Fagopyrum

Fagopyrum esculentum is an annual pseudocereal of the Polygonaceae, cultivated widely for its protein-rich groats and honey-bearing blossoms. The fresh aerial parts (flowering tops) yield the homœopathic mother tincture; buckwheat contains rutin (a rutoside), other flavonoids, and tannins that act upon the venous capillaries and skin reactivity, explaining a tendency to congestion, pruritus and urticarial phenomena seen clinically [Hughes], [Clarke]. Toxicology and husbandry record “fagopyrism”—a photosensitising dermatitis with intense itching and erythema in animals (and occasionally man) exposed to sun after feeding on the flowers, confirming the dermal–vascular affinity and pruritic modality (worse warmth/sun; better cool air) [Hughes], [Clarke]. Nineteenth-century provings and clinical records (chiefly American) establish spheres in hæmorrhoids with violent itching of anus, rectal prolapse tendency, venous fulness of head and chest with palpitation, and a restless pruritus worse undressing and at night—an echo of the crude drug’s cutaneous excitability [Allen], [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke].

As food (groats, flour) and beekeeping plant; folk medicine used buckwheat for “weak veins” and as a rutin source; topical poultices for skin eruptions appear in rural traditions—uses that mirror the venous and cutaneous emphasis of the remedy but are not dosing guides [Hughes], [Clarke].

Compiled by T. F. Allen from American provers with clinical confirmations by Hering, Hale, and Clarke; many characteristic notes are practical bedside observations in hæmorrhoids, pruritus (esp. on undressing), venous head congestion, fluttering heart, sexual excitement with scrotal/testicular sensations, and photosensitive itching eruptions [Allen] [Proving], [Hering] [Clinical], [Clarke].

• Venous system & Portal circulation — congestion, fulness, hæmorrhoids, easy flushing and head fulness; see Rectum/Head/Heart [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Rectum & Anus — violent itching, burning, prolapse tendency after stool; hæmorrhoidal tumours sore and swollen; see Rectum [Allen], [Hering].
• Skin (especially during undressing/heat) — generalised itching, urticaria-like wheals, photosensitive pruritus; worse warmth of room/bed; better cool air; see Skin [Hughes], [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Heart & Chest — palpitation with venous fulness; fluttering on sitting/after meals; oppression > open air; see Heart/Chest [Clarke], [Allen].
• Head (congestive) — bursting, pressing headaches with flushing, worse warm rooms, better cool air and uncovering; see Head [Boericke], [Clarke].
• Male genitalia — scrotal/testicular aching or crawling, sexual excitement; pruritus of parts; see Male [Allen], [Hering].
• Mucous margins — excoriation/itching at nasal/anal/vulval edges paralleling the skin keynote; see Nose/Rectum/Female [Clarke], [Boericke].

• Cool, fresh air; uncovering the head and heated parts; ventilation immediately eases fulness and itching (see Head/Skin/Chest) [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Cold applications to itchy margins (anus, labia) or to flushed face; a plain cool ablution often settles pruritus (Skin/Rectum/Female) [Hering].
• Gentle walking in open air after meals, relieving chest oppression and palpitation (Heart/Chest/Generalities) [Clarke].
• Cold drinks in febrile heat with itching, in small quantities (Generalities) [Allen].
• Passing a soft stool without strain—allays prolapsus sense and anal itching (Rectum) [Hering].
• Looser clothing; removal of tight bands round waist or scrotum (Abdomen/Male) [Clarke].
• Resting recumbent during congestive headaches (Head/Generalities) [Boericke].
• After perspiration that is not too heating—slight relief of venous pressure (Fever/Generalities) [Clarke].

• Heat of room and bed; warm bathing; undressing (air upon warm skin) brings intolerable itching—grand modality (Skin/Rectum) [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke].
• After meals, especially hearty or hot suppers—palpitation, head fulness, anal itching (Heart/Head/Rectum) [Clarke].
• Sitting long; sedentary posture; pressure on sacrum—hæmorrhoids and pelvic venous congestion (Rectum/Back) [Hering], [Boericke].
• Standing still; jar and ascending stairs—rectal bearing-down; heart fluttering (Rectum/Heart) [Clarke].
• Warm, close headgear—throbbing temples; desire to uncover (Head) [Boericke].
• Scratching—momentary relief followed by renewed burning and wider itch (Skin) [Hering].
• Sun exposure / glare—pruritic flush, urticarial tingling (Skin/Eyes) [Hughes], [Clarke].
• Alcohol and spiced foods—vascular flushing and itching (Generalities) [Hughes].

