The Earthwise Herbal Repertory

by Matthew Wood

  Cerebrospinal: • Cimicifuga (congestion of CSF) • Ustilago (feeble innervation and circulation).

  Low Blood: See “Blood.”

  FORMULARY

  Bacopa—with Hypericum, Gingko, and Ocimum (head injury). D. Winston.

  Betonica—with Scutellaria (nervous headache). BHP 1983, 42.

  Betonica—with Rosmarinus and Gingko or Vinca (to increase circulation to the brain). Wood.

  PERIWINKLE (VINCA MINOR)

  Rudolf Weiss (1994) is our major modern authority on Vinca and its active ingredient, vincamine. Medieval herbalists, he says, considered dried periwinkle to be a remedy for headaches, vertigo, and memory, so the modern uses are sustained by tradition. Modern research and clinical results based on the use of vincamine have verified these assertions. First isolated in 1954, hundreds of papers have since been written about this substance, which has a very pronounced effect on cerebral circulation. Although the properties are well known in European phytotherapy, it is little used in North America.

  Periwinkle’s major uses are “primarily cerebral arteriosclerosis and the sequelae of strokes. Subjective symptoms such as poor memory, behavior disorders, irritability, restlessness, speech disorders, vertigo and headaches showed particularly good improvement. Mikus considers the main indication to be the milder forms of cerebral arteriosclerosis, with positive response seen in lack of attention and memory disorders, as well as emotional disorders” (Weiss 1994, 180).

  Periwinkle has also been used for tinnitus, senescent hearing loss, Ménière’s disease, and the sequelae of brain trauma. Cerebral blood flow, oxygen consumption, and blood sugar use in the brain all increase from use of vincamine. Diffuse changes in cerebral electrical activity have also been documented. Concentration and memory are particularly improved; it is believed that this is due to its influence on the cerebral arterioles. All of these uses are implied in the medieval applications. A positive effect on retinal disorders due to impaired blood flow has also been observed.

  Vincamine is given orally. It usually takes three to six weeks for the effects to manifest, but it is well tolerated—gastrointestinal upset is infrequent and mild. It is considered contraindicated for brain tumors and diseases where there is intracranial pressure.

  Face and Complexion

  This section has been included largely to provide diagnostic information. See “Skin” section for information about skin conditions. Diagnosis from the color of the skin comes from Greek, Chinese, and eclectic medicine. Observability may depend on the race of the observer and the patient. If not visible in the skin, check the tongue for color.

  Color

  Blue and Red: • ACHILLEA (reddish complexion with blue veins) • ARNICA (blue and red) • BUPLEURUM (darkish, blue, red, yellowish) • Capsicum (red, darkish) • CARTHAMUS (reddish with blue veins) • SAMBUCUS (red, dry cheeks, blue color and swelling over base of nose; marbling red, white, and blue in forearms).

  Blue and Yellow: • ANGELICA (blue, green, yellow, gray) • BUPLEURUM (Huang) • CARBO VEGETABILIS (homeopathic; blue and yellow).

  Blue, Red, and Yellow: • BUPLEURUM (“blood and qi stagnation”—Huang).

  Blue and Gray: • RUBIA • SALVIA.

  Pale, Fair: • Alchemilla (pale, prominent blue veins—LeSassier) • Angelica (thin and pale; poor digestion and gas with tendency to accumulate fluids) • APOCYNUM CANNABINUM (tight, smooth, glistening, usually blanched, may have pinkish streaks; cardiorenal edema; moderately toxic) • Betonica (pallor) • Carum • Celastrus (blue bands under the eyes; dry, delicate, thin, with general pallor) • CINNAMOMUM CASSIA (thin, fair, spontaneous sweating, pulse high and large) • GNAPHALIUM (pale, gray, tawny, yellowish; thin, pale skin from prednisone) • Mentha piperita (dark circles under eyes, long-standing pallor, cold, anemia, amenorrhea, languor, back and loin pain, full veins) • Plantago (pallor) • REHMANNIA (pale lips, complexion, and tongue from anemia; prepared root) • ROSMARINUS (weak digestion; cardiopulmonary edema in older persons; thin and weak skin; poor circulation to surface; cool skin; “low blood” or dark color around ankles) • (blue, pale, swollen; edema) • Senecio aureus (pallor, loss of blood, mucus, pus; uterine prolapse, feeble appetite, backache) • URTICA.

