The Earthwise Herbal Repertory

by Matthew Wood

  Spine (Dryness, Atrophy, Malnutrition): • Agrimonia • Aletris (uterine prolapse) • Althaea (dried-out) • APIUM (lumbago, debility) • ARCTIUM (lower back pain, worry, weakness, atrophy of tendons and ligaments) • Artemisia vulgaris (moxibustion) • Boswellia • CALCIUM PHOSPHATE (homeopathic; osteoporosis) • Castanea (compress) • CIMICIFUGA (bunching up of cerebrospinal fluid; of postmenopausal and reproductive origin) • Dioscorea (hip-joint deterioration) • Equisetum • Hydrangea • Hypericum (drying, but useful for nerve pain) • OSMUNDA (specific for lumbago, rickets; osteoporosis) • Parietaria • POLYGONATUM (adjusts tensions on vertebrae; TMJ [temporomandibular joint syndrome]; adjuvant) • Rosmarinus (external) • VERBASCUM (helps straighten spine).

  Spine (Reproductive): • Aletris (uterine prolapse) • Angelica sinensis (back, pelvis, menstrual cramp, spasm) • Arctium • Artemisia vulgaris (infertility with cold, stiff, sore lower back; external, as moxibustion) • Caulophyllum (congested uterus and back muscles) • CIMICIFUGA (accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid; tightness in trapezius; painful lower back, thighs, loins) • Dioscorea (perimenopausal hip-joint deterioration) • Dipsacus • Hydrangea (postpartum) • Lactuca (tight lower back; cold constitution; infertility) • Smilacina (with Dipsacus, for pelvic instability; postpartum) • Symphytum (lumbar-sacral instability) • Valerian (see Viburnum) • Verbena (menopause) • VIBURNUM OPULUS (spasms, neuralgia in lower back, neck, pelvis, legs; digestion; back pain during menses).

  Spine (Related to Kidney and Urinary-Tract Problems): • Agrimonia (lumbar) • Agropyron • Althaea (dried-out) • APIUM (lumbago) • Berberis (lumbago related to kidney congestion; weakness, weak muscles) • Chimaphila (urinary-tract origin) • Cucumis sativus (low back pain, turbid urine, irritable tract, sharp pain in loins) • Equisetum (needs confirmation) • Hydrangea • Hypericum • Juniperus • Parietaria • Piper methysticum • Rosmarinus (external) • Salix alba (“ankylosing spondylitis”—BHP) • Sambucus (back pain and colic) • Smilacina (with Dipsacus, for pelvic instability) • SOLIDAGO (cold kidneys; external) • TSUGA (cold kidneys; oil, on lower back;).

  Spine (Aging and Deterioration): • Aesculus glabra (contraction, rigidity) • Aesculus hip. (low back, sacrum, and sacroiliac pain; stiff, weak back that “gives out;” heaviness, swelling) • Agrimonia (pinched tissues; lumbar region) • APIUM (lumbago) • ASARUM CANADENSE (cold; old injury, aging; external) • BOSWELLIA (stiffness, pain, inflammation, acute; improves circulation joints, sinews; cf. Tsuga; 2–4 weeks optimum use, even if acute) • CALCIUM PHOSPHATE (homeopathic; osteoporosis) • CIMICIFUGA (postmenopausal) • Cinnamomum (low back pain, cold) • DIOSCOREA (hip-joint deterioration) • Equisetum • Harpagophytum (pain, inflammation; rapid results or none at all) • HYPERICUM (nerve pain and inflammation, shooting pain, coccygeal pain) • Lactuca (tight lower back, cold constitution) • Leonurus (rounded spine, osteoporosis) • OSMUNDA (specific for lumbago; possible for osteoporosis) • POLYGONATUM (adjusts tensions on vertebrae; TMJ [temporomandibular joint syndrome]) • Rhodiola • Rosmarinus (external) • Salix alba (“ankylosing spondylitis”—BHP; probably just palliative) • Smilacina (with Dipsacus, for pelvic instability) • Symphytum (lumbar-sacral instability) • TSUGA (on lower back; oil) • VEBASCUM (dry, aging spine) • Zingiberis (pain; dried).