Rectum / Hæmorrhoids / Anal Itching

• Aesculus — piles with dry, hard stool, fullness in sacrum, little bleeding; itching less violent; Fagopyr.: violent itch on undressing, heat-agg., stool often soft [Farrington], [Clarke].
• Aloe — protruding piles with sudden urgent stools and jelly-like mucus; Fagopyr. lacks the sudden, copious stool and tenesmus [Boger], [Clarke].
• Ratanhia — fissures with knife-like burning after stool; Fagopyr. has margin itching/burning before/at night with heat-agg. [Farrington].
• Hamamelis — dark venous bleeding with bruised soreness; Fagopyr.: burning itch predominant, bleeding not the keynote [Clarke].
• Sulphur — itching of anus, early morning heat, offensive generalities; both worse warmth; Sulphur more standing constitutional heat and filthy odours [Kent], [Boericke].
• Paeonia — raw ulcerated anus with exquisite soreness; Fagopyr. more itch than ulcer [Farrington].

Skin / Urticaria / Photosensitivity

• Urtica urens — stinging urticaria, better rubbing; food-induced; Fagopyr. itching is worse undressing/heat with venous flushing [Boericke].
• Psorinum — filthy, offensive eczema, despair; worse warmth of bed; Fagopyr. lacks deep psoric hopelessness and fetor [Kent].
• Petroleum — fissured winter eczema; Fagopyr.: pruritus–wheal pattern with venous heat [Boger].
• Euphorbium — intolerable burning > cold, destructive tendency; Fagopyr.: non-destructive pruritus with venous congestion [Farrington].

Head / Congestive Flush

• Belladonna — violent throbbing, hot head, hypersensory, often seeks warmth; Fagopyr. seeks cool air and relief by uncovering [Boger], [Farrington].
• Glonoinum — sun/heat stroke with surging; Fagopyr.: milder venous fulness relieved by air [Clarke].
• Sanguinaria — right-sided periodic sun headache; Fagopyr.: general warm-room congestion [Farrington].

Heart / Palpitation after eating

• Nux vom. — gastric spasm, irritable type; Fagopyr.: venous flutter relieved by open air without gastric spasm [Kent], [Clarke].
• Cactus — iron band constriction; Fagopyr.: light flutter, air-ameliorated [Farrington].
• Coffea — palpitation with joyous excitability; Fagopyr.: dull, venous, heat-related [Kent].

Genital margins / Pruritus

• Kreosotum — acrid, corrosive leucorrhœa with ulcers and fetor; Fagopyr.: clean pruritus with heat-agg., little destruction [Clarke].
• Apis — stinging oedema and burning, > cold; closer in thermal tendency but with swelling and thirstlessness [Boericke].

• Complementary: Hamamelis — venous hæmorrhage/soreness after Fagopyr. calms the pruritus and heat [Clarke].
• Complementary: Aesculus — follows where sacral backache and dryness of stool remain after Fagopyr. has relieved heat-itch [Farrington].
• Complementary: Sulphur — constitutional psoric ground to prevent relapse of heat-itch tendency [Kent].
• Follows well: Nux vom. — in sedentary, overfed patients; Fagopyr. then clears the warm-room pruritus and venous head [Clarke].
• Follows well: Urtica urens — after acute nettle-rash; Fagopyr. for the residual heat-itch on undressing [Boericke].
• Precedes well: Ratanhia — if fissures with after-stool burning appear after the itch phase subsides [Farrington].
• Related: Sulph., Aesc., Aloe, Hamam., Ratanh., Urt-u., Psor., Petrol., Bell., Glon., Sanguin., Nux-v., Cact. (see Differentials).
• Antidotes: Camphor and cool bathing for medicinal over-action (thermal) [Allen], [Clarke].
• Inimicals: none recorded; avoid needless alternation among close rectal/skin congeners on the same plane [Boger], [Kent].

