Ignatia – St. Ignatius’ Bean

The mother tincture is prepared from the dried ripe seeds of the plant, Strychnos ignatii Berg., a native of the Philippines. N.O. Loganiaceae.

The “Ignatia” tincture produced from the St. Ignatius’ beans contains, like its sis- ter-remedy Nux Vomica, strychnine and brucine as main ingredients.

Ignatia is considered the main remedy for hysteria and states of nervous exhaus- tion, and is indicated in changeable moods, hypersensitivity to pain, twitching, headaches, stomach complaints, dysmenorrhoea, sensitivity to tobacco-smoke and smells generally, rectal prolapse, and absurd symptoms of a general kind.

However, in critically evaluating Ignatia symptoms, we must avoid the opinion that the symptoms which respond to Ignatia, because of their hysterical or nervous factor, can be dismissed with a wave of the hand. You see, with these symptoms we are dealing almost every time with impregnation phases, such as are consistent with disturbances of the autonomic nervous system, for example. In children this may be a prelude to meningitis and otitis media. Also typical are gastro intestinal symptoms, particularly with a feeling of weakness in the pit of the stomach, as if the stomach were hanging down.

Ignatia patients are supposed in the main to be intolerant, quarrelsome, irascible people of great touchiness, who react very easily to fright (cf. Aconitum, Opium and Veratrum), and who also tend easily towards spasms and convulsions, and in whom a typical migraine occurs with the symptom, as if a nail were being driven out through the side of the head.

We must be quite clear in our minds that such complaints can in many cases actu- ally be of a very unpleasant and stubborn nature and do not respond – or only tem- porarily – to the usual drugs, even to Atarax; on the other hand they can soon be re- moved with combination remedies which contain Ignatia.

One symptom in particular must be picked out, which is generally described as protracted sighing or taking a deep breath; that, however, does not give the full pic- ture. It is better described as dyspnoea, and in fact a possibly malignant dyspnoea, as if from inner suffocation. Nor are Ignatia patients necessarily always of the female sex; the male sex suffers with such symptoms just as often; even men in the prime of life often need Ignatia, e.g. heart-patients with dyspnoea. Nash tells us that the tear- ful, sensitive mood may be traced back both to fright and also to chronic worry. This is indeed the case. On the other hand, Ingatia patients do tend to take everything very badly and to work themselves up over comparatively simple and harmless prob- lems, regarding them as insurmountable, with the result that complaints then arise such as migraine-like headaches which are ameliorated by warmth and lying on the affected side, spasmodic contractions in the intestinal area with stabbing pains in the rectum, shooting up into the colon and awakening the suspicion of rectal cancer. Give a dose of Ignatia and these complaints will move in regressive vicariation from within outwards, maybe in the form of inflamed haemorrhoids or an anal or umbili- cal eczema.

An example of the absurd symptoms peculiar to Ignatia is intermittent fever where, during the chill, and only at that stage, there is a feeling of thirst, and also a red face, which is characteristic of no other remedy.

Ignatia also has a sensation of pressure in the throat, like a ball, as if choking were imminent, similar to the globus hystericus, or perhaps to be interpreted in the con- text of the dyspnoea already mentioned.

Skin eruptions may also occur: little acne pustules around the eyes and on the chin, as well as urticarial eruptions and falling out of hair.

Eye symptoms may include optical illusions, e.g. white, flickering, shining zig- zags at the periphery of the field of vision, as occurs in detachment of the retina.

Articular pains may occur in the hands and fingers with stiffness and drawing pains, and there may be weakness in the lower limbs, as in incipient primary chron- ic polyarthritis or the paresis of tabes.

There may be hypersensitivity of the skin to draughts and fresh air.

The exhaustion and weakness are aggravated by coffee, spirits and tobacco smok- ing, which is particularly intolerable.

This is accompanied by an extraordinary slowness in thinking. The mood may switch rapidly from one extreme to the other.

However, Ignatia may also be the remedy for more or less purely physical phases such as balanitis, prostatitis, leucorrhoea, metrorrhagia with congealed pieces of black blood smelling offensively, inflammatory symptoms on the eyelids, nose and lips, tickling cough, laryngospasm, oesophageal spasms, difficulties in swallowing, anal prolapse, jaundice, spasm of the bladder and febrile attacks similar to malaria, or even genuine malaria.

Although in all these symptoms frequently no serious organic change can be found in the context of degeneration phases, nevertheless we are clearly dealing with toxic effects, often with impregnation phases, which must have the correct an- tihomotoxic remedy, which is Ignatia.

Ignatia should also be borne in mind in numerous retoxic phases. The irritability of the nervous system may provide a pointer here (effects of strychnine and brucine), since this is characteristic of Ignatia and constitutes the organic foundation for the frequently changing symptoms which occur in impregnation phases resulting in many cases from retoxication.

The following essential symptomatology results from a summary of the above:

1. Nerve remedy. Hypersensitivity of all the sensory organs, including the skin. Hypersensitivity to smells, tobacco, smoke, and consumption of alcohol and cof- fee.
2. Consequences of worry, takes everything hard. Tendency to weep. Hides her worries from people at large. Taciturnity. Emotional depression (exogenous). Consequences of fright. Longs for solitude.
3. Slowness in thinking and speaking. Absent-mindedness. Bewildered air. Weak- ness of memory. Thoughtlessness. Confusion.
4. Trembling. Twitching. Fits of crying or laughing. Oesophageal spasms. Globus hystericus. Migraine (like a nail through the side of the head, followed by pass- ing of colourless urine).
5. Laryngospasm. Globus hystericus. Also Sydenham’s chorea and epileptiform at- tacks.
6. Tonsillitis, with amelioration of the throat-pains from swallowing.
7. Sensation of weakness in the stomach, as though hung down limply (cf. Sepia).
8. Anal prolapse with violent contracting pains which also shoot upwards in the rectum and into the colon.
9. Intermittent fever with thirst and hot head during the chill.
10. Dysmenorrhoea. Menses with black, lumpy, foetid blood.
11. Dyspnoea as from internal suffocation, also in asthma. Has to keep sighing deeply, but cannot complete a breath owing to retoxic enzyme-damage. (Espe- cially complements Carbo Vegetabilis.)

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Strychnos ignatii, published the following indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for ignatia: nervous disorders; emotional discord or upset; spasmodic conditions expe- rienced at hollow organs and muscles.