Agaricus emeticus

Agaricus emeticus is the classic bright-red russula long known to cause acute gastro-enteric irritation (“the Sickener”). In homeopathy the medicine is prepared from the fresh fungus (cap and gills) by tincturing and potentising [Clarke], [Hughes], [Boericke]. Toxicologic experience is uniform: shortly after ingestion there is intense nausea, repeated vomiting, abdominal cramp, watery or greenish diarrhoea, cold sweat, faintness—an irritant picture without the neurotoxic drama of Agaricus muscarius [Allen], [Hering]. Clinically, the remedy has been used for food-poisoning and “summer cholera”—especially after mushrooms, shellfish, unripe fruit, or spoiled food—and for acute gastric catarrh with oversensitivity to food odours [Clarke], [Boericke], [Dewey].

No full Hahnemannian proving. The picture rests on toxicology, fragmentary trials, and broad clinical confirmations of violent gastric irritation, vomiting and purging, cramps, coldness and sweat, and nausea from the odour of food [Allen], [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke], [Boger], [Phatak].

Agaricus emeticus is a straightforward irritant-gastric remedy: odour-triggered nausea that empties the stomach violently, followed by watery/green stools, cramps, cold sweat, and faintness—classically after mushrooms or tainted foods. It sits between Colchicum (smell-nausea) and Veratrum/Arsenicum (collapse/burning), but remains less neurotic, more purely gastric. Warmth, quiet, and small tepid sips help; cold drinks, food odours, and mushrooms are the surest aggravations. Use it early in food-poisoning and summer cholera pictures to blunt the violent emetic-purgative storm, then follow with restoratives as needed [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke], [Boger], [Dewey], [Phatak].

• Stomach and upper small intestine — acute gastro-enteritis, violent vomiting after the least food or drink; nausea from smell of food; burning from mouth to epigastrium [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke].
• Intestinal tract — watery/greenish diarrhoea, griping around umbilicus; tenesmus with small offensive stools during attacks [Boericke], [Dewey].
• Autonomic/vasomotor — cold sweat, faintness, collapse-like weakness during/after evacuations [Allen], [Boger].
• Mouth & pharynx — acrid/burning saliva; tongue coated white or yellow with red tip; throat raw from acid vomit [Clarke].
• Olfactory trigger — odours (kitchen smells, fried foods, eggs, fish) provoke retching—a keynote [Clarke], [Phatak].

Restless at first, then apathetic, prostrate; dreads the smell of food; irritable when questioned while retching [Clarke]. Anxiety centres in the stomach—fear of the next wave of nausea. Unlike Ars., there is little fastidiousness or burning anxiety; the distress is purely gastric and urgent [Kent].

Restless dozing between paroxysms; easily startled by return of nausea; dreams of floods/waves (symbolic of surging nausea) [Clinical].

Of kitchens, food, and repulsive smells; of falling into cold water; awakening with retching.

A rapid, irritant gastro-enteritis: nausea from smell of food → violent vomiting and watery/green stools, with cramps, cold sweat, and faintness. Worse from mushrooms/tainted foods, cold drinks, odours, night, damp cold; better warmth, quiet, curled posture, and small tepid sips. Less collapse and burning anguish than Veratrum/Arsenicum; more bluntly gastric with a pronounced odour-trigger [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke], [Boger], [Phatak].

Typically afebrile or slight chill-heat alternation: chill with cold sweat at onset, transient heat after stool, then exhaustion [Boericke].

Chill with pallor and yawning; heat limited to flushes; sweat cold and clammy, especially on face and forehead—prominent during attacks [Allen], [Hering].

Light-headed, faint; occipital heaviness with each paroxysm; cold sweat on forehead; vertigo on sitting up [Allen]. Headache abates after vomiting but returns with the next cramp. No congestive, throbbing quality as in Glon.—rather a sinking, vasomotor faintness [Boger].

Sunken, with dark rings; pupils not notably altered (contrast Agar. musc.). Photophobia during nausea; tears with retching [Clarke].

Ringing during faint spells; hearing dull with prostration [Allen].

Acute aversion to cooking odours; smell of eggs/fish induces retching (compare Colch.). Nostrils cold and moist during collapse phase [Clarke], [Phatak].

Pale, pinched; lips bluish or bloodless; cold clammy sweat on face; expression anxious [Hering]. Heat flush follows a violent purge then fades to pallor.

Taste sour or metallic; salivation before vomiting; tongue coated white/yellow with a red, smarting tip; mouth and throat burn from gastric acid [Allen], [Clarke]. Thirst for water in small quantities, often vomited when cold [Boericke].

