The Earthwise Herbal Repertory

by Matthew Wood

  Laryngitis: • Acacia • ACORUS (loss of voice) • Agrimonia • Althaea • Aralia racemosa (chronic; runny mucus, itching throat, worse in dry and winter) • Baptisia • Calendula • Capsicum (dry throat) • Carum (gargle) • Chamomilla • Cinnamomum spp. • COLLINSONIA (laryngeal tension, inflammation with voice loss) • Commiphora myrrha • Echinacea (purulent) • Eryngium spp. • Euphorbia (laryngeal spasm) • Gnaphalium • Hamamelis • Hydrastis • Juglans nigra (catarrhal; leaf teas) • Marrubium • Phytolacca • Panax ginseng (misuse of voice causing laryngitis) • POPULUS GILEADENSIS • PROPOLIS (instantaneous voice-producer) • PRUNELLA • Quercus • Salvia • Stillingia (laryngismus stridulus or pseudocroup—BHP) • Thymus • Tussilago (tea) • Ulmus.

  Pharyngitis: • Acacia (gargle) • Althaea (gargle) • Anemopsis (pale, relaxed mucosa; returns after almost healed) • Aralia racemosa (mucosa) • Castanea (gargle) • Ceanothus • Drosera • Echinacea (acute initial stage; sub-acute) • Foeniculum (gargle) • Grindelia (dried mucus) • Guaiacum (sub-acute, slow to heal; with joint pain) • Hamamelis (with swelling) • Hydrastis (pale, relaxed mucus; granular; with thick, gagging mucus; internal and external) • Ligusticum • Lomatium • Myrica (chronic; with semi-edema, over-secretion) • Nymphaea • Phytolacca (with hard, inflamed nodes in neck) • Polygala senega (thick, tenacious mucus) • Propolis • Rosmarinus • Salvia • Ulmus • Zanthoxylum.

  Tracheitis: • ACORUS • Castanea • Drosera • Verbascum.

  Strep Throat, Tonsillitis: • Aconitum (homeopathic; first onset) • Anemopsis (ulcerated, boggy membranes; gargle) • Arnica (peritonsillar abscess) • Baptisia (putrid, bad breath, swollen glands) • Capsicum (dry membranes, incipient) • Ceanothus • Chamomilla • Collinsonia • Commiphora myrrha (enlarged nodes; throat pale and tumid) • Echinacea (incipient; putrid) • Gnaphalium (gargle) • Guaiacum (acute, early stage; tumid, swollen) • Hamamelis (swollen, relaxed, congested) • Hydrastis (sub-acute and chronic; encrypted tonsils; catarrh) • Hyssopus • Inula • Ligusticum • Lomatium • Mentha piperita (tea) • Myrica (boggy, relaxed membranes with free secretion; ulcers) • Phytolacca • Polymnia • SALVIA • Sinapis alba (small dose) • Ulmus • Viola (dry membranes, constipation).

  Note: Modern antibiotic treatment frequently leaves lingering infection, swollen glands (which the doctors call “scar tissue”), and chronic ill health. In this case, go back and treat the condition as if you were there when it originally occurred—with the appropriate remedy. Give a large dose, or extended small doses, to reproduce the original swelling and inflammation. The following remedies are particularly noteworthy here:

  Strep Throat, Tonsillitis, Sore Throat (Relapsing and Chronic Sequelae): • Anemopsis (pale, relaxed mucosa; sore throat returns after almost healed) • Bidens (“never-ending throat irritation”—Kress) • Capsella (strep throat or tonsillitis cycling from tonsils to kidneys; recurrent tonsillitis in child, usually at three-week intervals—Croft) • Inula (swollen glands and irritated lymphoid tissue remain) • Phytolacca (swollen glands, pain worse from sticking out tongue; low immunity; easily gets sick; small dose or homeopathic) • Salvia (swollen glands remain; sage tea) • Solidago (relapsing respiratory conditions) • Viola (swollen glands remain).

  Note: The above remedies are for chronically swollen, tender glands and low immunity, remaining years after an infection. Large doses of these remedies (small doses for Poke) stimulate a depurative lymphatic effect.

  Voice: • Acorus • Allium cepa (lump in throat, with tears) • Collinsonia • Phytolacca • Pimpinella (clears mucus from throat) • Polygonatum (tension in shoulders and upper chest strains the voice) • Propolis (laryngitis) • Prunella • Verbascum • Vitex (voice changes during menstruation).

  FORMULARY

  Acacia—with Commiphora myrrha, Hamamelis (gargle for gingivitis, tonsillitis, pharyngitis). BHP 1983, 53.

  Commiphora myrrha—with Echinacea, Capsicum, Baptisia, Gnaphalium (tonsillitis, pharyngitis, throat conditions, with septic tendency). BHP 1983, 39.

