Anacardium orientale
Semecarpus anacardium · Marking-nut tree · Plant · Anacardiaceae
Anacardium or. is traditionally used for memory disturbance and a disturbed psychological state. It is considered especially apt for those who feel they are experiencing a conflict of will or are trapped between extremes of good and evil, sometimes described as “a demon sitting on one shoulder, an angel on the other.” These individuals are typically prone to low self-esteem, or may exhibit hard, angry, cruel behavior. They may suspect that they are being pursued, or experience dreamlike states. Typical physical symptoms include a feeling of constricted pain, as if bands are wrapped tightly around the body, or as if the gut or anus is plugged. In this connection, the remedy is used for certain conditions of the digestive tract. It is also used for skin irritations marked by severe itching and burning, and for minor chest pain.
Key symptoms
lack of self-confidence
- conflict of wills
- sensation as if there is a plug in the anus, gut, or chest
- poor memory
- itching, burning skin eruptions
Worse (aggravation)
- After mental exertion
- During anxiety and walking
- From pressure in various parts
Better (amelioration)
- During a meal; eating temporarily relieves all discomfort
- Better after eating
Marking Nut (ANACARDIUM)
The Anacardium patient is found mostly among the neurasthenics; such have a type of nervous dyspepsia, relieved by food; impaired memory, depression, and irritability; diminution of senses (smell, sight, hearing). Syphilitic patients often suffer with these conditions. Intermittency of symptoms. Fear of examination in students. Weakening of all senses, sight, hearing, etc. Aversion to work; lacks self-confidence; irresistible desire to swear and curse. Sensation of a plug in various parts-eyes, rectum, bladder, etc; also of a band. Empty feeling in stomach; eating temporarily relieves all discomfort. This is a sure indication, often verified. Its skin symptoms are similar to Rhus, and it has proved a valuable antidote to Poison-Oak.
Mind
Fixed ideas. Hallucinations; thinks he is possessed of two persons or wills. Anxiety when walking, as if pursued. Profound melancholy and hypochondriasis, with tendency to use violent language. Brain-fag. Impaired memory. Absent mindedness. Very easily offended. Malicious; seems bent on wickedness. Lack of confidence in himself or others. Suspicious (Hyos). Clairaudient, hears voices far away or of the dead. Senile dementia. Absence of all moral restraint.
Head
Vertigo. Pressing pain, as from a plug; worse after mental exertion-in forehead; occiput, temples, vertex; better during a meal. Itching and little boils on scalp.
Eyes
Pressure like a plug on upper orbit. Indistinct vision. Objects appear too far off.
Ears
Pressing in the ears as from a plug. Hard of hearing.
Nose
Frequent sneezing. Sense of smell perverted. Coryza with palpitation, especially in the aged.
Face
Blue rings around eyes. Face pale.
Mouth
Painful vesicles; fetid odor. Tongue feels swollen, impending speech and motion, with saliva in mouth. Burning around lips as from pepper.
Stomach
Weak digestion, with fullness and distention. Empty feeling in stomach. Eructation, nausea, vomiting. Eating relieves the Anacardium dyspepsia. Apt to choke when eating or drinking. Swallows food and drinks hastily.
Abdomen
Pain as if dull plug were pressed into intestines. Rumbling, pinching, and griping.
Rectum
Bowels inactive. Ineffectual desire; rectum seems powerless, as if plugged up; spasmodic constriction of sphincter ani; even soft stool passes with difficulty. Itching at anus; moisture from rectum. Hæmorrhage during stool. Painful hæmorrhoids.
Male
Voluptuous itching; increased desire; seminal emissions without dreams. Prostatic discharge during stool.
Female
Leucorrhœa, with soreness and itching. Menses scanty.
Respiratory
Pressure in chest, as from a dull plug. Oppression of chest, with internal heat and anxiety, driving him into open air. Cough excited by talking, in children, after fit of temper. Cough after eating with vomiting of food and pain in occiput.
Heart
Palpitation, with weak memory, with coryza in the aged; stitches in heart region. Rheumatic pericarditis with double stitches.
Back
Dull pressure in the shoulders, as from a weight. Stiffness at nape of neck.
Extremities
Neuralgia in thumb. Paralytic weakness. Knees feel paralyzed or bandaged. Cramps in calves. Pressure as from a plug in the glutei. Warts on palms of hands. Fingers swollen with vesicular eruption.