  Spine (Cold): • Aesculus hip. • Angelica sinensis • ASARUM CANADENSE (cold, sore, old injuries, aging; external) • ARTEMISIA VULGARIS (moxibustion) • BOSWELLIA (stiffness, pain, inflammation, acute; improves circulation of joints, sinews; cf. Tsuga; 2–4 weeks’ use is optimum even if acute) • Chimaphila (urinary-tract origin) • Cinnamomum (lower back pain) • Juniperus (urinary-tract origin) • LACTUCA (tight lower back; slow, hard pulse) • Rosmarinus (external) • SOLIDAGO (external) • TSUGA (on lower back; oil) • Zingiberis (pain; dried).

  Spine (Lumbar): • Aesculus hip. (low back, sacrum, and sacroiliac pain; stiff, weak back that “gives out”; heaviness, swelling; with hemorrhoids) • Agrimonia • Agropyron (urinary-tract origin) • Aletris (uterine prolapse) • APIUM (lumbago) • ARCTIUM (lower back pain, worry; weakness, atrophy of tendons and ligaments) • Arnica (external) • Artemisia vulgaris • Asarum canadense (external) • Berberis (lumbago related to kidney congestion, weakness; weak muscles) • Boswellia • Castanea • Chimaphila (urinary-tract origin) • Cimicifuga (tightness in trapezius; lower back) • Cinnamomum (lower back pain, cold) • Dioscorea (hip-joint deterioration) • Dipsacus (torn, wrenched, pulled muscles) • Filipendula • Hedeoma • Hydrangea (postpartum) • HUMULUS (external) • Hypericum • Juniperus (urinary-tract origin) • Lactuca (tight lower back, cold constitution) • OSMUNDA (the great specific for lumbago) • Phytolacca • Smilacina (with Dipsacus, for pelvic instability) • Symphytum (lumbar-sacral instability) • TARAXACUM (flowers, in oil; “takes the aging out of the lower back”—Anonymous) • TSUGA (on lower back; oil) • Urtica • Valerian • VIBURNUM OPULUS (neuralgia; back, lower back, neck, pelvis, leg, menstrual spasm).

  Spine (Intervertebral Discs): • Achillea (injury) • Agrimonia (pinched tissues) • Aesculus hip. (swelling) • Equisetum (needs confirmation) • HYDRASTIS (herniated or ruptured disc) • HYPERICUM (nerve pain and inflammation, shooting pain, coccygeal pain, pain from torn disc) • Petasites (inflamed, herniated, ruptured disc) • Verbascum (adjuvant; moistening to spine) • Zanthoxylum (writhing in agony from pain of torn disc).

  Sacral and Coccygeal Pain: • Aesculus hip. (“aching worse by walking or standing, with constipation and blind [internal] piles; sacroiliac articulation”—Clarke) • Aloe (drawing and heaviness, worse in the evening, “with bleeding piles and diarrhea”—Clarke) • Berberis (“violent pain in, aching, bruised, dragging, or pressing; worse from lying, sitting, or stooping; with rectal troubles”—Clarke) • Collinsonia (pelvic pain from hemorrhoids; cf. Aesculus) • Fouquieria (tension in the pelvis, sacrum) • HYPERICUM (injury to coccyx).

  Neck and Shoulders: • BUPLEURUM (tender, achy neck, shoulders, chest; tension; pulse wiry and thin; medium to thin, yellow constitution—Huang) • CHELIDONIUM (pain below occiput, sometimes down to shoulder blade, up to temporal region) • CIMICIFUGA (pain, stiffness; whiplash) • Glechoma • Lactuca (tension down sides of neck to shoulders, to chest) • Symphytum (stiffness) • TARAXACUM (SCM [sternocleidomastoid] muscle swollen, sore, reddish) • VERBENA HASTATA (tension down back of neck; stiff, atrophied, weak).