  Yellow: • Calendula (yellowish around the eyes; boneweary—but this is a rare symptom) • BUPLEURUM (wiry pulse, liver conditions) • Ceanothus (doughy, sallow, expressionless) • CHELIDONIUM (jaundice; acute or chronically sallow complexion) • Chionanthus (dirty, sallow skin, expressionless eyes, lusterless hair, hepatic tenderness) • CNICUS (hepatitis) • Dioscorea (conjunctiva) • Euonymus (jaundice) • Nymphaea (“yellowness of the face”—Salmon) • Oenothera (sallow, dirty skin, stagnant lymphatics, torpor of the liver, spleen, mesentery, female organs) • Trigonella (aversion to exercise, overweight; slack muscle tone, stagnant lymphatics).

  Note: “Sallow” means a slightly yellow color, usually long-lasting and constitutionally based.

  Dirty Appearance: • Chionanthus (dirty-looking, sallow skin, expressionless eyes, lusterless hair, hepatic tenderness) • Euonymus (muddy, from sluggish liver, possibly lung and kidney ailments together) • Rheum (internal heat; reddish, oily, greasy, or dirty).

  Dry: • ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA (dry, full, and hot in fever; dry in chronic conditions) • Bupleurum (dark, reddish, yellowish) • Dioscorea (dry, yellow) • Epilobium (harsh, dirty, contracted) • Equisetum • SALVIA (dry, finely wrinkled, like a sage leaf; lichenification) • Trifolium (chronically dry) • VIOLA.

  Damp, Clammy: • CINNAMOMUM CASSIA (easy sweating) • GELSEMIUM (homeopathic; in hot, damp weather) • MELISSA (clammy palms) • MONARDA FISTULOSA (entire skin clammy, cool) • RHUS SPP. (with excess urination or fluid loss; tongue may be dry, but skin moist).

  Red, or Red and Pale: • Amygdalus (excitation; skin dry and sensitive; histaminic irritation) • Chamomilla (tension; sensitive skin and moods; one cheek pale, the other red-hot) • Chrysanthemum (normally pale; turning red and full with headache, fever or period) • Crataegus (excitation; meaty parts of palms and elsewhere carmine-red) • Crocus (deeply warming, for cold/depression; pallor alternating with redness; one-sided pulsation) • Grindelia (dry, red, irritable; enlarged spleen or liver with localized pain) • Prunus serotina (excitation; histaminic irritation, redness around wounds; meaty parts of palms red with general yellow tone; liver immune dysfunction—needs confirmation) • Rheum (excitation; cheeks red; yellowish around eyes, nose, mouth) • Rosa (excitation; meaty parts of palms marbled light- and dark-red, indicating heat unevenly penetrating tissues) • Rumex crispus (excitation; yellowness around eyes, nose, mouth; red cheeks) • Ruta.

  Gray: • Daucus • Echinacea (dirty-gray visage of the face with chronic tendency to boils, abscesses and carbuncles, with exhaustion) • Gnaphalium (asthma) • Pinus (oxygen-poor, “smoker’s complexion”) • RUBIA (complexion, tongue) • SALVIA (complexion and tongue) • Urtica (face and skin).

  Luminous: • Lilium longiflorum (clear, luminous skin, sometimes marred by acne on the zygomatic arch).

  Trigeminal neuralgia: • Aconitum (homeopathic) • Cimicifuga • Gelsemium (homeopathic).

  Location

  Mouth area: • Althaea (powdery exfoliation of skin outside lips) • Rheum (yellow around mouth, nose, eyes, with red cheeks) • Rumex crispus (yellow around mouth, nose, eyes, with red cheeks).

