Urtica urens
Annual nettle. · Plant · Urticaceae
Appropriately, urticaria (nettle rash or hives) is a key condition treated by Urtica urens. It is given for red, burning, stinging skin eruptions that may be swollen or itchy. Symptoms are often aggravated by warmth, bathing, and vigorous exercise. Itching tends to be worse on rising in the morning, perhaps causing a fear of going to bed at night. Urtica urens is also used for actual burns or scalds with classic redness and blistering, and for blistering, burning, stinging, red, allergic rashes caused by insect bites, stings, shellfish, and plants.
Key symptoms
- Urticaria with burning heat, formication, and violent itching
- Antidotes ill-effects of eating shellfish
- Agalactia; diminished secretion of milk
- Rheumatism associated with urticaria-like eruptions
- Gout and uric acid diathesis; pain in ankles and wrists
- Pruritus vulvae with stinging, itching, and edema
- Symptoms return at the same time every year
- Burns and scalds; erythema with burning and stinging
Worse (aggravation)
Better (amelioration)
Stinging-nettle
A remedy for agalactia and lithiasis. Profuse discharge from mucous surfaces. Enuresis and urticaria. Spleen affections. Antidotes ill-effects of eating shellfish. Symptoms return at the same time every year. Gout and uric acid diathesis. Favors elimination.
Rheumatism associated with urticaria-like eruptions. Neuritis.
Head
Vertigo, headache with spleen pains.
Abdomen
Diarrhœa chronic disease of large intestine characterized by large secretion of mucus.
Male
Itching of scrotum, keeps him awake; scrotum swollen.
Female
Diminished secretion of milk. Uterine hæmorrhage. Acid and excoriating leucorrhœa. Pruritus vulvæ, with stinging, itching, and œdema. Arrests flow of milk after weaning. Excessive swelling of breasts.
Extremities
Pain in acute gout deltoid; pain in ankles, wrists.
Skin
Itching blotches. Urticaria, burning heat, with formication; violent itching. Consequences of suppressed nettlerash. Rheumatism alternates with nettle-rash. Burn confined to skin. Urticaria nodosa (Bov). Erythema, with burning and stinging. Burns and scalds. Chicken-pox (Dulc). Angioneurotic œdema. Herpes labialis with sensation of heat and itching. Itching and stinging of scrotum.
Fever
General heat in bed with soreness over abdomen. Fever of gout. Tropical fever.
Modalities
Worse, from snow-air; water, cool moist air, touch.
Relationship
Compare: Medusa; Nat mur; Lac can; Ricin (diminished mammary secretion); Bombyx; Rhus; Apis; Chloral; Astac; Puls (urticaria); Boletus luridus and Anacard (urticaria tuberosa); Lycop and Hedeoma (uric acid conditions); Formica.
Dose
Tincture and lower potencies.
Urtica urens. Small Stinging-nettle. [Urtica dioica, the Common Nettle, has similar if not identical properties.] N. O. Urticaceæ. Tincture of the fresh plant in flower.
Clinical
Agalactia. Anæmia. Bee-stings. Burns. Calculus, prevention of. Deltoid, rheumatism of. Dysentery. Erysipelas, vesicular. Erythema. Gout. Gravel. Hæmorrhages. Intermittents. Lactation. Leucorrhœa. Menorrhagia. Phlegmasia dolens. Renal colic. Rheumatism. Spleen, affections of. Throat, sore. Uræmia. Urticaria; nodosa. Vertigo. Whooping-cough. Worms.
Characteristics
Burnett may be said to have rediscovered Urtica as a remedy. The history of how he came to use it (Gout, p. 33) is one of the most fascinating passages of his works. As a remedy for a fit of the gout the discovery is entirely his own, and the result of great therapeutic acumen. Its use in gravel and urinary affections is very old. "Being eaten, as Dioscorides saith, boiled with periwinkles, it maketh the body soluble, doing it by a kind of cleansing faculty: it also …
Skin
Red raised blotches, itching and burning, requires constant rubbing.
Skin
Urticaria; the skin becomes elevated, with a white central spot and a red areola, with stinging and burning, relieved by rubbing.
Phatak's chapter on Urtica urens is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
