Sarsaparilla officinalis

Smilax regelii / Smilax officinalis · Smilax officinalis,wild licorice,Sarsaparilla · Plant · Smilacaceae

BoerickeKentClarkeAllenNashPhatak

Sarsaparilla is most effective for people who are depressed and anxious, blaming their state of mind on the pain they feel. They tend also to feel the cold.

Sarsaparilla has a strong affinity with the urinary tract. It is prescribed for cystitis characterized by a constant urge to urinate, pain as urination ends, and possibly blood or a sandy or gravelly precipitate in the urine. There may be involuntary dribbling of urine, especially on sitting down, and normal flow may only happen when in a standing position.

Key symptoms

Severe pain at conclusion of urination
Urine dribbles while sitting; child screams before and while passing urine
Renal colic; sandy or bloody urine with gravel
Pain from right kidney downward; tenesmus of bladder
Periosteal pains due to venereal disease
Eruptions on face, upper lip, and scalp following hot weather or vaccination
Colic and backache at same time
Despondent, sensitive, easily offended, ill humored
Sand on diaper; renal colic and dysuria in infants

Worse (aggravation)

In the spring; for wet and cold weather; for movement; as urination ends; during menstruation.

Better (amelioration)

For standing; for uncovering the neck and chest.

William Boericke

Homoeopathic Materia Medica · 1901

Smilax (SARSAPARILLA)

Renal colic; marasmus and periosteal pains due to venereal disease. Eruptions following hot weather and vaccinations; boils, and eczema. Urinary symptoms well marked.

Mind

Despondent, sensitive, easily offended, ill humored and taciturn.

Head

Pains cause depression. Shooting pain from above right temporal region. Pains from occiput to eyes. Words reverberate in ear to the root of nose. Periosteal pains due to venereal disease. Influenza. Scalp sensitive. Eruptions on face and upper lip. Moist eruption on scalp. Crusta lactea beginning in face.

Mouth

Tongue white; aphthæ; salivation; metallic taste; no thirst. Fetid breath.

Abdomen

Rumbling and fermentation. Colic and backache at same time. Much flatus; cholera infantum.

Urinary

Urine scanty, slimy, flaky, sandy, bloody. Gravel. Renal colic. Severe pain at conclusion of urination. Urine dribbles while sitting. Bladder distended and tender. Child screams before and while passing urine. Sand on diaper. Renal colic and dysuria in infants. Pain from right kidney downward. Tenesmus of bladder; urine passes in thin, feeble stream. Pain at meatus.

Male

Bloody, seminal emissions. Intolerable stench on genitals. Herpetic eruption on genitals. Itching on scrotum and perineum. Syphilis; squamous eruption and bone pains.

Female

Nipples small, withered, retracted. Before menstruation, itching and humid eruption of forehead. Menses late and scanty. Moist eruption in right groin before menses.

Skin

Emaciated, shriveled, lies in folds (Abrot; Sanic), dry, flabby. Herpetic eruptions; ulcers. Rash from exposure to open air; dry, itching; comes on in spring; becomes crusty. Rhagades; skin cracked on hands and feet. Skin hard, indurated. Summer cutaneous affections.

Extremities

Paralytic, tearing pains. Trembling of hands and feet. Burning on sides of fingers and toes. Onychia, ulceration around ends of fingers, cutting sensation under nails. Rheumatism, bone pains; worse at night. Deep rhagades on fingers and toes; burn under nails. Tetter on hands; ulceration around ends of fingers (Psorin). Cutting sensation under nails (Petrol). Rheumatic pains after gonorrhœa.

Modalities

Worse, dampness at night, after urinating, when yawning, in spring, before menses.

Relationship

Complementary: Merc; Sep.

Compare: Berb; Lycop; Nat m; Petrol; Sassafras; Saururus-Lizard's tail--(Irritation of kidneys, bladder, prostate and urinary passages. Painful and difficult micturition; cystitis with strangury). Cucurbita citrellus-Water-melon. Infusion of the seed acts promptly in painful urination with constriction and backache, relieves pain and stimulates flow

Antidote: Bell.

Dose

First to sixth potency.

James Tyler Kent

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica · 1905

Generalities

: Sarsaparilla is suitable in low forms of chronic disease, especially in complex states resulting from mixed miasms; especially in cases of sycosis and syphilis; cases made complex by Mercury, sycosis syphilis, and psora. Weakness stamps itself on the whole economy, as in Merc., Lach. and other remedies.

Weakness

The tissues become flabby, refuse to heal when injured, ulcerate from slight causes. After an injury an open sore remains and is indolent or becomes phagedenic and spreads like. Ars., Lach and Merc. cor.

Weakness over the whole body; a paralytic feeling. In the mental sphere it manifests itself in a dazed state, he is unable to comprehend, the mind is slow, it is a weakness bordering on imbecility, which in the end it may reach. Weakness of the mind and the tissues.

Continue Kent in the app

John Henry Clarke

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · 1900

Wild Liquorice. The rhizome of several species of Smilax. (The Officinal Sarsæ radix is imported from Jamaica.) N. O. Smilaceæ (by some classed as a sub-order of the Liliaceæ). Triturations and tincture of the dried rhizome.

Clinical

Asthma. Bladder, affections of. Bones, affections of. Breast, scirrhus of. Bright's disease. Calculi. Climaxis. Constipation. Dysmenia. Dyspepsia. Dysuria. Enuresis. Eruptions. Eyes, affections of. Faintness. Glands, enlarged. Gonorrhœa. Gout. Gravel. Hands, chapped. Headache. Hernia. Herpes; of prepuce. Hiccough. Intermittents. Marasmus. Masturbation, effects of. Melancholia. Mercury, abuse of. Mycosis. Nipples, retracted. Plica polonica. Renal colic. Rhagades. Rheumatism; gonorrhœal. Seborrhœa. Spermatic cords, swelling of. Spermatorrhœa. Strangury. Syphilis. Ulcers. Warts.

Continue Clarke in the app

Henry Clay Allen

Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons · 1898

Wild Liquorice. (Smilaceae)

For dark-haired persons, lithic or sycotic diathesis. Great emaciation: skin becomes shriveled or lies in folds (Abrot., Iod., Nat. m., Sanic.). Headache and periosteal pains generally from mercury, syphilis or suppressed gonorrhoea. In children; face like old people; enlarged abdomen; dry, flabby skin (Bar. c., Op.). Herpetic eruptions on all parts of body; ulcers, after abuse of mercury, in syphillis. Rash from exposure to open air; dry, itch-like eruptions, prone to appear in spring; become crusty. Severe, almost unbearable pain at conclusion of urination (Berb., Equis., Med., Thuja). Passage of gravel or small calculi; renal colic; stone in bladder; bloody urine. Urine: bright and clear but irritating; scanty, slimy, flaky, sandy, copious, passed without sensation (Caust.); deposits white sand. Painful distention and tenderness in bladder; urine dribbles while sitting, standing, passes freely; air passes from urethra. Sand in urine or on diaper; child screams before and while …

Continue Allen in the app