Plantago Major

Hale sums up the ancient and modern history of Plantago maj. the weed

• ▸which furnishes food for our cage-birds.
• ▸(Plant.
• ▸m.
• ▸must not to be confounded with Musa,

sometimes called "Plantain," which belongs to a different class, viz., the Endogens.) Plantago

has had a reputation in medicine from remote antiquity, a reputation which homceopathy has

• ▸revived.
• ▸It was used in intermittent fever in remotest times.
• ▸In 4.
• ▸D.
• ▸1558 the Herbal of Dodoens

commends the juice of leaves or roots for "toothache and bleeding of gums." John Parkinson in

his Theatre of Plants (A. D. 1640) says "the root taken fresh out of the ground, washed and

gently scraped with a knife, then put into the ear, cures the toothache like a charm." In

Switzerland the leaf fibres are frayed out and put into the ear for the same purpose, and if they

relieve the pain they "turn black" (says Reutlinger) and have to be removed, if there is no relief

they remain green. In domestic practice, says Hale, it is constantly resorted to as an application

in all affections of the skin with irritation, pain, and heat, the bruised leaves being applied to the

part. Hale enumerates the following as having been relieved by it: Erysipelas, Rhus-poisoning,

erythema, burns, scalds, inflammation of the glands (notably the breasts), bruises, incised

• ▸wounds, bites of animals, chilblains, frostbite.
• ▸A case is related (H.
• ▸R.
• ▸, x1.
• ▸241) of a man who

allowed himself to be bitten by rattlesnakes and cured himself by drinking the juice of the plant

and applying bruised leaves to the bites, changing them frequently. The tincture has been

extensively proved by F. Humphreys (who wrote a monograph upon it), Heath, and others, and

the homeceopathicity of its cures was clearly brought out. The neuralgic pains of teeth, ears, and

face were especially pronounced. Some new symptoms were brought to light. The very copious

discharge of urine along with the thirst suggest diabetes; and the laxity of sphincters has led to

the cure of a number of cases of enuresis. Foul breath, sinking and weight in stomach, flatulence,

diarrhoea, dysentery, and hemorrhoids, all appeared in the proving. Plant. is one of the most

useful of /ocal remedies in homceopathy, and one of its local uses is as an application to inflamed

and painful piles. In all neuralgic conditions where the suffering part can be reached Plant. ©

may be painted on without any fear of injury, and often with the most signal relief of suffering.

In common with others, I have used it with success in numberless cases of toothache and

earache; but I have also given relief in the painful neuralgia of shingles and in pleurodynia. F. P.

• ▸Stiles (Minn.
• ▸H.
• ▸Mag.
• ▸, v.
• ▸225) relates three brilliant cases: (/) Mrs.
• ▸S.
• ▸, 39, for ten days had

terrible neuralgic pain in right side of face, shooting into temporal, superior, maxillary, and

orbital regions. Plant. @ applied locally to gums, temple, and cheek, removed the pain in a few

• ▸minutes.
• ▸Some days later a slight return was promptly relieved in the same way.
• ▸(2) Mr.
• ▸R.
• ▸had

neuralgia in left superior maxillary and lower orbital region of long standing. Promptly relieved

• ▸in the same way.
• ▸(3) Mrs.
• ▸N.
• ▸, neuralgia of right upper jaw, pain unbearable, radiating to ear,

• ▸temple, and cheek.
• ▸A tooth had been extracted without relief.
• ▸Plant.
• ▸@ removed all the pain.

"Toothache with earache," "toothache with salivation," are leading indications. Plant. has a

relation to tobacco. It produces disgust for it in chewers; and it cures neuralgia resulting from

• ▸tobacco.
• ▸The pains are tearing, boring, bruised.
• ▸There is great surface sensitiveness.
• ▸Pains come

suddenly and are apt to be erratic. Unendurable pains. There is darting up and down the urethra.

Breath and flatulence are offensive. Some characteristics are: Loud noises going through one.

Sudden discharge of yellowish (or saffron-coloured) water from nose. The /eft side was most

• ▸affected.
• ▸The symptoms are < at night.
• ▸> By eating (colic).
• ▸< By contact; mental exertion; by

motion; heat and cold; cold air; sharp wind: heat of room.

Mind inactive, with dull, muddled feeling in head.—Despondency, confusion of

thought.—Irritable, morose; impatient, restless mood, with dull, stupid feeling in brain.—Great

mental prostration, < by mental exertion, which = rapid breathing and anxiety.

Periodical prosopalgia, worse 7 am to 2 pm, accompanied with flow of tears, photophobia; pains radiate to temples and lower face.

