Sanguinaria – Blood-Root

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.