In a previous article we looked at selecting a remedy from the plant realm, where the primary issues are those of sensitivity, adaptability and endurance. An overview of the Compositae (Daisy/Aster) family of plants led us through Arnica to Echinacea, in terms of pace and depth of medicinal action, the range of physiopathology, and personal traits of the subject who might be calling for such a remedy. A similar schema will be helpful in organizing the vast amounts of material, botanical, physiological, psychological, to have a look at the Ranunculaceae (Buttercup) family, equally extensive worldwide to the Compositae, and likewise well represented in our homeopathic materia medica.
The Ranunculaceae family, “comprising over 1,000 species in about 50 genera is centered in temperate and cold regions of the northern and southern hemispheres”. We shall try to find common themes, moving through this plant order’s most familiar members, Aconitum (Aconite), Helleborus (Christmas or Lenten Rose), Ranunculus (Buttercup), Pulsatilla (Anemone, Wind Flower), Staphysagria (Delphinium), Hydrastis (Golden Seal), Clematis (Virgin’s Bower), which ordering could be said to be a movement from most sudden and acute to most deeply chronic.
With Aconite, growing as it does in rarified air of high mountains under strong sun and cold winds, we find sudden fever, dry burning heat, extreme thirst preceded by chill with shivering over entire body. Or cold over whole body with internal heat, sensation of cold and numbness of limbs with alternating cold and heat of face. There is nervous excitability with anguish, cries, tears, reproaches, shortness of breath, pulse hard, accelerated, alternately slow, imperceptible; fearful anticipation, ailments from fright, fear, vexation, fevers in the nursery, with great alarm but passing quickly: the storm is over.
Kent says, “Aconite is like a great storm: it comes, it sweeps over, and it passes away. It is short-acting… [with] no chronic diseases following.” And we shall see in what follows, a testament to Hahnemann’s three signal insights, the first of which most ancient traditions recognized:
1. What is medicinal in a substance is precisely its toxicology;
2. Which therefore to be medicinal must precisely match the “whole disease” to be cured;
3. And which in the attenuations (or dilutions, or potencies) are not only safer but much more effective when correctly prescribed.
“Used as an arrow poison by early stone-age cultures, Aconite is very fast acting… [in ancient Greece] its origin [is attributed] to the foam spilling from the mouth of Cerberus, the watchdog of hell, [as he] was killed by Hercules… his 12th and final labour… Aconitine, the main representative of a group of similar alkaloids contained in the plant is … the swiftest acting… such overwhelming power if released in the human economy can evoke only one kind of mental reaction: fear.” Interfering swiftly in the most vital processes, cardiac and respiratory, whether of toxic or mechanical origin, give the rubric “fear: predicts the time of death.”
[Vermeulen Frans, Prisma, Emryss Press, Haarlen, the Netherlands, 2002.]
Hellebore growing as it does out of thawing ground, (Christmas or Lenten Rose), in contrast has as much slowness and stupefaction as tall Aconitum, flowering at the height of summer, has “sudden strenuous activity.” Hahnemann says: “Though the sight is good, one sees only imperfectly and does not observe what one sees; though the auditory apparatus is good, one hears or comprehends nothing distinctly; though the gustatory organs are all right, one relishes nothing… has no pleasure in anything, slumbers but lightly… [works without attention].
Ranunculus, because of its photosensitizing compounds can produce sunburn-like rashes, inflaming & blistering the skin, with attending rheumatic or neuralgic pains. It can therefore be useful in shingles, intercostal or rheumatic pains, especially in small joints; fingers, toes, vertebrae, lower margins of scapulae, and especially when the patient is gouty, “hasty, irritable, quarrelsome.” Again the themes of vexation, irritation, sensitive to slights. But that soreness can also be “stitching, shooting pains”, “as of deep ulceration.” Generally Ranunculus symptoms can be cyclic, with long periods of abatement, but recur with attending irritability & vexation.
