Phytolacca

A toxic perennial plant native to North America. All parts are poisonous, especially the root. Used by Native American tribes for inflammation, ulcers, and tumours. Its berries were historically used to colour wine and textiles.

Proved by Dr. Charles G. Raue and others in the 19th century; verified in Allen’s Encyclopaedia and Hering’s Guiding Symptoms

Phytolacca decandra is the remedy of toxic glandular inflammation and aching toxicity. Its core lies in radiating pain, ulceration, and glandular destruction, whether in the breasts, throat, or lymphatic system. It suits syphilitic, cancerous, or septic states, with profound aching, exhaustion, and ulcerative tendencies. The patient feels like a bruised mass—physically battered, mentally hopeless, and burdened by toxic stagnation. It is invaluable in mastitis, diphtheria, nodular tumours, and chronic syphilitic affections.

• Glands – especially mammary glands, cervical glands, tonsils
• Throat – tonsillitis, pharyngitis, ulcerations
• Muscles and fibrous tissue – soreness, aching, lameness
• Breasts – mastitis, induration, nodules
• Bones – periosteal pain, especially long bones
• Mouth and gums – ulceration, bleeding
• Skin – eruptions, ulcers, secondary syphilis

Marked depression and gloom. The Phytolacca patient feels utterly hopeless, often with suicidal thoughts during chronic pain or ulcerative conditions. Delirium may occur during fever or mastitis, marked by confusion and muttering. [Hering] notes despair and indifference to life. Profound restlessness, with anxiety about disease. In advanced cases, mental symptoms mirror physical decay—paranoia, hallucinations, and violent impulses may emerge in syphilitic states. Fear of dying during acute inflammation, especially in the throat.

Restless sleep disturbed by pain. Dreams vivid, confused, or terrifying. Sleepiness during the day, insomnia at night. Moaning or talking in sleep.

Disturbed dreams of falling, drowning, or being chased. Dreams reflect anxiety, illness, and unresolved grief. Prophetic or deeply symbolic dreams may occur in chronic cases.

Great physical prostration. Aching, bruised, and sore all over. Phytolacca patients are worn out, swollen, and toxic. Glandular, rheumatic, and ulcerative conditions dominate. Symptoms often wander, shift, and are worse from cold, damp weather. Pains are sore, shooting, or radiating. Deep-acting remedy in mastitis, syphilis, diphtheria, and cancerous affections.

Chill followed by heat and profuse sweat. Fever with glandular swellings, especially breasts or tonsils. Pulse rapid, small, and thready. High fever during mastitis or tonsillitis. Intermittent fever in chronic infections.

Chill with aching limbs. Heat localised to head or chest. Sweat profuse, foul, and debilitating. Sweats stain clothing. Alternating chills and flushes.

Dull frontal headaches, often pressing outward. Pains extend from occiput to forehead, worse from cold air or movement. Sensation as if the brain were sore or bruised. Vertigo on rising or turning. Pain may extend to the eyes or jaw. Occasional scalp eruptions, especially in chronic skin disease.

Red, swollen, burning eyes. Eyelids heavy, drooping, and inflamed. Lachrymation profuse. Conjunctivitis or keratitis in syphilitic or tubercular patients. Pains extend deep into the orbit, often with tearing or shooting sensations. Vision blurred with photophobia. Ulcers or pustules on cornea in children.

Swelling of cervical glands near ears. Earache from throat infections, especially on swallowing. Dull hearing or roaring noises. Shooting pains from throat to ears. External ear sensitive, sometimes red and hot.

Coryza with profuse, acrid discharge. Soreness of the nasal bones and mucosa. Pain extends from root of nose to throat. Ulceration inside nostrils in syphilitic cases. Smell diminished or lost. Dry crusts may form inside the nose.

Pale or sallow face with hollow eyes in chronic states. Swelling of parotid or submaxillary glands. Pain in facial bones, especially the zygoma and mandible. Facial neuralgia extending from jaw to ear or neck. Expression anxious during acute illness.

Ulceration of the tongue, inner cheeks, and gums. Tongue coated white or yellow, dry and fissured. Bleeding gums with foul breath. Metallic or bitter taste. Profuse salivation, especially at night. [Allen] mentions syphilitic mucous patches and burning blisters.

Teeth feel loose or elongated. Sensitive to cold air or water. Toothache with pain radiating to temples or throat. Bleeding on brushing. Blackened teeth in advanced syphilitic states.

One of the main spheres of action. Intense pain when swallowing, often shooting to the ears. Tonsils swollen, dark, and covered in patches or ulcers. Uvula swollen, elongated, and painful. Dry, burning throat with a constant need to swallow. Keynote: pain radiates from throat to ears during swallowing. [Clarke] notes diphtheritic membranes, painful even to touch. Speech may become thick or indistinct due to throat stiffness.