  Eyes (around or under): • Apocynum cannabinum (puffiness beginning under the eyes; pale, tumid, lucid, or wrinkled from recent swelling under the eyes; cardiorenal edema) • ARALIA RACEMOSA (dark circles under eyes; adrenal exhaustion, especially in women) • Celastrus (blue bands under the eyes; dry, delicate, thin with general pallor) • Cinchona (eyes sunken, with dark rings under) • Comptonia (dark, sunken, under eyes) • ELEUTHEROCOCCUS (dark circles under eyes; adrenal exhaustion) • Mentha piperita (dark circles under eyes, long-standing pallor, cold, anemia, amenorrhea, languor, back and loin pain, full veins) • SASSAFRAS (sooty, darkish around the eyes).


  Cheeks: • Achillea (rosacea) • CRATAEGUS (red) • Rheum (yellow around mouth, nose, eyes, with red cheeks) • Rumex crispus (yellow around mouth, nose, eyes, with red cheeks).

  Freckles: • Potentilla • Primula.

  Pigmentation Mask: • Potentilla (over cheeks and bridge of nose) • SEPIA (homeopathic; with uterine exhaustion).

  Premature Wrinkling: • Apocynum androsaemifolium (premature and sudden wrinkling) • Chondrus • Salvia (on neck).

  Note: This symptom indicates changes in the extracellular matrix.

  Wrinkling on Forehead: • Lavandula.

  Swollen Face: • Baptisia (swollen and dusky in fevers) • GELSEMIUM (homeopathic; swollen) • Sambucus (puffy, plethoric).

  Note: Swelling of the checks may be due to dental infection.

  Eyes

  Conjunctivitis, Eye Infection, Congestion, Redness: • Acacia (leaf) • Agrimonia (gritty eyes, conjunctivitis; cooled tea eyewash) • Berberis (allergic, chronic; drops—Weiss) • Calendula (eye lotion) • Capsicum (very dilute in eyewash—Christopher) • CHAMOMILLA (compress, eyewash; catarrhal) • Cinerarea maritima • EUPHRASIA (acute infection, pain, sticky mucus, redness, ulceration, acrid tears, congestion) • Foeniculum (eyewash; blepharitis, conjunctivitis) • Fumaria (eye lotion; conjunctivitis) • HAMAMELIS (obstinate conjunctivitis with vascularity of lids) • Hydrastis • Linum (seed, under eyelid) • Lysimachia • Mahonia • PULSATILLA (mucus and redness) • Quercus (drops—Weiss) • Rubus canadensis • SOLIDAGO (allergies, clear mucus, irritation, watering, redness—Boericke; often confirmed).

  Inflammation: • Acacia (leaf) • Ambrosia (bloodshot eyes, hay fever) • Berberis (chronic catarrhal, allergic: drops—Weiss) • CALENDULA (external wash) • Capsicum (very small physical doses) • Carthamus (eyelids) • Cichorium (children) • Coptis • Dicentra (corneal ulceration) • Euphrasia • Foeniculum (on eyelids) • Gnaphalium (iritis) • Hamamelis (external) • Hydrastis (acute and sub-acute; cornea, eyelids; external) • Mahonia (chronic catarrhal; external) • Polygala senega • Ruta (burning, hot, strained, easily fatigued, worse from reading or close work) • Salvia sclarea (seed considered a soothing mucilage) • Sassafras (acute) • Saxifraga • STAPHYSAGRIA (homeopathic; corneal abrasion, stye, painful eye) • Thuja (tumors on eyelids).

  Stye: • Chamomilla • Commiphora myrrha (early stage; external) • Euphrasia • Hamamelis (fomentation) • Hydrastis • Mahonia (external) • Phytolacca • Pulsatilla (full-blown) • STAPHYSAGRIA (homeopathic) • Thyme (herb, not oil) • Xanthorrhiza (in water and salt; apply to eye using dropper).

  Tear Ducts: • Achillea (chronic tearing) • Alchemilla (chronic tearing) • Althaea (dry eyes) • Asarum (lachrymitis) • Euphrasia (chronic tearing) • Pulsatilla • Rosa • Thuja.