Set on edge by acids; grinding during cramps in children (secondary).

Raw, scraped; oesophagus burns; swallowing cold drinks excites spasm and immediate regurgitation [Allen]. Empty retching strains the fauces.

Oppression from vagal distress; sighing; palpitations during faint spells; breath cold with clammy sweat; no primary bronchial theme [Boger].

Pulse small, quick or weak; palpitation with sinking at the stomach; impending-faint feeling during stool/vomit (vaso-vagal) [Allen].

Short, shallow; retching interrupts breathing; better when warm and perfectly still [Hering].

Cardinal: intense nausea, retching, then copious vomiting of food, mucus, bile; nausea at the mere smell of food; cold drinks aggravate; burning from epigastrium to throat; cramps grasp the pit; epigastrium sensitive to the lightest touch; wants to lie still with warmth [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke]. After vomiting, a short lull with sinking, then renewed waves. Eructations sour; hiccough between attacks.

Griping/colic about the umbilicus; gurgling; borborygmi; tenesmus in lower bowel; rumbling precedes a gush of watery or greenish stool [Allen], [Boger]. Abdomen drawn in from cramp, better warmth and flexion.

Diarrhoea watery, greenish, sometimes flocculent; offensive; excoriates slightly; worse after cold drinks/food; tenesmus and faintness on the stool; collapse-like prostration after every evacuation [Boericke], [Dewey].

Scanty during attack; frequent, pale afterwards; faintness on attempting to rise to urinate (syncope tendency) [Allen].

Aversion to all food, especially eggs, fish, fried/greasy dishes, and mushrooms; smell of food brings on nausea/retching. Thirst for water in small quantities; cold water is vomited; better tepid sips [Clarke], [Phatak].

Testes retracted during abdominal spasm; sexual desire nil during illness. No special urethral sphere.

Gastric irritability of pregnancy with odour-triggered nausea and vomiting of water as soon as drunk points occasionally to Agar-em. rather than Colch./Ipec. when diarrhoea is also present [Clarke]. Menses may bring transient relief by draining congestion (comparative).

Lumbosacral aching from straining; chills creep up the back during collapse; warmth eases [Clarke].

Cold hands and feet; cramps in calves and soles during stool/retching; trembling; knees give way on attempting to stand [Allen], [Boericke].

Cold, clammy; occasionally urticarial blotches after tainted fish/mushrooms (toxic analogon) [Clarke]. Excoriation at anus from stools.

Acute vomiting & diarrhoea (food-poisoning)

• Veratrum album — Profuse “rice-water” stools, icy coldness, collapse, craving cold drinks (often tolerated in sips); mental anguish. Agar-em. less extreme collapse, stronger odour-trigger; cold water promptly vomited. [Boericke], [Kent]
• Arsenicum album — Burning pains, restlessness, intense anxiety, thirst for frequent small sips, midnight aggravation; often from spoiled food/shellfish. Agar-em. more purely gastric, less mental distress; strong mushroom/odour modality. [Clarke], [Kent]
• Ipecacuanha — Persistent nausea not relieved by vomiting, clean or slightly coated tongue; little thirst; spasmodic cough. Agar-em. nausea usually relieved after vomiting; tongue coated with red tip; marked odour aggravation. [Allen]
• Colchicum — Extreme nausea from smell of food, particularly eggs/fish; great sensitiveness; may have watery stools. Overlaps strongly; Agar-em. shows mushroom causation and more copious vomiting with cold sweat. [Clarke]
• Nux vomica — After overeating/drink; irritable; ineffectual retching; little stool. Agar-em. has watery/green diarrhoea and cold sweat. [Boger]
• Podophyllum — Painless, profuse, gushing morning diarrhoea; little nausea. Agar-em. centres on nausea → vomiting, odour-trigger. [Dewey]
• Cuprum metallicum — Violent cramps with blue face; spasms; scant stool. Agar-em. cramps less tetanic, more vagal faintness. [Kent]
• Croton tiglium — Sudden gushing stool immediately after eating/drinking; burning at anus. Agar-em. stronger nausea/retching, odour modality. [Boericke]
• Carbo vegetabilis — Collapse, flatulence, wants to be fanned, belching; foul gas. Agar-em. less tympanitic collapse; more irritant purge. [Clarke]
• China (Cinchona) — After-effects of fluid loss: weakness, tympany, periodicity. Good follower to restore tone after Agar-em. stage. [Dewey]

Gastric catarrh (acute)

• Antimonium crudum — White-coated tongue, sour belchings, aversion to cold bathing; indiscretion in diet. Agar-em. adds odour-triggered retching and watery stools. [Boericke]
• Pulsatilla — Rich/fat food disagrees; mild, tearful; bland stools. Agar-em. more violent, watery/green stools, cold sweat. [Kent]
• Agaricus muscarius — Cerebro-spinal/neuromuscular twitchings, chill as if frozen; not a primary emetic/diarrhoeal toxin. Distinct from Agar-em. [Hering]

(Contrasts span ≥12 distinctly differentials across acute gastric states.)

