Chelidonium Majus

Where do we find the original studies of this remedy ?

In Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura , and in the British Journal of Homoeopathy , Vols. 23 and 24.

What is Chelidonium, when should it be gathered and what part is used ?

It is the greater Celandine , growing in France and Germany and in the United States. The fresh root, gathered in spring.

How should the tincture be made ?

Chop and pound the fresh root to a fine pulp. Enclose in a piece of new linen and press out juice. Mix with equal quantities of alcohol. Pour in well- stoppered bottle and stand for eight days in dark, cool place, agitating it daily, and then filter. Drug power, ½. The tincture is brownish-orange colored, smells like Apis mellifica , is acrid, has a bitter taste and strong acid reaction.

What is the great characteristic symptom of this remedy ?

A pain under the angle of the right scapula.

What is the principal field of action of Chelidonium ?

In affections of the liver, where there is a great deal of pain and soreness in the region of that organ ; jaundice ; yellow tongue, taking the imprint of the teeth ; bitter taste and craving for sour things.

What is the stool of Chelidonium ?

It is a bright yellow or clayey diarrhoea.

How does Mercurius differ ?

It has the hepatic soreness and tongue taking the imprint of the teeth, but it has also slimy stools, with a great deal of tenesmus - a never-get-done feeling.

What are the chest symptoms of Chelidonium ?

Stitching pains through the right side. Dyspnoea with oppression ; and constriction of chest worse on right side. Distressing pain under right scapula, associated with hepatic derangement. Dry and short cough.

In children, where there is a capillary bronchitis or pneumonia with hepatic or bilious symptoms present, it is often indicated. The face is dark red, something like Opium of the same family, there is oppression of the chest, fan-like motion of the alae nasi, and one hot and one cold foot. The cough is loose and rattling, and he expectoration is not easily raised.

What other drug has, as characteristics, a fan-like motion of the alae nasi, one foot hot and the other cold ?

Lycopodium .

In what particular is the gastralgia of Chelidonium similar to that of Anacardium, Petroleum and Graphites ?

It is relieved by eating.