  Black Eye: • Arnica (preventive or after injury; dilution or salve, if skin is unbroken) • Hamamelis (if skin is broken) • Ledum (from a blow; external) • Symphytum (with pain in eyeball; external; root).

  Note: Above remedies are from John Henry Clarke, in The Prescriber; he used them in homeopathic dilution.

  Blepharitis: • Berberis (poultice) • Euphrasia (poultice), Foeniculum (poultice) • Juglans regia (poultice) • Quercus (poultice).

  Note: The above remedies are from Rudolf Weiss, via John Sherman.

  Bloodshot: • Ambrosia (prominent vessels) • Angelica (“naturopathic visine”—Sherman) • Euphrasia (in patches, burning, itching) • Hyssop (in patches; hot fomentation) • Pulsatilla • Solidago (generalized redness).

  Cataract: • Arctium • Chelidonium • Cichorium • Chrysanthemum • Cineraria maritima (external) • Foeniculum (“no case should be operated upon [before this] simple remedy has been tried”: use seed powder, infused several hours in 1 oz. cool water; decant and use clear liquid as an eye lotion several times a day—Parton) • Ganoderma • Glycyrrhiza • Ledum (“tonic to the eye lens”—Powell) • Melilotus • Petroselinum • Plantago • Pulsatilla • Sambucus • Saxifraga • Tilia • Vaccinium myrtillus.

  Corneal Abrasions, Injuries: • Cineraria maritima (injury) • Euphrasia (corneal ulcer; drops—Weiss) • Hamamelis (external) • Hydrastis • STAPHYSAGRIA (superb for corneal abrasions; use low homeopathic potency).

  Floaters: • Iris (“usually due to liver disorder, unless former injury is the cause. If not due to the latter, use blue flag”—Parton).

  Glaucoma, Intraocular Pressure: • Aesculus hip. • Argemone mexicana • Calendula • Cannabis • Capsicum • Cimicifuga • Cinerarea maritima • Clematis • COLEUS (drops in eyes, for temporary relief) • Equisetum • GINGKO • Mahonia • Myrica • PULSATILLA • Rubus canadensis • Saxifraga • VACCINIUM MYRTILLUS.

  Grave’s Disease (see Hyperthyroidism)

  Macular Degeneration: • Vaccinium myrtillus.

  Ulcerative Ophthalmia: • Eucalyptus (intense pain; steam or drop of diluted oil in the eye) • Hamamelis (distilled extract, diluted, in the eye).

  Iritis: • Bryonia (homeopathic) • Cannabis • Cimicifuga • Gnaphalium • Grindelia • Pulsatilla (viral) • Saxifraga • Thuja.

  Lids: • Apocynum cannabinum (wrinkled, as if they had just lost some watery swelling) • Euphrasia (acute inflammation) • Hydrastis.

  Swelling Under the Eyes: • Apocynum cannabinum (kidney weakness) • Hamamelis (local treatment).

  Note: Probably other diuretics are effective; swelling under the eyes occurs because there are no sweat pores there to relieve water retention from weak kidney function.

  Pain: • Bryonia (homeopathic; worse from movement) • Cimicifuga • Erigeron (external) • Grindelia • Pulsatilla.

  Sore, Weak, Tired Eyes: • Cimicifuga (eyestrain) • Larix (tired, sore eyes; use as ointment) • Pulsatilla • RUTA • Tilia (weak muscles).

  Impaired Vision: • Bupleurum • Chrysanthemum (flower) • GINGKO (macular degeneration, decreased blood flow) • Sambucus • VACCINIUM MYRTILLUS (impaired night vision, nearsightedness, macular degeneration).

  Note: Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) is an old Native hunting remedy in Wisconsin, used to “help see the game against the background.”

  Retina: • Chrysanthemum (flower) • Fagopyrum (retinitis, retinal hemorrhage) • GINGKO (diabetic retinopathy) • Osmorhiza longistylis (diabetic retinopathy) • Pulsatilla • Rhus spp. (diabetic retinopathy) • Sambucus • VACCINIUM MYRTILLUS (diabetic retinopathy; retinitis pigmentosa) • VITIS (strengthens retinal capillaries; seed extract).