Sleep
Spells of sleeplessness lasting for several nights. Anxious dreams.
Skin
Intense itching, eczema, with mental irritability; vesicular eruption; swelling, urticaria; eruption like that of Poison-Oak (Xerophyl; Grindel; Croton). Lichen planus; neurotic eczema. Warts on hands. Ulcer formation on forearm.
Modalities
Worse, on application of hot water. Better, from eating. When lying on side, from rubbing.
Relationship
Antidote: Grindeleia; Coffea; Juglans; Rhus; Eucalyptus.
Compare: Anacard occidentale (cashew nut) (erysipelas, vesicular facial eruptions), (anæsthetic variety of leprosy; warts, corns, ulcers, cracking of the skin on soles of feet). Rhus; Cypriped; Chelidon; Xerophyl.
Platina follows well. Cereus serpentina (swearing).
Dose
Sixth to two hundredth potency.
Mind
This remedy is full of strange notions and ideas.
The mind appears to be feeble; almost, if not complete imbecility; seems as if in a dream; everything is strange; slow to comprehend. Marked irritability; disturbed by everything; cursing.
Weak memory. Forgetful of things in his mind but a moment ago. All his senses seem to vanish and he gropes around as if in a dream.
Change of states; after states. Dullness and sluggishness of the mind prevail. He is in a continuous controversy with himself. Irresolution marks his character. He cannot settle between doing this and that, he hesitates and often does nothing. He cannot decide, especially in an action of good or evil.
Semecarpus anacardium. Marking Nut. N. O. Anacardiaceæ. (East Indies.) Preparation: layer of nut between shell and kernel triturated.
Clinical
Alcoholism. Apoplexy. Brain-fag. Constipation. Cough. Debility. Dysmenorrhœa. Dyspepsia. Eczema. Elephantiasis. Examination funk. Hæmorrhoids. Headache. Heart, affections of. Hypochondriasis. Hysteria. Insanity. Memory, loss of. Mental weakness. Nervous ailments. Palpitation. Paralysis. Pemphigus. Rheumatism. Self-abuse. Skin, diseases of. Smell, illusions of. Spine, affections of. Stiff-neck. Vomiting of pregnancy. Whooping-cough. Warts. Writer's cramp.
Characteristics
Anacardium has many features in common with its botanical relatives, the different species of Rhus, especially in its action on the skin, muscles, and joints, but it has also very distinct features of its own. A very characteristic sensation is a pressing or penetrating pain as from a plug, which may occur in any locality in connection with neuralgias and ear affection, piles, &c., and …
Marking Nut. (Anacardiaceae.)
Sudden loss of memory; everything seems to be in a dream; patient is greatly troubles about his forgetfulness; confused, unfit for business. Disposed to be malacious, seems bent on wickedness. Irresistible desire to curse and swear (Lac. c., Lil., Nit. ac. - wants to pray continually, Stram.). Lack of confidence in himself and others. Feels as though he had two wills, one commanding him to do what the other forbids. When walking, is anxious, as if some one were pursuing him; suspects everything around him. Weakness of all the senses. Hypochondriac, with haemorrhoids and constipation. Strange temper, laughs at serious matters and is serious over laughable things. Thinks herself a demon; curses and swears. Sensation as of a hoop or band around a part (Cac., Carb. ac., Sulph.). Headache: relieved entirely when eating (Psor.); when lying down in bed at night, and when about falling asleep; worse during motion and work. Gastric and nervous headaches of sedentary persons (Arg. n., Bry., …
Mind
Great weakness of memory. Mania with inclination to horrible swearing.
Mind
Feels as though he had two wills; one commanding him to do what the other forbids.
Mind
Ugly, irritable, desire to curse and swear.
Mind
Loss of memory.
Stomach
Pain in stomach > by eating; always worse when stomach is empty.
Abdomen
Pain around the navel, as if a blunt plug were squeezed into the intestines.
Anus and Stool
Great and urgent desire for stools, but with the effort the desire passes away without an evacuation; the rectum seems powerless, with sensation as if plugged up.
Generalities
Sensation of a plug in different parts.
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Great weakness of memory.
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Feels as though he had two wills, one commanding to do what the other forbids
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Dull pressing, or penetrating pain, as from a plug in different parts.
Phatak's chapter on Anacardium orientale is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