The essence of Fagopyrum is venous heat with itching margins. The organism is flushed and full under warmth; the skin—especially at the borders where skin turns mucosa (nostrils, anus, vulva, scrotal root)—becomes a field of crawling, pricking, and then burning if rubbed. The moment of undressing is diagnostic: as the warm skin meets room air, a storm of pruritus breaks out; covers on, it blazes; window open, it quiets. This thermal law (worse warmth/bed/undressing; better cool air/uncovering/cold ablutions) threads the whole case and reappears in the head (congestive pressure, desire to uncover), in the heart (palpitation after meals in warm rooms, relieved by a turn in the air), in the chest (oppression > open air), and in the rectum (hæmorrhoidal itching and burning, better cool washing). Pathophysiologically the picture matches a rutin-bearing polygonaceous herb: a capillary–venous remedy with reflexes in the skin. Toxicology’s “fagopyrism”—photosensitive pruritus and erythema—explains the urticarial flashes and sun-tingling that attend the remedy’s constitution [Hughes], [Clarke].

The clinical art is to separate Fagopyrum from its neighbours: Aesculus is drier, more sacral and constrained, with hard stools; Aloe has sudden, urgent, mucous stools and a lax sphincter; Ratanhia burns like knives after stool; Hamamelis bleeds and bruises; Sulphur is the archetypal heat-itch with foulness and early-morning exacerbations. Fagopyrum sits between and before them when itch prevails over pain, heat over foulness, and air and cold ablution are the direct antidotes. In the skin field it is not corrosive like Kreosotum, nor destructive and “burning-better-cold” like Euphorbium; it is a prick-and-flush remedy—the urticant storm of the venules—ending when the room cools.

Thermally the subject is warm-worse, craving air; constitutionally more restless than depressed; miasmatically Sycotic–Psoric with venous dilatation and mucous irritation. Pace is evening-centred: hot supper → flush, pruritus, palpitation; window open → relief. Practical counsel mirrors the modalities: cool the room at dusk; avoid hot baths and late spiced meals; keep clothing loose; wash the itchy margins with cool water; walk gently in the open air after meals. In prescribing, the decision often turns on the undressing test: if disrobing at night is the moment of worst itching—and if hæmorrhoidal margins behave like the rest of the skin—Fagopyrum is faithful.

Potency choice: low to mid (3x–6x/6C) for hæmorrhoidal and daily pruritic states with frequent repetition; 30C–200C when the keynote thermal law and undressing-itch are crystalline; LM/Q for chronic venous/skin cycles prone to relapse [Boericke], [Nash], [Vithoulkas]. Dose to sensation: repeat while heat-itch returns; space as the need for cold lessens. Sequencing often runs Nux vom. (dietetic excess, sedentary) → Fagopyr. (heat-itch and venous head) → Aesculus/Hamamelis (residual sacral fullness or bleeding). Clinical pearl: when a “piles” case says, “The worst is undressing and getting into bed; I must sponge with cold water and open the window,” give Fagopyrum first; the rest arrange themselves in its wake.

• Hæmorrhoids with violent itching and burning of anus, worse warm room/bed and on undressing; stool not necessarily hard; cool bathing indispensable— acts cleanly [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke].
• General pruritus of warm, sedentary people after supper; “itch when undressing”; better air and cold sponging—use 6C–30C, then constitutional Sulphur to close the psoric door [Kent], [Boericke].
• Palpitation and head fulness after meals in close rooms—walk in cool evening air + 30C prn settles the venous hurry [Clarke].
• Photosensitive urticarial tingling after sun on a warm day—cool, shaded air + and regimen; keep Urt-u. for stinging wheals that like rubbing [Hughes], [Boericke].
• Potency/repetition: 6C t.i.d. for a week in acute heat-itch; 30C for evening undressing attacks; 200C single for pure keynote cases; repeat by return of heat-itch rather than the clock [Nash], [Vithoulkas].

Mind

• Irritability from itching; cannot bear warm room; wants air — thermal-reactive mood [Clarke].
• Aversion to undressing because itching begins then — diagnostic cue [Allen].
• Anxiety with palpitation in warm rooms; better open air — circulation-linked [Clarke].
• Restless, changes place seeking coolness — behaviour rubric [Boericke].
• Children peevish at bedtime; better after cool bathing — management hint [Hering].
• Concentration broken by anal/scrotal itching — margin theme [Allen].

Head

• Congestion/fulness, worse warm room and close headgear; better uncovering, cool air — grand modality [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Headache after meals with palpitation; better walking in open air — hinge rubric [Clarke].
• Heat rising to vertex with sparks before eyes in hot rooms — glare addendum [Clarke].
• Scalp margins itch with pruritic storms — cutaneous echo [Allen].
• Head heavy from sitting; better on moving in air — mechanical/thermal [Boericke].
• Uncovering head in bed relieves — bedside sign [Clarke].

