. If a tiny insect touches one of these fine glandular hairs, it sticks fast. The rosette of hairs then closes in a reflex action, so that the insect is caught and is di- gested by enzymes.

As a homoeopathic remedy, Drosera has a typical sphere of indication, covering principally the respiratory organs and the cough. The coughing comes in paroxysms with frequent bursts, so that the patient can scarcely catch a breath between them, and it is worse at night. It is often accompanied by vomiting and epistaxis. The stab- bing pains in the chest are so strong that the chest (and abdomen) must be pressed with the hands. Thus Drosera is the prime remedy in whooping cough, and to a cer- tain extent represents the model of this illness (Dahlke). However, it is also indicated in tubercular irritative cough and catarrh with simultaneous pleurisy.

In Drosera we also find a deep, hoarse voice and chronic hoarseness, such as oc- curs, for example, in tuberculous laryngitis. A similar cough is an indication for Verbascum; however in Drosera the focus is more in the larynx.

If we sum up the main symptoms of Drosera, we have the following characteristic remedy-picture:

1. Whooping cough (Pertussis) with whistling breath and stabbing pains in the chest, with cyanosis and suffocation, retching, and great diffiuclty in expectorat- ing the mucus. Vomiting occurs, possibly accompanied by epistaxis.
2. Great fear with the attacks. Children usually hold the chest and abdomen during coughing.
3. Laryngeal catarrhs with intercurrent irritation of the pleura, with deep hoarse voice. Chronic hoarseness in tubercular patients.
4. Asthma with violently spasmodic symptoms, cyanosis and retching.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Drosera, published the follow- ing indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for drosera: inflammations of the respiratory passages, especially whooping cough.