  Dilation of Pupil: • Belladonna (homeopathic; for fever with dilated pupil; throbbing head and pulse; acts as if possessed by an animal) • Ceanothus (dilated pupil—Easley).

  Arteriosclerosis of the Eye: • Vaccinium myrtillus • Vitis (seed extract).

  Conjunctiva Yellow (Icteric): • Chelidonium • Podophyllum (small material dosage).

  Strain: • Polygala (with alternating hot and cold packs) • Ruta (traditional—needs confirmation).

  Dull Appearance of the Eyes: • Galium (dull eyes, poor lymphatic drainage under the chin) • Panax quinquefolius (lack of secretion from “yin deficiency”).

  Note: Shining eyes are due to hydration, not (I am sorry to say) the “shine of the soul.” Almost always, the eyes will brighten when the right remedy is given—perhaps making the soul happier too.

  FORMULARY

  Borage—emollient eye drops.

  Euphrasia—with Hamemelis leaf (eye lotion). BHP 1983, 114.

  Fagopyrum—with Vitamin C (to reduce capillary permeability [retinopathy]). BHP 1983, 90

  BILBERRY (VACCINIUM MYRTILLUS)

  “Strengthens and protects veins and arteries. Helps night vision, improves short-sightedness. Maximum effect in five hours; take before visual tasks. Protects retina against macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, retinal damage in diabetes (also lowers blood sugar) and arteriosclerosis. Reduces pressure in glaucoma and can halt progression of cataracts.”

  —HERSHOFF AND ROTELLI (2001, 160, CONDENSED)

  Earsr />
  The ear is divided into three segments—the outer (which we see), the middle ear or passage (which we don’t see), and the inner ear (past the tympanum, or eardrum). The outer ear is seldom a matter for treatment, though it can be a site for eczema and occasionally inflammation. The middle ear empties into the throat, and is a common site for inflammation (otitis media, or middle-ear infection), often associated with upper respiratory tract infections.

  The middle ear sometimes becomes congested and plugged, and needs to be opened; I rely on Glechoma for this, but other remedies are listed below. Cerumen (earwax) can build up here and cause deafness (Verbascum). Inside the tympanum is the inner ear, where the delicate bones capture vibrations that are turned into sounds by our sensorium. Deafness can be due to: (1) blockage of the middle ear; (2) a torn or damaged eardrum (Alchemilla); (3) ossification of the bone (Eupatorium purpureum); or (4) damage to the nerves (Monarda fistulosa, Eschscholzia). This is only a short list, illustrating my general lack of experience on this subject. Loss in the higher range of hearing can be due to sinus infection with swollen tissues.

  Middle-Ear Infection (Otitis media), Congestion, Earache: • Alchemilla • ALLIUM SATIVA (oil) • Ambrosia • Anthemis nobilis (severe “sticking” pains in ear) • Astragalus • Baptisia (fetid discharge from middle ear) • Calendula • Chamomilla (pain with whining and complaining in young children) • Cimicifuga (dull ache; pain in ear from cold) • Echinacea (opens Eustachian tube) • Erigeron (middle-ear infection; oil) • Eucalyptus • Euphrasia (catarrh) • Galium (old, lingering infections and swollen glands) • GLECHOMA (opens Eustachian tube) • Glycyrrhiza • Hydrastis (middle-ear inflammation, hardened wax; ceruminosis, with eczema; otorrhea) • Hypericum (pain, infection) • Larix (decreases severity) • Piper methysticum • Plantago (in equal parts glycerin and water, dropped in the ear for earache) • PULSATILLA (pressure and infection, middle-ear infection in women and children; boils in auditory canal) • Ruta (eyestrain) • Sambucus (antiviral diaphoretic) • Thuja (blocked ear) • Tussilago (juice) • Verbascum (pain and pus in ear) • Viola.