  Bell’s Palsy (Hemiplegia): • Asarum canadense (external) • Cimicifuga • Heracleum • Hypericum • Zanthoxylum.

  Sciatica: • Arnica (better from warmth; external) • Cimicifuga • Filipendula • Gaultheria • Hypericum • Melilotus • Thymus serpyllum (oil) • Zanthoxylum.

  Broken Bones: See “Injuries, First Aid.”

  Disc (Intervertebral Pain): • Aesculus (swelling) • EQUISETUM • HYDRASTIS (herniated, ruptured, weak; deterioration; external) • HYPERICUM (pain of pinched nerves; external) • Paeonia • Petasites (herniated, ruptured) • Symphytum.

  Note: In order to repair herniated, worn-down, or ruptured discs, it is necessary to reduce the inflammation so that tissue healing can take place.

  Infection in Bones: • Capsicum (mastoid) • QUERCUS (recalcification afterward) • TARAXACUM (marrow, bones, mastoid; recalcifies).

  Sciatica: • Achillea • Amanita muscaria (specific from Finland) • Arctostaphylos • Berberis • CIMICIFUGA • Gnaphalium • Helichrysum (essential oil—analog to Gnaphalium) • HYDRASTIS (for slipped disc) • HYPERICUM • Lobelia • Menyanthes • Thymus • Valeriana • ZANTHOXYLUM.

  Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ): • Hypericum • Polygonatum • Verbascum (root) • VERBENA.

  Paralysis: • Avena • Collinsonia (infantile) • Eupatorium purpureum (impaired circulation) • Heracleum • Zanthoxylum (nerve damage).

  Bone, Congenital Weakness: • Centella • Cetraria • Equisetum • Gnaphalium • Urtica.

  Bone Spurs: • Polygonatum • Smilacina.

  B
one Inflammation, Decay: • Helianthemum (decay) • Taraxacum (inflammation).

  Corns (often caused by muscular and skeletal imbalance): • Carica papaya (external) • Chelidonium (juice) • Symphytum (root; ointment) • Urtica (leaf and root; footbath, tea).

  Osteoporosis: • CALCIUM PHOSPHATE (homeopathic, or supplement, or bone broth) • EQUISETUM • Eupatorium perfoliatum • Medicago • Osmunda • Quercus (confirmation needed) • Ulmus • Urtica.

  Gout (Uric Acid Build-up): • Acorus (cold infusion; small dose) • APIUM (languid, debilitated) • Arctium (root; hyperuricemia) • ARNICA (very tender) • Asparagus • Barosma • Bidens • Calluna • Capsella (hyperuricema) • Chamomilla • Cimicifuga (with chronic muscular pain) • Daucus (hyperuricema) • Eupatorium purpureum • Filipendula (tea) • Ganoderma (footbath) • Guaiacum • Harpagophytum (hyperuricema) • Hypericum • Juniperus (chronic) • LARIX LARICINA (tamarack) • Ledum • Lilium longiflorum (inflames and removes; external) • Lycopodium • Mentha pulegium • Petasites (root; tea) • Plantago • Populus gileadensis (ointment) • Primula veris (tea) • PRUNUS (poor circulation to the periphery; irregular pulse) • Salix • Sassafras • Symphytum (bath) • Taraxacum (hyperuricemia; stems, eaten; roots, decocted) • Teucrium • Tribulus (hyperuricemia) • Trigonella • Tsuga canadensis (oil, external) • Veronica (internal, external) • URTICA (poor removal of uric acid by the kidneys) • Cercospora zeae-maydis.

  Fatigue of Muscles from Exertion: • Arnica (prophylactically, gives excellent results) • Carthamus (soreness after exercise, in hypoglycemic and others) • Echinacea (exhaustion from overwork; with boils, carbuncles and abscesses) • Eleutherococcus (with nervousness) • HYDRASTIS (weakness of nerves and muscles in general, heart in particular) • Nepeta.

  Note: Lactic acid as a food supplement can help remove lactic acid build-up in the muscles.

