Modern Homoeopathy

Monthly E-Newsletter February 2008

CHELIDONIUM MAJUS - A GENUS EPIDEMICUS IN HEPATITIS A

by

Dr. Poonam Godbole

Hepatitis A which is also called as viral hepatitis is caused by the hepatitis A virus and is the most common type of hepatitis. It is a highly contagious disease which mainly affects the liver. This disease is generally categorized under water-borne and food-borne diseases which results in mild to severe affection. The symptoms of hepatitis A include an abrupt onset of fever, malaise, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark-coloured urine and icterus ( yellowish colour of the skin and whites of the eyes). 

The concept of using a single remedy which will act as a prophylactic during an epidemic is very common in the allopathic line of treatment. Though homoeopathy is a science in which we believe in individuality at the level of the person as well as the drug, there are some homoeopathic medicines that can work as prophylactic medicines in case of a particular disease. Genus Epidemicus is the word formulated by Dr. Hahnemann which indicates the homoeopathic remedy that is similar to the totality of symptoms found in majority of patients suffering in an epidemic disease and which if given to the patient before the onset of the disease prevents the epidemic disease or when given during the disease cures the patient. There has been a reference for the same in the Organon in the aphorisms 101-104. Totality of symptoms in the epidemic disease consists of the common symptoms of disease as well as uncommon symptoms found in a majority of patients suffering from the epidemic disease.

According to the surveys by the homoeopathic research institutes, Chelidonium had acted as a genus epidemicus to the hepatitis A epidemics in the past.  So let’s review the role of Chelidonium in the cases of Hepatitis A.

Introduction: Chelidonium is also called as Greater Celandine, Garden Celandine, or Tetterwort. It is a yellow flowering plant in the poppy family.

Pharmacology:  The whole plant is toxic in moderate doses as it contains a range of isoquinoline alkaloids. There are numerous therapeutic uses when the plant is used in correct dosage. The main alkaloid present in the herb and root is coptisine. The other contents include chelidonine and sanguinarine.  It acts as a mild analgesic and antimicrobial.

Sphere of Action: Chelidonium is primarily a liver remedy and can act miraculously in the cases of defective bile secretion. It also acts on the gall bladder, skin and respiratory system.  Chelidonium is a remedy more suitable for acute diseases. It is not a very deep acting remedy. It is useful in gastric and intestinal catarrhs, in acute and semi-chronic liver troubles.

Specific symptomatology:  

STOMACH: Tongue yellow or white, bitter taste. Thirst, especially for milk. Diminished or lost appetite. Eructations, Nausea and vomiting with a feeling of warmth in the stomach. Sticking pains in the stomach extending to the back. Biliousness. Gastric symptoms are generally > by eating, sometimes by hot drinks or food.

ABDOMEN: General distention and hardness, cutting pains, cramp-like colic.
Sticking pains in the region of the liver, extending to the back and lower angle of the scapula. Spasmodic pain in the region of the liver. Pressing pain in the region of the liver. The hepatic pains sometimes > eating. The right hypochondrium is tense and painful to pressure. Frequent urge to urinate.

RECTUM AND STOOL:  Content-Disposition: form-636861Burning and cutting in the rectum with constriction of anus. Grayish stool, sometimes white, pasty, sometimes alternations of diarrhœa and constipation, generally associated with pain in the right side of the abdomen.

URINE: Highly concentrated urine, dark coloured, yellow colour, frequent urge to urinate.

References:

A primer of materia medica for practitioners of Homoeopathy by T.F. Allen

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica by J.T. Kent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_celandine