Dulcamara (Dulc.)
(bittersweet)

Dulcamara – a possible flu remedy – aggravated by the transition from summer to fall.

This is one of the best remedies in the acute form; the eyes are suffused, the throat is sore and the cough hurts because of the muscular soreness. If brought on by damp, cold changes in the weather, so much the surer is Dulcamara indicated.

Dulcamara, also known as bitter-sweet, woody nightshade and dog-wood comes from the solanaceae plant family. The sensation of this plant family is described by adjectives such as sudden, violent and explosive. The passive reaction is stupor, faintness, unconsciousness and the active reaction is hurried, shrieking, spasm, panic, fight or flight response. The better known remedy Belladonna also comes from this plant family.

Dulcamara is often a remedy that is over – looked. One of the keynote aggravations of this remedy is worse from cold and damp weather. It is an ideal remedy for the transition between the long hot days of the end of summer and the cooler, colder nights that indicate autumn is in the air.

Dr. James Tyler Kent writes, “Every year women bring their babies back from the mountains at the end of the season, and then we get some Dulcamara cases. One needs to be in the mountains at the close of the summer season to know what the condition is. If you go into the mountains at such a time, either in the North or in the West, you will notice that the sun’s rays beat down during the day with great force, but along toward sunset if you walk out a draft of cold air comes down that will chill you to the bone. This will make the baby sick; it is too warm to take the child out in the middle of the day, and so he is taken out in the carriage in the evening, he has been overheated in the house during the day, and then catches his draft in the evening. Dulcamara is suitable for conditions that would arise from such a state.”

Bittersweet is also used in naturopathy and herbalism. Its main usage is for conditions that have an impact on the skin, mucous membranes and the membrane around the joints. (Synovial membrane) Bittersweet is considered by some to be a herbal remedy for treating herpes and allergies.

Keynotes:

• General aggravation from damp or cold weather

• General aggravation from change of weather especially when the warm days are followed by cold evenings as in autumn

• General aggravation from catching cold – diarrhea worse cold, damp weather

• Cough or asthma which comes on in cold, damp weather. Bronchitis and pneumonia

• Chills beginning in the back (compare Gelsemium and Eup – per)

• Hay fever, especially at the end of summer or in the fall

• Headache from suppression of sinusitis

• Stiffness and joint pains worse cold, damp weather or from getting wet

• Herpes about the lips

• Flat smooth warts

• General aggravation from suppressed eruptions

Copyrighted 2000 - 2012.  Kari J. Kindem, Classical Homeopathy. All rights reserved.  Read Disclaimer.