  Dystonia: • SALVIA • Withania (needs confirmation).

  FORMULARY

  Apium—with Menyathes and/or Guaiacum (myalgia). BHP 1983, 29.

  Apium—“therapeutic action appears to be potentiated by Taraxacum”—BHP 1983, 29.

  Cimicifuga—with Apium (arthritis). BHP 1983, 66.

  Cimicifuga—with Apium, Menyanthes, Filipendula, Castanea (myalgia, fibrositis). BHP 1983, 53, 144.

  Cimicifuga—with a small amount of Lobelia (whiplash with torsion).

  Cimicifuga—with Menyanthes and Populus (rheumatoid arthritis). BHP 1983, 169.

  Cimicifuga—with Phytolacca, Zanthoxylum (myalgia, arthritis).

  Cimicifuga—with Piper methysticum and Withania (fibromyalgia).

  Cimicifuga—with Viburnum spp. and Dioscorea (rheumatoid arthritis). BHP 1983, 79.

  Cinchona—incompatible with salicylates. BHP 1983, 67.

  Eupatorium perfoliatum—with Leonurus, and a small amount of Lobelia (osteoporosis).

  Gaultheria—with Fucus, Senecio jacobaea, “in a paraffin base for application as a plaster to affected joints in rheumatoid arthritis”—BHP 1983, 95.

  Guaiacum—with Cimicifuga, Apium, Salix alba (rheumatoid arthritis). BHP 1983, 185.

  Guaiacum—with Phytolacca, Zanthoxylum (muscular/skeletal). BHP 1983, 157.

  Guaiacum—with Zingiberis, Menyanthes, Filipendula, Apium (arthritis, myalgia), varied by indications. BHP 1983, 108.

  Lavandula oil—with Gaultheria oil, topically (myalgia). BHP 1983, 129.

  Lycopodium—with Menyanthes and Rumex crispus (gout). “Ground pine … as an ointment melted with lard, buck-bean, and water-dock of any kind”—Samuel Westcott Tilke (1844, 333). We so seldom find an herbal formula for Lycopodium that I decided to include this one.

  Polygonatum—with Chickweed in salve (connective tissue, tendons).

  Populus—with Cimicifuga and Menyanthes (rheumatoid arthritis). BHP 1983, 169.

  Rosmarinus—“Both the flower and leaves of this plant … made into oils or ointments, it will recover cold or benumbed joints and sinews”—Samuel Westcott Tilke (1844, 321).

  Tsuga—salve, with Arnica or Solidago, and Artemisia vulgaris, in oil (warms the kidneys and lumbar region).

  Zingiberis (fresh rhizome)—the great liniment for spastic muscles.

  Zingiberis—with Echinacea, Phytolacca (rheumatic bone pain).

  Skin

  The cutaneous surface is very important for both diagnosis and health. Before the immune system is engaged, the surface adjusts for environmental stresses. Cold closes the pores and raises gooseflesh and hairs on end to keep in warmth (air is trapped and warmed by the raised hairs). Damp cold releases oily sweat, which protects us like the oil-infused wool clothing of fisherman and sailors. Our sweat pores open to cool the surface with perspiration. Arterioles clamp up to retain the warm blood in the surface when we are chilled and open to release it when we are overheated. That is why lighter-skinned people are usually pale or pink according to the weather. Ambient temperature change is the most common stressor for the living organism, except for our own thoughts and feelings. And actually, our deepest emotions use the same pathways to express themselves—sweating, blushing, turning pale, hair standing on end, etc. Therefore, the skin shows the dragon tracks of trauma, both physical and psychological. For this reason, doctors and grannies in traditional medicine always looked to the condition of the skin and treated that condition. This is true in Western, Ayurvedic, Chinese, and American Indian medicine. For further discussion of these principles see the discussion of agni under fever.

  “Remedies act on the skin: (1) generally, through nerves, blood and lymph; (2) specifically, on structures of the skin; (3) indirectly, on the kidneys, stomach, bowels, and liver” (George M. Dash, The Eclectic Gleaner 4:35 [1908]); and to this must be added: (4) through the extracellular matrix (ECM), which supports, waters, and feeds the skin.