Pulsatilla, the Wind or Pasqual flowers of Anatolia, N. Europe, N. America & Japan, are very similar in their toxicology. Famed for their “affectionate, mild, yielding disposition, “Pulsatilla is noted for the changeability of symptoms: variable digestive symptoms: (“no two stools alike”, “painless, watery stools alternating with obstinate constipation”, or “abdominal cramping driving her to tears” – or to bed), now changeable genito-urinary symptoms, now wandering rheumatic complaints, now headache alternating with coryza, etc. Though Pulsatilla will rarely be a character to force an argument or bluster with the best of the Loganiacea, they are in my experience singularly resourceful (note: changing symptoms rather than seated disease) and tenacious, once decided of a purpose. (“Convinced against her will but of the same opinion still.”) Anyone who has tried to dig one of the Japonica variety out of their garden will find it coming back year after year at the same, and other places! Think of the long, and multiplying tap roots, plus “Wind flower”, as it propagates on the breeze. The alpine or other European varieties will simply vanish, unless the micro garden conditions are just so. Affectionate she may be but just try dissuading her when her mind is made up; or see how quickly she responds to betrayal of that affection. “Easily vexed, many emotions all at once.” Are those tears of anger, of injured pride, or of injured trust? (“Forsaken feeling.”)
Staphysagria, the stately Delphinium, likewise, has many emotions at once, but you won’t know what they are, for Staphysagria keeps a shining (or withering!) dignity even when suffering deeply (“too dignified to fight”) and their physical symptoms, like their emotions, are kept strictly out of sight. Thus they are far more dangerous to themselves as they refuse to manifest either their indignation or any other feelings behind it. While early on Staphysagria will show much irritation in the eyes, to teeth, to skin, to mucous membranes, to digestive or urinary tract, very soon we will see cysts, tumors, neuralgias, abscesses, bone diseases, infection of ovaries or spermatic chord, prostate or testicles. In short, Staphysagria’s is a much more deeply affected economy, generally with prolonged restraint of “many emotions at once”, vexations, peevish disposition, inclined to be displeased, appearing morose & indifferent or haughty & dismissive.
Of Hydrastis Canadensis, Clarke notes: “The medicinal properties of Hydrastis were known to the aborigines of America.” First mention of it in medical literature is by Rafinesque (Medical Botany. 1828). In Hydrastis, we find “irritation [to the point of rawness] in almost all mucous surfaces, nasal, pharyngeal, brochial, gastric, duodenal, intestinal, urethral, vaginal, “with attending poor appetite and digestion, a feeling of constant nausea, sometimes jaundice or enlarged liver. The disposition is similarly “raw”: “anger from contradiction [or] at his own forgetfulness, disposed to be spiteful [note: aggravation of Staph’s state “inclined to be displeased] alternating with buoyancy, cheerful in the morning, then taciturn, gloomy, fear of disease, of going out…”
Clematis, says Clarke, “like other Ranunculacea, is a direct irritant to the skin, producing inflammation and vesication [blisters]. It was used by Stoerck before Hahnemann’s time in cancerous affections and other foul ulcers, inveterate skin eruptions, syphilis and rheumatism. In the provings, [scalp], eyes, teeth, skin, urinary and male sexual organs show the greatest number of symptoms… with swelling of inguinal glands and testicles. Vermeulen notes: the presence of protoanemonin [a highly irritant alkaloid] has been demonstrated in the genera Anemone, Clematis, Helleborus… Pulsatilla and Ranunculus.
Summing up, with Aconite we see sudden fevers with great alarm but passing quickly; with Helleborus, sluggishness, inability to focus with either eyes or mind; with Ranunculus, rheumatic or neuralgic complaints; with Pulsatilla, a remarkable changeability of all symptoms, with Staphysagria, more deeply seated but still variable symptoms following upon restrained indignation; with Hydrastis, rawness of all mucous surfaces; and with Clematis, old ulcers, cancerous or syphilitic affections, ie., destruction of tissues. The progression thus shows movement from sudden and acute to chronic, more deeply disturbed states, with a progressive degree of disturbance to the sensorium, and thereby to disposition.
Author’s note: I am greatly indebted to the works of Frans Vermeulen, J.H. Clarke and Rajan Sankaran for the information collated in this article.