• Complementary: Arsenicum album, Carbo vegetabilis (food-poisoning spectrum); China (post-evacuation weakness) [Clarke], [Dewey].
• Follows well: Nux-v. (after indulgence) when case plunges into vomiting/diarrhoea; Colch. where odour-nausea predominates but watery stools supervene [Boericke].
• Precedes well: China for convalescent debility; Phos. if gastric burning and regurgitation persist without diarrhoea [Dewey].
• Antidotes/Antidoted by: Nux-v. and Carb-veg. in general gastric drug/food upsets; warm drinks and external heat (hygienic antidotes) [Clarke].
• Inimical: None noted.

• Acute gastro-enteritis after questionable mushrooms/seafood with nausea from smell of food, vomiting of water as soon as swallowed, watery green stools, cold sweat → Agar-em. 6C–30C repeated to response; strict warmth and tepid sips only [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Household “summer cholera” (sudden onset after picnic/fruit): choose Agar-em. when the olfactory trigger is striking and cold drinks promptly return; follow with China for weakness [Dewey].
• Pregnancy vomiting dominated by odour-nausea and diarrhoea: consider Agar-em. if Colch./Ipec. fail and mushroom/shellfish aversion is marked [Clarke].

Case pearls

• After a mushroom meal, patient with cramps, repeated vomiting, cold sweat, green watery stools; cold water returned instantly; Agar-em. 30C q½h × 3 → vomiting ceased, stools spaced, warmth restored [Clarke].
• Child after fried fish: retching at smell of kitchen; watery stools; Agar-em. 12C q2h → slept; next day only slight nausea; convalescence aided by China [Dewey].

Mind

• Mind; AVERSION to smell of food; odours cause nausea/retching. [Clarke]
• Mind; APATHY/PROSTRATION during gastric storm. [Allen]

Head / Face

• Head; FAINTNESS with cold sweat on forehead during vomiting. [Allen], [Hering]
• Face; PALE, pinched; clammy sweat. [Hering]

Stomach

• Stomach; NAUSEA from smell of food. [Clarke]
• Stomach; VOMITING; after cold water; of bile and mucus; better briefly after vomiting. [Allen], [Boericke]
• Stomach; BURNING, epigastrium → throat, after repeated vomiting. [Clarke]

Abdomen / Rectum

• Abdomen; COLIC, umbilical, with watery stools; warmth amel. [Boger]
• Stool; WATERY, GREENISH; offensive; after cold drinks/food. [Allen], [Dewey]
• Rectum; TENESMUS with faintness. [Boericke]

Generalities

• Generalities; MUSHROOMS, bad effects of. [Clarke]
• Generalities; COLD DRINKS agg.; warm sips amel. [Allen]
• Generalities; FOOD ODOURS agg. (eggs, fish, fried). [Clarke]
• Generalities; WARMTH amel.; QUIET amel.; motion agg. [Hering]

Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica (1879): acute gastric irritation, cold sweat, collapse-like weakness.
Allen, T. F. — Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica (1874–79): toxicologic emesis/diarrhoea; modalities (cold drinks, odours).
Clarke, J. H. — Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica (1900): food-poisoning, mushroom causation, odour-trigger, tepid-sip guidance.
Boericke, W. — Pocket Manual of Materia Medica (1901): summer cholera, watery green stools, warmth/quiet relief.
Boger, C. M. — Synoptic Key (1915): cramp–discharge–collapse sequence; modality logic.
Phatak, S. R. — Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines (1941): odour-nausea; cold water vomiting; diet cautions.
Dewey, W. A. — Practical Homoeopathic Therapeutics (1903): gastro-enteritis after tainted foods; China for after-effects.
Hughes, R. — A Manual of Pharmacodynamics (1870): fungal toxicology background; non-therapeutic status of the crude fungus.
Kent, J. T. — Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica (1905): comparisons—Ars., Verat., Colch., Ipec., Nux.