Senega
Polygala senega · Seneca snake root, rattlesnake root,Polygala senega · Plant · Polygalaceae
Senega is most appropriate for people whose mood is dull and depressed. They have a tendency to fly into sudden rages.
The remedy has a strong affinity with the respiratory tract, and is typically used for chest and catarrhal conditions such as coughs, bronchitis, and even tuberculosis, particularly in the elderly. The classic symptom picture includes chest pain, thick profuse clear mucus that is difficult to expel, and a sensation as though the lungs are pushed back against the spine. The throat may be raw and sore. There may be mucus in the throat that causes a scraping sensation on talking. Breathing may be short or hurried, with a painful, oppressed feeling in the lungs, as if they are being squeezed.
Key symptoms
- Cough often ends in a sneeze; rattling in chest with difficult expectoration
- Hoarseness; hurts to talk; hacking cough
- Eyes feel too large for orbits; dryness with muscular asthenopia
- Double vision better only by bending head backward
- Catarrhal inflammation of throat and fauces with scraping hoarseness
- Bursting pain in forehead; nostrils feel peppery
- Blepharitis with dry and crusty lids
- Circumscribed spots in chest left after inflammations
Worse (aggravation)
Better (amelioration)
Snakewort
Catarrhal symptoms, especially of the respiratory tract, and distinct eye symptoms of a paralytic type, are most characteristic. Circumscribed spots in chest left after inflammations.
Mind
Suddenly remembers unimportant regions which he saw long ago. Inclined to quarrel.
Head
Dullness, with pressure and weakness of eyes. Pain in temples. Bursting pain in forehead.
Eyes
Hyperphoria, better by bending head backwards. Acts on the rectus superior. Blepharitis; lids dry and crusty (Graph). Dryness, with sensation as if too large for orbits. Starting. Lachrymation. Flickering; must wipe eyes frequently. Objects look shaded. Muscular asthenopia (Caust). Double vision; better only by bending head backward. Opacities of the vitreous humor. Promotes absorption of fragments of lens, after operation.
Nose
Dry. Coryza; much watery mucus and sneezing. Nostrils feel peppery.
Face
Paralysis of left side of face. Heat in face. Burning vesicles in corners of mouth and lips.
Throat
Catarrhal inflammation of throat and fauces, with scraping hoarseness. Burning and rawness. Sensation as if membrane had been abraded.
Respiratory
Hoarseness. Hurts to talk. Bursting pain in back on coughing. Catarrh of larynx. Loss of voice. Hacking cough. Thorax feels too narrow. Cough often ends in a sneeze. Rattling in chest (Tart emet). Chest oppressed on ascending. Bronchial catarrh, with sore chest walls; much mucus; sensation of oppression and weight of chest. Difficult raising of tough, profuse mucus, in the aged. Asthenic bronchitis of old people with chronic interstitial nephritis or chronic emphysema. Old asthmatics with congestive attacks. Exudations in Pleura. Hydrothorax (Merc sulph). Pressure on chest as though lungs were forced back to spine. Voice unsteady, vocal cords partially paralyzed.
Urinary
Greatly diminished; loaded with shreds and mucus; scalding before and after urinating. Back, bursting distending pain in kidney region.
Modalities
Worse, walking in open air, during rest. Better, from sweat; bending head backwards.
Relationship
Compare: Caust; Phos; Saponin; Ammon; Calc; Nepeta cataria-Catnip (to break up a cold; infantile colic: hysteria).
Dose
Tincture, to thirtieth potency.
Senega is an old lung tonic, and I suspect it has been an ingredient in most of the lung medicines for the last one hundred years.
It has been only partially proved, and needs further proving to bring out its particulars. When a medicine has been fully proved, it can be said of it that its symptoms are so well known that they can be examined as an image, i. e., the drug has affected all portions of man in such a manner as to stamp itself upon all of his natural actions and functions in a way peculiar to itself. This remedy has done some wonderful things, and these results in many instances can be only attributed to mere guesswork. This is about all that can be said in favor of careless and loose. prescribing.
Polygala senega. Seneca Snake-root. N. O. Polygalaceæ. Tincture of powdered dried root.
Clinical
Amblyopia. Ascites. Asthma. Bladder, irritable; catarrh of. Blepharitis ciliaris. Bronchitis. Constipation. Cornea, opacity of. Cough. Enuresis. Facial paralysis. Hay-fever. Hydrothorax. Hypopion. Influenza. Iritis. Œsophagus, stricture of; catarrh of. Phthisis mucosa. Pleurisy. Pneumonia. Snake-bites. Sneezing: fits of; at end of cough. Styes. Throat, sore. Whooping-cough.
Characteristics
Senega was introduced to medical practice by Dr. Tennant, of Virginia, who was led to test its properties through hearing that the Indians used it as an antidote to snake-bites. As it relieved the symptoms of snake venom, Tennant concluded that it might also relieve dyspnœa, cough, and hæmoptysis arising from other causes, and gave it with success in cases of pneumonia, pleurisy, and hydro-thorax (Teste). Other old-school practitioners used it as an expectorant in chronic respiratory catarrh, acute phthisis, rheumatic …
Head
dulness of the head with pressure and weakness of the eyes.
Respiratory Organs
Feeling as though the thorax were too narrow, with constant inclination to widen it.
Respiratory Organs
Soreness of the chest walls on moving arms, particularly left.
Phatak's chapter on Senega is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
