Rheum palmatum

Rheum officinale · Rhubarb or Chinese rhubarb,Rheum officinale · Plant · Polygonaceae

BoerickeClarkeAllenNashCowperthwaitePhatak

Rheum is most suitable for those with sour moods who tend to be undemanding and withdrawn, yet restless and “quarrelsome in sleep.” Children who respond to Rheum are full of fears, crying and restless at night. Both adults and children may tire rapidly.

Chronic, sour-smelling diarrhea is a key condition linked with Rheum. The stools are sour-smelling, and may be yellow or green, frothy, or fermented. Further typical symptoms include sour-smelling breath and a sour taste to all foods, causing a loss of appetite. The remedy may also be used for nausea or colicky pain that feels worse for standing and is often accompanied by shivering and an urge to pass stools.

Key symptoms

Of frequent use in children with sour diarrhœa; difficult dentition.
Whole child smells sour.
Impatient and vehement; desires many things and cries (Cina).
Sweat on hairy scalp; constant and profuse.
Cool sweat on the face, especially about mouth and nose.
Sensation of coolness in teeth.
Desire for various kinds of food, but soon tires of all.
Colicky pain about navel.

Worse (aggravation)

For hot weather; for teething; before, during, and after passing stools; for eating sour fruits in the summer.

Better (amelioration)

For wrapping up; for warmth; for doubling over on lying down.

William Boericke

Homoeopathic Materia Medica · 1901

Rhubarb (RHEUM)

Of frequent use in children with sour diarrhœa; difficult dentition. Whole child smells sour.

Mind

Impatient and vehement; desires many things and cries (Cina).

Head

Sweat on hairy scalp; constant and profuse. Cool sweat on the face, especially about mouth and nose.

Mouth

Much saliva. Sensation of coolness in teeth. Difficult teething; restless and irritable. Breath smells sour (Cham).

Stomach

Desire for various kinds of food, but soon tires of all. Throbbing in pit. Feels full.

Abdomen

Colicky pain about navel. Colic when uncovering. Wind seems to rise up to chest.

Rectum

Before stool, unsuccessful urging to urinate. Stools smell sour, pasty, with shivering and tenesmus, and burning in anus. Sour diarrhœa during dentition. Colicky, even ineffectual urging to evacuate altered fecal stools.

Modalities

Worse, uncovering, after eating, moving about.

Relationship

Compare: Mag phos; Hep; Pod; Cham; Ipec.

Antidotes: Camph; Cham.

Complementary: Mag carb.

Dose

Third to sixth potency.

John Henry Clarke

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · 1900

Rheum officinale. R. palmatum. Rhabarbarum. Rhubarb (though called "Turkey-rhubarb," the root comes from China, the exact species yielding it not being certainly known). N. O. Polygonaceæ. Tincture and trituration of the dried root. [A tincture of the fresh leaves and young stalks should be investigated.]

Clinical

Ardor urinæ. Breath, offensive. Constipation. Deafness. Dentition, difficult. Diarrhœa. Duodenum, catarrh of. Dysentery. Ears, thickening in. Frowning. Headache. Jaundice. Kidneys, affections of. Ménière's disease. Milk, abnormal. Mouth, mucus in. Nipples, pain in. Nose, pain in. Nurselings, affections of. Œsophagus, constriction of. Rheumatism. Salivation. Screaming, of children. Snoring. Stomach, disordered. Taste, bad. Tongue, numbness of. Urination, difficult, of childbed. Urine, red.

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Henry Clay Allen

Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons · 1898

Rhubarb. (Polygonaceae)

Suitable for children, especially during dentition. Sour smell of the whole body; child smells sour, even after washing or bathing (Hep., Mag. c.). Screaming of children with urging and sour stools. Children cry and toss about all night (Psor.). Child impatient, desires many things, and cries; dislikes even favorite playthings (Cina, Staph.). Sweat of scalp, constant, profuse; whether asleep or awake, quiet or in motion, the hair is always wet; may or may not be sour (Cal., Sanic.). Difficult dentition; child restless, irritable, peevish, with pale face and sour smell (Kreos., Cham.). Desires various kinds of food but cannot eat them, become repugnant. Colic: < at once by uncovering an arm or leg; with every sour stool; < when standing; not > by stool.

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Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Regional Leaders · 1901

Generalities

Sour smell of the whole body; child smells sour even after washing or bathing.

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John W. Hutchison

Seven Hundred Red Line Symptoms (Cowperthwaite) · 1903

Appetite for various things, but cannot eat them, they become repulsive.
Diarrhoea; stools brown and of an excessively sour smell, with much colic.
The child smells sourish, oven if washed or bathed every day.

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S. R. Phatak

Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines

Phatak's chapter on Rheum palmatum is available in the app.

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Classical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.