Kalium nitricum
Potassium nitrate · Potassium nitrate, niter, saltpeter. · Mineral
Those for whom Kali nit. is most effective prefer to keep themselves busy, becoming weary and sad if they are alone or unoccupied. They like to go out and frequently have dreams about going on trips. Usually sensitive and dutiful, they become increasingly anxious and melancholic when ill, and may feel physically and mentally numb, as if they are made of wood.
Sharp pains and numbness are typically associated with Kali. nit., in conjunction with respiratory problems. The remedy is used for conditions such as asthma, croup, and bronchitis. Further symptoms may include faintness, nausea, an inability to drink due to breathing difficulties, and a sensation of coldness around the area of the heart. There may be labored breathing caused by tightness in the larynx, the throat may be hoarse and rough, and the nose may develop polyps, chronic irritation, catarrh, and sinusitis.
Key symptoms
- Asthma with excessive dyspnoea, nausea, and burning in chest
- Sudden dropsical swellings over the whole body
- Menses too early, profuse, black with violent backache
- Thin, watery, bloody stools with membranous shreds and tenesmus
- Headache with vertigo as if falling backward
- Variegated-colored rings before the eyes
- Burning pains in ovarian region only during menses
- Scalp very sensitive; headache worse stooping
- Hoarse, dry morning cough with bloody expectoration
- Suppurative nephritis; gastro-intestinal inflammation with debility
Worse (aggravation)
Better (amelioration)
Nitrate of Potassium-Saltpeter (KALI NITRICUM - NITRUM)
Often indicated in asthma, also valuable in cardiac asthma; of great value in sudden dropsical swellings over the whole body. Gastro-intestinal inflammation, with much debility, and relapse in phthisis, call for this remedy. Suppurative nephritis.
Head
Scalp very sensitive. Headache, with vertigo, as if falling to right side and backwards; worse, stooping. Ennui.
Eyes
Vision becomes clouded. Turbid corpus vitreum (Arn; Ham; Solan n; Phos). Variegated-colored rings before eyes. Burning and lachrymation.
Nose
Sneezing. Swollen feeling; worse, right nostril. Point red and itching. Polypus (Sang nit).
Mouth
Tongue red, with burning pimples; burns at tip. Throat constricted and sore.
Stool
Thin, watery, bloody. Membranous shreds, with tenesmus. Diarrhœa from eating veal.
Female
Menses too early, profuse, black; preceded and with violent backache. Leucorrhœa. Burning pains in the ovarian region only during menses (Zinc after).
Respiratory
Hoarseness. Dry, morning cough, with pain in chest and bloody expectoration. Bronchitis, with sharp, short, dry, hacking cough. Asthma, with excessive dyspnœa, nausea, dull stitches, and burning in chest. Dyspnœa so great that breath cannot be held long enough to drink, though thirsty. Chest feels constricted. Oppression worse in morning. Sour-smelling expectoration. Expectoration of clotted blood, after hawking mucus. Acute exacerbations in phthisis; congestion of lungs. Spasmodic croup; paroxysm of crowing. Laryngeal diphtheria.
Heart
Pulse weak, small, thready. Violent stitch in præcordia, and beating of heart.
Extremities
Stitches between shoulder-blades. Tearing and sticking in shoulders and joints. Hands and fingers seem swollen.
Modalities
Worse, eating veal; towards morning and in afternoon. Better, drinking sips of water.
Relationship
Antidotes: Opium; Nitr sp dulc.
Antidote to Opium and Morphine poisoning, 8-10 grains to glass of water.
Compare: Gun-powder (Nitre with sulphur and charcoal-2x trit. "Blood poisoning. " Septic suppuration. Protractive against wound infection. Antidote to Ivy and Primula rash (Clarke) Herpes facialis; crops of boils. Carbuncles). Osteo-myelitis. Cannab sat (which contains a large amount of Kali nit). Lycop; Sanguin; Allium sat; Antimon iod.
Dose
Third to thirtieth potency.
Nitrum. Nitre. Saltpetre. Nitrate of Potassium. Potassic Nitrate. KNO3. Trituration. Solution.
Clinical
Asthma. Chest, pain in. Colic. Diabetes insipidus. Dysentery. Dysmenorrhœa. Enuresis. Gastritis. Headache. Heart, affections of. Herpes preputialis. Menière's disease. Menorrhagia. Nose, bleeding of. Peritonitis. Phthisis. Pleurisy. Pneumonia. Polypus. Rheumatism. Vertigo.
Characteristics
K. n. is known in old-school practice principally as a "refrigerant diuretic," and as the active agent in the well-known "nitre papers," which are burnt for producing fumes to allay attacks of asthma. It has also been used in rheumatism, and for incontinence of urine in children. It has been extensively proved by homœopaths, and symptoms have been added from cases of poisoning, so that its characteristics are well defined. It is almost equal to K. ca. in producing stitching pains; and it is like it in having a cough at 3 a.m. The pains produced by K. n. are very severe─stitching, cutting, lancinating, tearing, and …
Phatak's chapter on Kalium nitricum is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
