Ptelea trifoliata
Plant · Rutaceae
Ptelea Trifoliata suits patients with liver and stomach affections characterized by an aching heaviness in the hepatic region worse lying on the left side and better on the right. The remedy is indicated in atonic gastric states with burning corrosion, bitter taste, and associated limb pains.
Key symptoms
- Aching and heaviness in region of liver, greatly aggravated by lying on left side
- Frontal headache with pressing-outward pain from forehead to root of nose
- Excess of saliva with dry bitter taste; tongue coated white or yellow
- Weight and fullness in stomach; burning and corrosion in stomach
- Stomach feels empty after eating
- Liver sore, swollen, sensitive to pressure; heavy aching relieved lying on right side
- Asthma and dyspnea with cramp-like pain in cardiac region
- Restless sleep with frightful dreams; awakes languid and unrefreshed
Worse (aggravation)
- Lying on left side — liver heaviness and aching much worse
- Noise and motion — frontal headache worse
- At night — headache worse
- Rubbing eyes — headache worse
Better (amelioration)
- Lying on right side — liver heaviness relieved
Wafer-ash (PTELEA)
Is a remarkable remedy in stomach and liver affections. The aching and heaviness in the region of the liver is greatly aggravated by lying on the left side. Atonic states of stomach. Asthma.
Head
Feels dull and stupid. Pain from forehead to root of nose; pressing-outward pain. Frontal headache; worse, noise, motion, night, rubbing eyes, with acidity. Temples as if pressed together.
Mouth
Excess of saliva, with dry bitter taste. Tongue coated white or yellow; feels rough, swollen. Papillæ red and prominent (Arg n). Coating may be brownish-yellow.
Stomach
Weight and fullness. Griping in epigastric region, with dryness of mouth. Eructations, nausea, vomiting. Constant sensation of corrosion, heat and burning in stomach. Stomach feels empty after eating. Stomach and liver symptoms associated with pain in limbs.
Abdomen
Much weight and pain in right side; heavy, aching feeling, relieved by lying on right side. Liver sore, swollen, sensitive to pressure. Retraction of abdomen.
Respiratory
Feeling of pressure on lungs and of suffocation, when lying on back. Asthma; dyspnœa; cramp-like pain in cardiac region.
Sleep
Restless, with frightful dreams; nightmare, awakes languid and unrefreshed.
Modalities
Worse, lying on left side; early morning. Better, eating sour things.
Relationship
Compare: Mercur; Magn mur; Nux; Chelid.
Dose
First to thirtieth potency.
Ptelea trifoliata. Shrubby Trefoil. Hop Tree. Wafer Ash. N. O. Xanthoxylaceæ of the Rutaceæ. Tincture of bark of root.
Clinical
Asthma. Constipation. Dysentery. Dyspepsia. Erysipelas. Gall-stones. Gastralgia. Headache, gastric; bilious. Intermittents. Jaundice. Liver, congestion of. Nightmare. Phosphaturia. Rheumatism. Spleen, affections of. Worms.
Characteristics
Ptelea is the Greek name for the Elm, and was applied by Linnæus to a genus of shrubs and small trees, natives of North America and Asia, and included in Xanthoxylaceæ. In Canada the young green shoots of Pte. tri. are used as an anthelmintic in the form of an infusion. The fronds are bitter and aromatic, and have been used as a substitute for hops (Treas. of Bot.). One of the provers of Pte. confirmed its anthelmintic powers by "a very copious expulsion of ascarides." The proving was very thorough and extensive, and T. Nichol, Burt, and Cowperthwaite were among the provers. A very marked action was produced on the liver, and Nichol, one of …
Abdomen
Weight; aching distress in the hepatic region; dull pain; heaviness, < lying on right side; turning to left causes a dragging sensation.
Phatak's chapter on Ptelea trifoliata is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