Twinges of pain indifferent parts of head, now through r. temple, extending backward;

then through occiput from ear to ear; then in other parts of head more or less severe.—Severe,

• ▸lightning-like stitches over |.
• ▸eye, extending to r.
• ▸12.
• ▸30 to 5.
• ▸45 p.
• ▸m.
• ▸, disappearing suddenly,

involving whole forehead, and accompanied at the height with nausea at pit of stomach; > hard

pressure with cold hand, < warmth.—Severe pain in |. side of head, from forehead extending deep

into brain, coming on in paroxysms.—Intermittent pulsative pain in vertex and in small spot

• ▸beneath scalp.
• ▸—Headache with toothache.
• ▸—Dull headache.
• ▸—Oppression deep in head, and sense

of something lying in the head, through from one ear to the other.—Itching of scalp.

Ciliary neuralgia from decayed teeth; dull, heavy ache in 1. eye, with exquisite

• ▸tenderness of ball; 1.
• ▸upper incisor decayed.
• ▸—Eyes red; dim; inflamed; sore.
• ▸—Aching deep in

orbit.—Lids sore, swollen.

• ▸Hearing acute; noise painful.
• ▸Sticking pain in ears.
• ▸Neuralgic earache; pain goes from one ear to the other through the head.
• ▸Otalgia, with toothache.
• ▸Loud noises go through one.

Pain in r. ear with pains in teeth and face; pains sharp, twinging, running.—Earache:

neuralgic; with toothache; darting, twinging, stabbing pains in lower maxillary branch of

trifacial—Pains often centre in ear (1.).—Hearing: more acute; least noise goes through one;

ringing in ears.

Sudden, yellowish, watery discharge.

Frequent sneezing, with sudden attacks of profuse, watery, bland coryza.—Sudden

discharge of yellowish (or saffron-coloured) water from (r.) nostril—Red papules round

nose.—Sensation at bridge as if nasal bones being pressed together.

Neuralgia |. side of face, pains shooting and tearing, extending from jaw to

• ▸ear.
• ▸—Violent bruised, aching pain, r.
• ▸face-—Drawing in r.
• ▸malar bone.
• ▸—Eruption on

• ▸forehead.
• ▸—Small, red, rough, scaly erythematous patches size of pea on (esp.
• ▸|.
• ▸) face—L.
• ▸cheek

swollen.—Lips livid, dark, sickly, rough —Water bladder on upper lip.—Dry, scaly eruption on

lower lip.

• ▸Teeth ache and are sensitive and sore to touch.
• ▸Swelling of cheeks.
• ▸Salivation; teeth feel too long; worse, cold air and contact.
• ▸Toothache, better while eating.
• ▸Profuse of saliva.
• ▸Toothache, with reflex neuralgia of eyelids.

Tongue coated white, with dirty, putrid, clammy taste.—Food tasteless —Breath

putrid —Aphthe in children.

Teeth (1.) feel elongated, sore; pain unbearably severe, boring digging in sound teeth;

< from contact and extremes of heat and cold.—Aching in decayed teeth, or shooting up |. side of

face; face red—Rapid decay.—Sharp stabbing along upper maxillary nerve, < by

contact.—Violent pain in |. upper molars; sound teeth; excessive boring, digging pain, profuse

flow of saliva; < by walking in cold air and by contact, by much heat; partial > lying down in a

• ▸moderately cool room; pain unendurable (> by Merc.
• ▸30).
• ▸—Teeth sensitive, sore.
• ▸—Grinds teeth at

night—Gums bleed easily—Gumboil.

Dry, parched throat.—Scraping in throat.—Profuse secretion of (very tenacious)

mucus; with much hawking.—Soreness and swelling of submaxillary glands on both sides.

Appetite poor.—Thirst—Causes disgust for tobacco in chewers.

• ▸1].
• ▸Stomach.
• ▸—Eructations; frequent, empty; tasting like sulphur or carbonic acid gas.
• ▸—Nausea

with drowsiness or faint, tremulous feeling —Sinking sensation.—Heaviness of stomach as from a

stone; even after a light meal.—Heat in preecordia with fulness in abdomen while walking in fresh

air.—Coolish, painful sensation, as from over-distension after hearty meal.

• ▸Gone sensation.
• ▸—Severe pains in 1.
• ▸(and r.
• ▸) hypochondrium.
• ▸—Distension with

passage of fetid flatus—Violent griping, esp. upper abdomen.—Colic: > by eating;

• ▸flatulent.
• ▸—Pain in abdominal muscles; in |.
• ▸andr.
• ▸ilia.

