Helleborus – Christmas Rose

The mother tincture is prepared from the carefull dried rootstock of the plant, Helleborus niger L., gathered in autumn or in springtime after the flowering period. The native of the Alps, the Balkans and Russia, is often planted in gardens because of its flowers, which appear at Christmas. N.O. Ranunculaceae.

The main indications are:

Melancholia. Psychoses. Fixed ideas. Apathy. Hunger-strike. Mutism. Stubborn si- lence. Consolation aggravates. Acute hydrocephalus. Lies on the back, unconscious, with the legs drawn up. The eyeballs are turned upwards, insensible, continual chew- ing motion. Quietly delirious. Encephalitis (post-vaccinial, after living-cell implan- tation). Acute and chronic nephritis. Oedema. Ascites.

According to experiments by V. Schroffs, Helleborein primarily affects the ganglia of the coeliac plexus and the heart, to the point of complete paralysis.

There is great heaviness and sensitivity of the muscles of all the limbs, with varied pains in different parts of the body. This is accompanied by the inability to rouse oneself to any kind of activity, with a dulling of sensation and an unaccustomed stiffness in the extremities.

Trembling, twitching of the muscles and convulsive movements, especially in sleep, are also characteristic, likewise spasms and sudden collapse or falling down without loss of consciousness and with cold perspiration on the forehead.

States of collapse with coldness of the limbs, slowed pulse, narrowed pupils and fainting attacks are mostly aggravated in the evening and ameliorated in the fresh air. Patients who need Helleborus usually exhibit a yellowish complexion, a pale sunken face, oedematous skin and swelling of connective tissue with painfulness of individual lymph-nodes. There is erupton of vesicles on the forehead and lips, pul-

sation of the arteries and congestion of blood in the brain.

In prominent conditions there is disgust for food with tendency to vomit, continu- al retching, abdominal distension with desire to urinate but scanty quantities passed, flatulence and difficult evacuation of hard faecal masses with pains in the rectum. By way of compensation there may, however, be violent diarrhoea with the faeces

stained by bile, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting being present, accompanied by involuntary defaecation with jelly-like mucus.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for helleborus niger, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for helleborus: meningitis and encephalitis; acute diarrhoea; nephritis; states of confu- sion; emotional distress.