  Prunus serotina—with Pimpinella and Acorus (tracheitis). Modified from BHP 1983, 160.

  Salvia—with Potentilla, drops of Propolis (gargle for throat conditions). Modified from BHP 1983, 186.

  Thymus serpyllum—with Commiphora myrrha, Rubus canadensis, Echinacea (acute throat infection, gargle). BHP 1983, 212.

  Tongue

  The condition of the tongue body and coating has long been used in both the East and the West as a diagnostic tool. It reveals the general conditions of the mucosa, blood, and fluids. The various tongue indications are listed in the “Six Tissue States” section, above. A majority of the indications are from my clinical experience, supplemented by a half-dozen excellent descriptions by Huang, and a few by Scudder and others.

  Glossitis (Inflammation, Swelling of the Tongue): • Agrimonia (ulcerative) • Echinacea (septic) • Hydrastis (ulcers) • Myrica • PLANTAGO (painless, swollen tongue from dampness—Galen) • Potentilla (ulcers) • SALVIA • Taraxacum • Trigonella • Vaccinium (as gargle, for acute glossitis—Weiss) • Zanthoxylum (chronic, with hypersecretion, congestion not inflammation).

  Paralysis: • Cinnamomum (Jones).

  Tongue Body

  Carmine-Red, Elongated, and Pointed (Excitation): • ACHILLEA (red on sides, blue in center; center line opened up and red within) • Althaea (burnished, shining, reflective surface from dryness; torn, red) • AMYGDALUS (carmine, pointed, dry, with red tip, sometimes slightly coated) • Citrus limonum (elongated, red, with prominent papillae, thin white coat) • Crataegus • Phytolacca (red tip) • Prunus serotina (pointed, carmine-red) • RHEUM (red, elongated tongue—Scudder; “red, tough, firm tongue body with a dry, scorched-yellow coating”—Huang) • ROSA (red, pointed, moist) • RUMEX CRISPUS (pointed, carmine-red, heavily coated white, yeasty, sometimes yellowish) • TILIA (red, pointed; autoimmune excess).

  Note: The carmine- or pink-red, elongated, flame-shaped, pointed tongue shows excessive reactivity in the immune system, or a tissue state of the heat and excitation.

  Dark-Red (Excitation and Depression): • Baptisia (depression; full, deep-red, brownish in coat) • BUPLEURUM (blood and qi stagnation; tension and depression) • BRYONIA (dark-red and dry; cracked; hot and dry membranes and tissue state) • GLECHOMA (beefsteak-red; intensely red, darkish, breaking up; severe heat or cancer—Eli Jones; a few confirmations, Wood) • RHEUM (internal heat with “red, tough, firm tongue body with a dry, scorched-yellow coating”—Huang) • TARAXACUM (excitation and stagnation; chronic heat in deeper tissues; adhesive, white coating with ripped-off, peeled, or mapped appearance, or dark-red tongue without any coating—Hahnemann; confirmed numerous times—Wood) • VERATRUM VIRIDE (dark-red streak down the center, with strong pulse indicating very strong fever).

  Note: The dark-red tongue shows that heat has penetrated more deeply into the tissues and organs, and the condition is therefore more serious and damaging.

  Pale: • Achillea (red edges, pale center; blood in the periphery, absent in the core) • Chelidonium (pale, sallow, full membranes and tongue; slight jaundice) • Chionanthus (tongue and mucosa pale) • CINNAMOMUM CASSIA (pale, or pale and dark, soft; coating thin and white; spontaneous sweating and flushed feeling—Huang) • Galium • Hydrastis (atonic; broad, slightly coated, slightly dry, pale—Boericke; confirmed—Wood) • NYMPHAEA (heavy white coat in center of pale, often dry, wide tongue—Wood) • Phytolacca (pallid, leaden, little coating) • PLANTAGO (painless swelling from dampness—Galen) • ZINGIBERIS (dried; pale or pale-red, with greasy white coating, but may be dark gray and greasy, or white and slimy—Huang).

  Note: The broad, pale, moist tongue indicates excessive moisture and lack of tone in the system. The pale tongue indicates anemia or deficient blood or nutrition. The tongue almost never lies, but sometimes a pale tongue presents when heat is there but has slipped deep down into the body, leaving the surface with less blood and resulting in pallor. Yet one expects
the tongue to be red from other symptoms indicating heat. This condition needs a stimulant to bring up the heat, and a coolant to sedate the heat.

  Blue: • ACHILLEA (red sides, pointed red tip, blue center) • ANGELICA ARCHANGELICA, A. SINENSIS (blue underneath; indicates congested blood in pelvis; often with dysmenorrhea—often confirmed) • Bupleurum (dark red and blue—Huang) • Echinacea • Rubia (blue, grey) • SALVIA (blue, grey).

