Jalapa
Ipomoea purga · Plant · Convolvulaceae
Jalapa suits infants and children who are quiet and well-behaved during the day but scream, toss about, and are restless at night. Watery colic with diarrhoea and marked nocturnal aggravation is the hallmark presentation.
Key symptoms
- Child good and quiet all day but screams and is restless and troublesome at night
- Watery, sour-smelling, and sometimes bloody diarrhoea
- Cutting colic before and during stool
- Abdomen distended with flatulence and nausea
- Tongue smooth, glazed, and dry; anus sore
- Face cold and blue during diarrhoea episodes
- Aching in arms and legs; burning of soles
Worse (aggravation)
- Night (restlessness, screaming, diarrhoea)
Better (amelioration)
- Eructations of frothy matter and flatulence (relief of abdominal pain)
Jalap (EXOGONIUM PURGA)
Causes and cures colic and diarrhœa. The child is good all day, but screams and is restless and troublesome at night.
Gastro-intestinal
Tongue, smooth, glazed, dry, smarting.--Pain in right hypochondrium. Flatulence and nausea. Pinching and griping. Watery diarrhœa; thin, muddy stools. Abdomen distended. Face cold and blue. Anus sore.
Extremities
Aching in arms and legs. Pain in large joint of great toe. Smarting at root of nail. Burning of soles.
Relationship
Antidotes: Elater; Cann sat.
Compare: Camph; Colocy.
Dose
Third to twelfth potency.
Ipomœa purga (Hayne). Convolvulus purga (Wunderoth). Exogonium purga (Benth.). Jalap. (Mexico). N. O. Convolvulaceæ. Trituration of root.
Clinical
Anus, soreness of. Coryza. Diarrhœa. Gout. Fainting. Restlessness.
Characteristics
Jalap. is the well-known purgative of old-school practice. It has had a short proving by Noack and Trinks, and a later one by Jeanes. The characteristic stools of Jalap. are: Watery, sour-smelling, and bloody. There is cutting colic before and during the stool. The most marked < is at night. A child may be quite quiet all day, but screams and tosses about all night. In such a case Jalap. is very likely to be the remedy whether the child is suffering from diarrhœa or other complaint. Allen gives this as cured: Coryza in an infant, violent attacks of crying and intense pain; quiet during the day, but screaming all night. Nash cured with Jalap. 12 a desperate case of entero-colitis in which there was screaming all day as well as all night. With the screaming there were constant …
Phatak's chapter on Jalapa is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