Wants to defecate; goes often, but cannot bad, can hardly stand. Diarrhoea, with brown watery

Stool: brown, fermented, frothy; watery, brown; watery papescent;

• ▸excoriating.
• ▸—Diarrhcea: loose, frequent stools with flatulence < 8 to 10 a.
• ▸m.
• ▸—Before stool: colic,

frequent discharge of offensive flatus.—During stool: griping, tenesmus, partial prolapse,

• ▸weakness, faintness.
• ▸—(Chronic diarrhcea.
• ▸—Cholera infantum.
• ▸—Dysentery.
• ▸).
• ▸—Painful blood piles

(locally).—Angry, inflamed piles—Worms.

Tenderness over region of kidneys on pressure.—Frequent passage of

large quantities of pale urine; < night; stools grey; irritable; puffy under eyes; eats heartily;

sleeps soundly.—Copious nocturnal enuresis from laxity of sphincter.—Irritable bladder with

frequent micturition —Delayed, dribbling urine.—Urethra: tingling with unpleasant itching in

meatus; sudden darting stinging running up sharp cutting in from within out.—Urine: large

quantities, clear, frequent very dark red, of strong odour; deep orange colour; white sediment.

Profuse flow; nocturnal enuresis (Rhus arom; Caust; Bellad).

Heat in preecordia when walking in open air.—Violent palpitation; on ascending

stairs.—Pulse strong, full, intermittent.

Neck stiff and sore.—Stiffness of sterno-cleido mastoid (< r.), < moving

head to side affected, > moving it to opposite side.—Pulsative pain between scapulze.—Pain in

sacrum.

Hard, white, flattened, isolated papules on inside of thighs, some having red

points in centre —Great pain and stiffness in 1. leg and knee, < stooping.

Itching and burning; papulae. Urticaria, chilblains (Agar; Tamus).

Violent itching, < night—Pricking, stinging pains.—Tensive sensation.—Burning after

rubbing where scratched.—Redness, swelling, and vesicles on hands and face.—Papules which

exude yellowish humour and form a crust—Erythema.—Burns.—Rhus poisoning (local

use).—Inflammatory affections of skin and involvement of cellular tissue.

Excessive and continued yawning.—Insomnia from abdominal trouble.—Grinding

teeth during sleep.—Sleep restless; disturbed by dreams.

Chilliness with sensation of heat in chest, with erratic pains in limbs, chest, head;

from | to 3 p.m. with disposition to stretch and chilliness on moving about; cold hands in a warm

• ▸room.
• ▸—Chill: without thirst; with gooseflesh, 2 p.
• ▸m.
• ▸, running over body, < moving about; fingers

cold, coldness of body with shivering; head feels irritable; feet and hands cold even in warm

room.—Heat, with thirst; great excitability, mental agony, restlessness; room seems hot and

close; oppression of chest, rapid respiration; breathing difficult as if there was no air in room;

burning heat of head, face, hands, feet; head hot, painful, dull, stupid; hands hot,

clammy.—Sweat: cold over lumbar and sacral region; heat of room unbearable, producing

perspiration.

• ▸Ague.
• ▸Breast, inflammation of.
• ▸Burns.
• ▸Ciliary neuralgia.
• ▸Diabetes.
• ▸Diarrhcea.

• ▸Dysentery.
• ▸Earache.
• ▸Ear, inflammation of.
• ▸Emissions.
• ▸Enuresis.
• ▸Erysipelas.
• ▸Erythema.

• ▸Hemorrhoids.
• ▸Impotence.
• ▸Neuralgias; of herpes.
• ▸Polyuria.
• ▸Rhus poisoning.
• ▸Snake-bites.
• ▸Spleen,

• ▸pains in.
• ▸Tobacco habit.
• ▸Toothache.
• ▸Urination, delayed.
• ▸Worms.
• ▸Wounds.

• ▸Antidote to: Apis, Rhus, Tabac.
• ▸Antidoted by: Merc.
• ▸(toothache).
• ▸Compare: In

• ▸neuralgias, Cham.
• ▸, Merc.
• ▸, Spig.
• ▸, Kalm.
• ▸, Coloc.
• ▸Unendurable pains, Aco.
• ▸, Cham.
• ▸, Hep.
• ▸Wounds

• ▸and bruises, fetid breath and flatus, Arn.
• ▸Wounds, Calend.
• ▸Punctured wounds, Led.
• ▸, Hyper.

• ▸Hemorrhoids, external and internal use, Ham.
• ▸Enuresis, Bell.
• ▸, Caust.
• ▸(Bell.
• ▸has irregular action

• ▸of sphincter; Plant.
• ▸and Caust.
• ▸relaxation).
• ▸Earache with toothache; intolerance of warm room,

Puls.

Compare: Kalm; Cham; Puls.

Tincture, and lower potencies. Local use in toothache in hollow teeth, otorrhoea, pruritus, and Poison-oak. Incised wounds.