  Note: The blue color is seldom found over the entire tongue body. It is usually found in spots, or in the middle but not on the sides, or in enlarged vessels on the bottom of the tongue. It always indicates stagnant blood and the need for pungent, blood-moving remedies.

  Purple, Dark, Brown, or Black: • Baptisia (purple body, brownish coating) • BUPLEURUM (muscular, firm tongue with dark red or purple spots—Huang) • ECHINACEA (“purplish, or dark brown condition, or may even be black”—Massinger) • PHYTOLACCA (purple spot—Wood) • POLYGONUM PERSICARIA (black, dark, brownish, or purple spot in center).

  Note: Purple in some region of the tongue indicates a stagnant, overheated condition with tendencies to sepsis. Black indicates tendency to necrosis, only common in the very senescent.

  Protuberances (Inflamed Papillae): • Belladonna (homeopathic; fevers with “strawberry tongue”) • CALENDULA (pink spots down area between sides and center line—Wood) • Mentha spp. (rubbed on tongue for roughness) • Rubia (strawberry tongue, but somewhat pale and dry, in anemia).

  Note: In my experience, protuberances—which are inflamed and swollen papillae—indicate an overactive immune system when they are small and towards the tip. However, if they are medium-sized and in the middle, they represent lymphatic inflammation (if red), stagnation in lymphatics (if pink), or cold lymphatics (if white). Large red or pink spots in the center and back of the tongue body probably represent heat in the colon or pelvis. Enlarged spots on the very back of the tongue are considered to be normal.

  Tongue Coating

  Dry (Atrophy): • ACHILLEA (dry and blue in center, moist and red on sides; heat with stagnant blood blocking fluids in the center) • ALTHAEA (reddish, reflective, shiny surface with cuts; atrophy and heat driving off fluids) • Arctium (lack of oil) • LYCOPODIUM (atrophy; dry, withered, full of gas—Boericke; homeopathy) • Mahonia (dry) • Nuphar • PANAX QUINQUEFOLIUS (dried-up from lack of heat, or fluids driven off by heat—Hobbs), Rhus spp. (dry tongue with fluid loss from lower channels drying out the upper tissues; this is actually an indication for an astringent for the relaxed tissue state—Wolff).

  Note: The dry tongue almost always indicates a lack of fluids and dryness in the internal tissues. A moistening and sometimes nutritive remedy is needed. However, if there is fluid loss, the inner upper areas (such as the tongue) can dry out, and in that case an astringent or warming pungent remedy is needed (see below). If there is red on the tongue body, with dryness, the fluids are being driven off by heat, and the condition needs cooling remedies.

  Baked Dry in the Middle: • Bryonia (homeopathic; dark-red, very dark in center, appearing baked-dry) • Baptisia (“swollen, thick, white-coated, yellowish-white; thick fur; baked appearance in middle”—Clarke) • Veratrum viride (homeopathic; dry, red in middle).

  Moist (Relaxation): • Comptonia • Geranium maculatum • Rhus spp. • Rubus canadensis • Rumex crispus (carmine-red, pointed, moist, coated), • Tilia (carmine-red, pointed, moist, with auto-immune disease).

  Note: Excessive moisture on the tongue almost always indicates the relaxed tissue state, requiring astringents. As the fluids continue to flow from the tissues, they may precipitate into a white coating, which still indicates a need for astringents.

  White, Not Adhesive (Relaxation): • Chimaphila (pale, coated white in center) • Geranium maculatum • Lobelia (unequal coat, fully white in back; nausea) • MYRICA • NYMPHAEA (pale, white and moist in center) • Phytolacca (white-coated, with white, foamy saliva) • Pulsatilla (creamy-white coat, nausea, taste of rancid fats) • Rumex crispus (carmine-red, pointed, elongated, with white or slightly yellow coating) • TARAXACUM (white, blotchy, adhesive, mapped; use root) • Veronicastrum (white coat with jaundice, liver pains; light-colored feces) • ZINGIBERIS (pale or pale-red tongue body with white or dark-gray and greasy, or white and slimy coating—Huang).

  Note: A white coating indicates that dampness from a relaxed tissue state is precipitating into phlegm. The remedies needed are usually astringents or pungent stimulants to warm the body. When the coating is white it is usually watery, non-adhesive, and more easily washed off, and indicates tissue relaxation. When the coating is yellow it is usually oily, adhesive, hard to wash off, and indicates the stagnant tissue state.

  Thick, Dry, White: • Bryonia (homeopathic) • Pulsatilla (broad, white-coated).

