Prunus spinosa
Plant · Rosaceae
Prunus Spinosa suits patients with violent ciliary neuralgia and bursting eye pains shooting to the occiput, combined with neuralgic dysuria and cardiac angina. The remedy also covers anasarca and herpes zoster of the skin.
Key symptoms
- Shooting pain from right frontal bone through brain to occiput
- Pain in right eyeball as if it would burst, shooting like lightning to occiput
- Ciliary neuralgia
- Sudden pain in left eye as if it would burst, better by lachrymation
- Tenesmus of bladder; urine impelled urgently then seems to return causing urethral pain
- Must press a long time before urine appears
- Angina pectoris; furious beating of heart worse from slightest motion
- Hard nodular stool with rectal pain as if angular body pressed inward
Worse (aggravation)
- Slightest motion — heart pounding worse
- Walking — cramp-like bladder pain worse
- Taking anything warm — piercing toothache worse
Better (amelioration)
- Lachrymation — sudden left eye pain relieved
Black-thorn
Special action on the urinary organs and head. Very valuable in certain neuralgias, anasarca, and especially œdema pedum. Ankle and foot feel sprained. Ciliary neuralgia (Spig).
Head
Pressing-asunder pain beneath skull. Shooting from right frontal bone through brain to occiput. Pain in right eyeball, as if it would burst. Piercing toothache, as if teeth were pulled out; worse, taking anything warm.
Eyes
Ciliary neuralgia. Bursting pain in right eyeball shooting like lightning through the brain to occiput. Sudden pain in left eye as if it would burst, better by lachrymation. Irido-choroiditis. Opacity of vitreous humor. Eyes feel as if bursting.
Abdomen
Ascites. Cramp-like pain in bladder region; worse, walking.
Rectum
Hard, nodular stool, with rectal pain, as if angular body were pressed inward. Burning in anus after slimy diarrhœa.
Urine
Tenesmus of bladder. Ineffectual effort to urinate. Hurriedly impelled to urinate; the urine seems to pass as far as glans, and then returns and causes pain in urethra. Neuralgic dysuria. Must press a long time before urine appears.
Respiratory
Wheezing when walking. Oppression of chest; anxious, short respiration. Angina pectoris. Furious beating of heart; worse, slightest motion.
Skin
Herpes zoster. Dropsy. Itching on tips of fingers, as if frozen.
Relationship
Compare: Lauroc; Prumus padus-Bird--cherry--(sore throat, pressure behind sternum and sticking pain in rectum); Prunus Virginiana-Wild Cherry--(heart tonic; relieves the flagging and distended ventricle; irritable heart; dilatation of right heart; cough, worse at night on lying down; weak digestion, especially in elderly people; chronic bronchitis; increases muscular tone); Pyrus-Mountain Ash--(irritation of eyes; constriction around waist; spasmodic pains in uterus, bladder, heart, cold-water sensation in stomach, coldness extends up œsophagus; neuralgic and gouty pains).
Dose
Third to sixth potency.
Blackthorn. Sloe. N. O. Rosaceæ. Tincture of buds just before flowering.
Clinical
Appetite, lost. Ascites. Breast, pain in. Choroiditis. Ciliary neuralgia. Cystitis. Dropsy. Dysuria; flatulent. Earache. Eyes; choroiditis. Glaucoma. Heart, affections of. Hernia. Herpes zoster. Leucorrhœa. Menorrhagia. Metrorrhagia. Neuralgia. Sprains. Strangury. Stricture. Toothache. Vitreous, opacities of.
Characteristics
Prun. spi. was proved by Wahle. The symptoms resemble those of Pru. pd. in general, but some very strongly characterised ones were produced. The pains were pressive and out-pressive, and out-shooting. These pains are felt in skull, eye, root of nose, and ears; the teeth feel raised out of their sockets. Shooting from within out, from before backward. These pains occurring in and around the eye have led to its successful use in glaucoma, ciliary neuralgia, choroido-retinitis, irido-choroiditis, irido-cyclitis. Spraining pains and pains which take away the breath. A remarkable symptom is: "Breath …
Phatak's chapter on Prunus spinosa is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