Skin

• Itching worse undressing, worse warmth of bed/room; better cool air and cold bathing — master rubric [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Urticaria-like wheals on scratching; burning after — scratch-burn law [Hering].
• Photosensitive pruritus after sun — fagopyrism link [Hughes], [Clarke].
• Margins (nostrils, anus, vulva) excoriate and burn — mucosal bridge [Clarke].
• Itching of popliteal spaces, forearms, shins in evening — distribution note [Allen].
• Sweat in warmth rekindles itching — sweat rubric [Clarke].

Rectum

• Itching and burning of anus, violent at night/on undressing — decisive [Allen], [Clarke].
• Hæmorrhoids, sore, protruding; worse sitting/standing still; better cool ablution — practical [Boericke].
• Prolapsus tendency with soft stool — differential vs Aesculus [Farrington].
• Perineal margin excoriated from scratching — consequence rubric [Hering].
• Worse heat of bed; must get up and sponge with cold water — bedside [Clarke].
• Oozing moisture irritates — accessory [Allen].

Heart/Chest

• Palpitation after meals in warm rooms; better gentle walking in open air — core hinge [Clarke].
• Oppression of chest, worse heat, better air — chest echo [Boericke].
• Flushing with heart hurry; venous hum in ears — vascular tie [Clarke].
• Pulse soft, quick in warmth; steadies in cool — observation [Allen].
• Anxiety from circulation, not fear — mental nuance [Clarke].
• Tight clothing aggravates chest pressure — mechanical [Clarke].

Generalities

• Worse heat of room/bed; worse undressing — thermal law [Allen], [Clarke].
• Better cool air, uncovering, cold ablutions — therapy mirror [Boericke].
• Worse after hot, spiced foods and alcohol — dietary trigger [Hughes].
• Better gentle walking in open air after meals — routine [Clarke].
• Worse sitting/sedentary; better changing place — venous [Hering].
• Loosening tight clothes ameliorates — mechanical cue [Clarke].

Male/Female

• Scrotum, perineum itching, worse heat/undressing, better cool — male echo [Allen].
• Sexual excitement at night with crawling in cord/testes — concomitant [Clarke].
• Vulval itching worse warmth of bed; better cool washing — female echo [Clarke].
• Pelvic heaviness after sitting; better walking in air — venous [Clarke].
• Margins excoriate; urine burns over them — mucosal bridge [Allen].
• Menses increase warm-room itching; air relieves — cycle note [Clarke].

Allen, T. F. — Encyclopædia of Pure Materia Medica (1874–79): proving record; pruritus on undressing; rectal itching; venous fulness; palpitation after meals.
Hering, C. — The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica (1879): clinical confirmations—hæmorrhoids with violent itching; skin storms in warm rooms; margin excoriations.
Clarke, J. H. — A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica (1900): substance background; “fagopyrism” notes; thermal modalities; head/heart/skin–rectum linkage; relationships.
Hughes, R. — A Manual of Pharmacodynamics (1870): pharmacologic commentary on rutin/capillary action; photosensitive dermatitis reports; dietary triggers.
Boericke, W. — Pocket Manual of Homœopathic Materia Medica (1901): keynotes—itching worse undressing/heat, better cool air; hæmorrhoids; venous head; palpitation.
Boger, C. M. — Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica (1915): miasmatic colouring; rectal and venous comparisons (Aesculus, Aloe, Sulphur).
Farrington, E. A. — Clinical Materia Medica (1887): rectal and headache differentials (Ratanhia, Aesculus, Sanguinaria, Belladonna); cardiac contrasts.
Kent, J. T. — Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica (1905): psoric–sycotic complexion; relationships with Sulphur/Nux in venous/skin cases.
Nash, E. B. — Leaders in Homœopathic Therapeutics (1899): remarks on pruritic skin and piles remedies; dosing practicalities.
Dewey, W. A. — Practical Homœopathic Therapeutics (1901): regimen (air, bathing) and sequencing (Nux → Fagopyr. → Aesculus/Hamamelis).
Phatak, S. R. — Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines (1977): terse keynotes—itching worse warmth; venous tendency; hæmorrhoids.
Tyler, M. L. — Homœopathic Drug Pictures (1942): vivid portraits of warm-room pruritus and undressing aggravation in Fagopyrum patients.