  Yellow, Greasy, Adhesive (Stagnation): • Acorus (white coat on tongue matches mental fog) • Althaea (red tongue body, dry yellow coating; “smoker’s tongue”) • Artemisia absinthium (furred coat) • Berberis (red tongue body) • Euonymus (yellow coat with lack of appetite; liver problems) • Hydrastis (broad, pale tongue, with thin, yellow coating if any) • Mahonia (coated and dry) • Podophyllum (yellow fur, with intestinal torpor; small dose) • RHEUM (red with dried yellow coating).

  Note: A yellow coating is usually due to excess oils that are not being processed correctly. They form a thick, adhesive, greasy yellow coating that is difficult to detach. This is the great indicator for what was called “humors in the blood,” “canker,” or “bad blood” in old-time medicine, and is the single best indicator for the use of an alterative or laxative.

  A longtime smoker will usually have a dry, red tongue body with a dry, yellow coating, and a tendency to excoriated tissue. Give Althaea (marshmallow root) palliatively to moisten the mucosa.

  Coating Brown (Septic Tendency): • Baptisia (yellow and brown) • Echinacea (brownish or blackish) • Mahonia (yellowish brown) • Menispermum canadense.

  Note: Brown is the usual color after a person has just had coffee. If they had coffee several hours ago and the tongue is still coated brown, this indicates that the tongue is not washing itself off well, and needs lubrication (bitters). A naturally brown coating indicates putrefactive tendencies.

  Coating Black (Sepsis or Mold): • Chelidonium (dull, leaden) • Echinacea • PROPOLIS (black haze mixed with clear or white coating; indicates mold allergy).

  Coating Transparent: • Althaea (reflective surface) • Bryonia (translucent) • Phytolacca (clear, transparent).

  Puffy (Sympathetic Deficiency) or Tremulous (Sympathetic Excess) Tongue During Menstruation: • Caulophyllum • Cimicifuga • Mitchella • Pulsatilla • Senecio • Viburnum opulus • Viburnum prunifolium.

  Note: This interesting section is from Dr. E.R. Waterhouse (1908, 109). The puffy tongue indicates sympathetic deficiency or parasympathetic excess, and the tremulous tongue sympathetic excess or parasympathetic deficiency. Unfortunately, Dr. Waterhouse does not designate which remedy belongs in each category.

  Mapped (“Geographical”): • Arctium (occasionally) • TARAXACUM (specific; seldom fails when the mapped or peeled tongue is present).

  Note: The mapped tongue indicates that heat has penetrated deeply into some tissues and organs. The distribution of heat is unequal; according to Chinese theory, the fire is baking down the fluids into phlegm, which blocks the upward-rising heat from escaping the body. This indication for Taraxacum came from Hahnemann’s provings; I have confirmed it scores of times in practice.

  Lungs and Lower Respiratory Tract

  The plant world generates oxygen (O2) as a waste product of the production of energy by photosynthesis. This is used by the animal body to generate energy in its cells. Carbon dioxide and water (CO2, H2O) are released as a byproduct of this process. Photosynthesis requires carbon dioxide and generates oxygen, so there is a beautiful circle of life sustaining both plants and animals.

  Chlorophyll, the molecule that takes the energy of sunlight and m
akes it into plant energy through photosynthesis, is responsible for the green color of leaves. It is identical to hemoglobin except that it has a magnesium ion where the latter has iron. Hemoglobin creates the red color of the blood, so the distinctive characteristics (green leaf and red blood) of these two kingdoms—plant and animal—are determined by these amazing molecules.

  The respiratory process is a circuit that goes from the capillary bed in the lungs (where oxygen is picked up from the air), through the pulmonary vein, to the heart, through the arterial system, back to the capillary bed. Here the oxygen is attracted out of the blood into the extracellular fluids, and picked up by cells, who use it in “cellular respiration” to fan the fires of cell metabolism and energy production. Carbon dioxide and water, the waste products of cellular respiration, are returned to the blood and move back through the venous system, heart, and pulmonary artery to the capillary bed in the lungs. Here the carbon dioxide and water are discharged into the atmosphere, and new oxygen is picked up to continue the unending process. The exchange in the lungs is called “pulmonary respiration.”

  The vasculature of the lungs is the opposite of the rest of the body: oxygenated blood flows through the pulmonary vein, from the lungs to the heart, and then through the arteries to the periphery and back again through the veins to the heart, then through the pulmonary artery to the capillary bed in the lungs.

  We commonly put all the emphasis on the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide because this is so obviously essential to life. However, there are other chemical changes of equal importance that occur as part of the respiratory circuit. The release of carbon dioxide, along with the release of uric acid by the kidneys, maintains the acid/alkaline balance of the blood, so acidosis can be caused by respiratory insufficiency. We tend not to think about the other waste product released by the lungs—water. This, however, is also very important. Every exhalation sends out a mist that clouds a mirror or piece of glass held before the mouth. If we did not remove water through the lungs, we would quickly become waterlogged.