  This section is divided into two parts: “Appearance,” where the symptoms are useful for evaluation as well as treatment of conditions; and “Conditions,” where we are looking to treat a specific problem. The latter can also be used for evaluation. For instance, identifying the different kinds of acne can point to remedies for constitutional treatment of the whole system.

  Appearance (Diagnostic Indications)

  General Appearance of Skin: • Achillea (red and blue) • Ajuga (for glossy sheen of health) • Althaea officinalis (very dry, hardened, inflamed, or pale) • Angelica (blue, green, grey, yellow) • Apocynum cannabinum (blanched, smooth, pitting, swollen) • Arnica (red and blue) • Asclepias tuberosa (dry and hot) • Calendula (chafed or abraded; swollen, tender, red) • Carthamus (red and blue) • CENTELLA (indolent, slow-healing wounds and cutaneous conditions; skin “red, hot, and inflamed”—D. Winston) • Ceanothus (doughy and sallow, expressionless) • Celastrus (chafy skin) • Chelidonium (sallow, greenish, with hepatic congestion) • Chionanthus (sallow, dirty-looking, with hepatic tenderness and expressionless eyes) • Echinacea (dirty) • Oenothera (dirty, sallow, full, and expressionless skin and tongue, with dyspepsia, vomiting of food, frequent desire to urinate) • Salvia sclarea (wrinkled, dehydrated) • Salvia (wrinkled, dehydrated; soft and relaxed; extremities cold, circulation weak) • Sambucus (red and dry skin, or blue and pale, moist) • Sassafras (blue and black, sooty appearance; cutaneous eruptions; head lice; external) • Veronicastrum (yellow, with pain in liver region).

  Palms, Red: • CRATAEGUS (plump parts of palms red; slow capillary reflux; high or low blood pressure) • PRUNUS SEROTINA (plump parts red, the rest yellow) • ROSA (plump parts mottled carmine-red and deep-red, revealing penetration of heat into the tissues).

  Note: This is a very useful indication, showing congestion in the capillaries, or poor peripheral circulation; associated with irritation of the capillaries, high or low blood pressure, and the heat/excitation tissue state.

  Palms, Sweaty: • Calendula • Crataegus • Lavendula • MELISSA • Rosmarinus • Salvia • Taraxacum • Viola (if dry elsewhere).

  Note: Sweaty palms are usually a symptom of sympathet
ic excess, or nervousness. Most of the above remedies are from my own practice picked up in discussions with Francis Bonaldo Begnoche and from Lise Wolff.

  Ankles, Dark, in the Elderly (“Low Blood”): • Acorus • Capsicum • ROSMARINUS • Sambucus.

  Note: See “Low Blood” in “Blood” section.

  Conditions

  Abscesses, Boils, Carbuncles: • Achillea (external) • Allium sativa (external) • Alnus (recurrent) • Althaea (poultice) • Anemopsis (external) • Amygdalus (leaf poultice) • ARCTIUM (external) • Aristolochia (small or homeopathic dose, or external) • Artemisia vulgaris (for skin and hair—Native American; wash with leaves) • Astragalus (strengthens periphery) • Baptisia (indolent conditions; antiseptic ointment) • Calendula (lessens scar tissue; external) • Chamomilla (very tender) • Chelone • Commiphora myrrha • Crataegus • ECHINACEA (tendency to produce boils; skin looks dirty; external, internal) • Equisetum (external) • Trigonella (oil poultice) • Galium • Glechoma • Heracleum (external) • Humulus (hops poultice) • Iris (external) • Linum (fresh-ground seed poultice) • Phytolacca (after fevers; external) • PLANTAGO (abscess of tooth or skin; external) • Propolis (external) • Prunella (external) • Rumex crispus • Sambucus (external) • Stellaria (external) • Symphytum (external) • Thuja • Trifolium (internal) • Trigonella (external) • Ulmus (non-open; external) • Zingiberis.