Indigo tinctoria
Indigofera tinctoria · Plant · Fabaceae
Indigo suits nervous, melancholic patients prone to epilepsy, who hide their sadness and spend nights crying alone. The constitutional type may alternate between furious excitability before attacks and timid mildness afterward. Children with worm fever who are lymphatic, apathetic, peevish, and eat excessively are also indicated.
Key symptoms
- Epilepsy with great sadness; patient hides melancholy and cries alone at night
- Undulating sensation in brain causing obscured vision before seizures
- Flushes of heat rising from abdomen to head, triggering the epileptic fit
- Sciatica with pain from middle of thigh to knee
- Pain in limbs decidedly worse after every meal
- Suffocating dry cough in evening, always attended by nosebleed
- Sensation as if head were tightly bandaged around forehead
- Boring pain in knee-joint, better walking
Worse (aggravation)
- During rest and sitting
- Afternoon and evening
- After eating, especially after every meal (limb pains)
- Open air (vertigo with headache)
Better (amelioration)
- Pressure
- Rubbing
- Motion and walking
- Rising
Indigo--Dye-stuff (INDIGO)
Marked action on the nervous system, and of undoubted benefit in the treatment of epilepsy with great sadness. Excited mood and desire to be busy. Neurasthenia and hysteria. Pure powdered Indigo placed on the wound cures snake and spider poison (Kali permang; Golondrina; Cedron). Stricture of œsophagus; blue color (Cupr).
Head
Vertigo with nausea. Convulsions. Sensation of a band around forehead. Undulating sensation through whole head. Sensation as if brain were frozen. Gloomy; cries at night. Hair feels pulled from vertex. Head feels frozen.
Nose
Excessive sneezing and bleeding from nose.
Ears
Pressure and roaring.
Stomach
Metallic taste. Eructations. Bloating. Anorexia. Flushes of heat rising from stomach to head.
Rectum
Falling of rectum. Aroused at night with horrible itching at anus.
Urinary
Constant desire to urinate. Urine turbid. Catarrh of bladder.
Extremities
Sciatica. Pain from middle of thigh to knee. Boring pain in knee-joint; better, walking. Pain in limbs worse after every meal.
Nerves
Hysterical symptoms where pain predominates Excessive nervous irritation. Epilepsy; flashes of heat from abdomen to head; fit begins with dizziness. Aura from a painful spot between shoulders. Reflex spasms from worms.
Modalities
Worse, during rest and sitting. Better, pressure, rubbing, motion.
Relationship
Compare: Cuprum; Œstrus cameli, an Indian medicine for epilepsy.
Dose
Third to thirtieth potency.
An oxidation product from the juices of several plants, chiefly Indigofera tinctoria. N. O. Leguminosæ. Trituration.
Clinical
Acne. Amenorrhœa. Anus, prolapse of. Brachial neuralgia. Constipation. Cough. Diarrhœa. Epilepsy. Epistaxis. Face, pimples on. Headache. Hysteria. Renal colic. Sciatica. Skin, affections of. Toothache. Urethra, stricture of. Worms.
Characteristics
Indigo was introduced into medicine as a remedy for epilepsy. It has been extensively proved by homœopaths, and observations have also been made of its effects on epileptic patients who were receiving large doses from old-school practitioners. The provings bring out a number of neuralgic and nervous symptoms. These have been supplemented by clinical observations, and the place of Indg. in the materia medica is now fairly well defined. Teste tried Indg. in cases of epilepsy, but with little success, except in cases arising from the presence of worms. In cases of worm fever he has used it with great effect. The patients were children, from …
Phatak's chapter on Indigo tinctoria is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