Sore, bruised feeling in pectoral muscles. Breasts tender with nodules or tumours. Pain extends from chest to shoulder or down the arm. Tickling cough with raw sensation in trachea. Bronchitis with thick, stringy mucus. Pleuritic pains worse on motion.

Palpitations during fever or from slightest exertion. Heavy, congested sensation in chest. Pulse rapid and weak. Angina-like pains in syphilitic states.

Hoarseness, worse from talking. Short breath during fever or glandular swellings. Deep breathing painful. Oppression of chest in warm room. Dyspnoea relieved in cold air.

Nausea with vertigo, especially in the morning. Craving for cold water, which may be vomited. Vomiting of stringy mucus or bile. Painful pressure in epigastrium after eating. Aversion to hot food. Burning or gnawing pains in chronic illness.

Tenderness and fullness in the right hypochondrium. Liver may be enlarged or sore. Crampy colic with chilliness. Pain radiating from umbilicus. Diarrhoea or constipation may alternate. Soreness over mesenteric glands in children.

Ineffectual urging with burning. Diarrhoea with jelly-like mucus or green, offensive stool. Painful hemorrhoids, worse when sitting. Rectal tenesmus during fevers. Constipation in chronic illness. [Hering] describes soreness after evacuation.

Frequent urging with scanty, dark urine. Burning during and after urination. Albuminous or bloody urine in nephritic states. Pain in urethra on pressure or motion. Enuresis in weak, exhausted patients.

Desire for cold drinks, though they may be vomited. Aversion to hot foods. Loss of appetite during fever. Nausea worse after eating.

Pain in testes and spermatic cord, worse from touch or pressure. Sexual desire depressed or absent. Gleet with thick, yellow discharge. Soreness in prostate or perineum. Chronic gonorrhoea with induration of urethra.

Key remedy for mastitis and breast conditions. Breasts swollen, hard, hot, and painful. Pain radiates from nipple to the whole body when nursing—“as if electric shocks.” [Boericke] stresses the shooting, radiating pain on breastfeeding as a keynote. Indurations after weaning. Menstrual flow too early and profuse, with dark clots. Ovarian pain left-sided. Vaginal dryness and itching in chronic states.

Sore, aching pains, especially between shoulders. Stiffness in cervical spine. Pain in sacrum and coccyx worse from sitting. Periosteal pain in chronic syphilis or tuberculosis. Spinal irritation with dragging limbs.

Soreness and aching in muscles, as if beaten. Lameness, stiffness, and bruised sensation. Pains worse in cold, damp weather. Twitching or spasms during fever. Sciatica or neuralgia in hips or thighs. Fingers swollen and tender. Rheumatic pains shift rapidly.

Indurated nodules, boils, and ulcers with indigo or purple borders. Eruptions burn and itch, especially around glands. Pustular, scaly eruptions on scalp or limbs. Desquamation and skin tension in syphilitic patients. [Hering] notes “indolent ulcers with foul discharge.”

• Belladonna – Also red, hot, swollen glands, but with more heat and throbbing; Phytolacca has more aching and prostration
• Lac caninum – Alternating tonsillar pain, but more neurotic and emotional; Phytolacca is more toxic and ulcerative
• Hepar sulphuris – Also painful breasts or tonsils, but more suppurative, sensitive to cold air; Phytolacca prefers cold applications
• Mercurius – Ulcerative throat with salivation, but more night sweats and trembling
• Conium – Glandular indurations of breast, but slower, more passive; Phytolacca is more painful and inflamed

• Complementary: Mercurius, Belladonna
• Antidotes: Rhus tox, Nux vomica
• Follows well: Bryonia, Hepar sulph., Sulphur
• Precedes well: Calcarea fluor., Silicea

• Key remedy in mastitis: Shooting pain from nipple to back during nursing
• Tonsillitis or pharyngitis with pain extending to ears
• Consider in syphilitic ulcers or nodular growths
• Breast tumours with hardness and blue discoloration
• Aches like from overexertion or hard manual labour

Throat

• Pain radiates to ears when swallowing
• Tonsils swollen, ulcerated
• Dry, burning pain with dark patches

Breasts

• Pain radiating from nipple when nursing
• Mastitis with induration
• Breast tumours, hard, blue

Glands

• Swollen, painful cervical and axillary glands
• Induration, worse at night
• Glands hot, sensitive, worse touch

Generalities

• Soreness, bruised pain
• Worse cold damp weather
• Prostration with glandular complaints

Skin

• Ulcers with purple borders
• Burning, indolent eruptions
• Syphilitic pustules

C. Hering – Guiding Symptoms: Primary source for glandular and skin pathologies

T.F. Allen – Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica: Core proving symptoms and toxicological data

William Boericke – Pocket Manual: Clinical focus on mastitis and pharyngeal conditions

John Henry Clarke – Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica: Emphasised ulceration, breast tumours, and deep glandular action

James Kent – Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica: Overview of personality, ulcerative states, and cancerous potential