Robinia

A leguminous tree (Fabaceae) native to North America; bark and seed contain alkaloids (e.g., robinine) and irritant principles. Toxicologic notes describe corrosive gastric irritation, violent acidity, and sour, burning regurgitations with oesophageal pain—an arc that is mirrored in the remedy’s keynote of hyperacidity with nocturnal heartburn and sour vomiting [Hughes], [Allen], [Clarke]. In homeopathy the tincture is prepared chiefly from the fresh bark of the young twigs. Early clinical writers repeatedly emphasised acrid, sour reflux that sets the teeth “on edge,” frontal headache bound up with the acid state, and sour stools of children as the reliable prescribing field [Hering], [Boericke], [Clarke]. [Toxicology]

No established internal medicinal use in orthodox medicine owing to toxicity of crude bark; timber and nectar (honey plant) are the principal secular uses. Historical poisonings furnished much of the gastric irritant picture that informed homeopathic application [Hughes], [Clarke].

Symptoms collated chiefly from toxicology and clinical confirmations; Allen and Hering record intense heartburn, water-brash, acid, sour vomiting—especially at night and on lying, burning from epigastrium to throat, and frontal headaches tied to acidity, with sour stools and colic in children [Allen], [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke]. [Proving] [Clinical]

• Stomach & duodenum (primary): Violent hyperacidity, heartburn, and sour regurgitation; acrid vomiting excoriates mouth and throat. Cross-ref. Stomach, Throat, Food and Drink. [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Lower oesophagus (GERD/LPR pattern): Burning up the oesophagus, worse night and lying, with acid fluid to mouth; dental sensitivity after reflux. Cross-ref. Mouth/Teeth, Sleep. [Clarke], [Hering]
• Head (frontal/temporal): Frontal headache synchronous with gastric acidity; abates when acidity is checked. Cross-ref. Head, Generalities. [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Bowel fermentation in children: Sour stools, abdominal acidity, napkin excoriation; infantile colic with acid odour. Cross-ref. Abdomen, Rectum, Skin. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Salivary & buccal mucosa: Sour saliva, water-brash; oral smarting from acid; teeth feel “set on edge.” Cross-ref. Mouth, Teeth. [Allen], [Hering]
• Pregnancy nausea/pyrosis: Nocturnal pyrosis and acid vomiting in pregnancy; burning from epigastrium upwards. Cross-ref. Female, Sleep. [Boericke], [Clarke]
• Hepato-biliary (minor): Acid dyspepsia with sense of hepatic weight, but the dominant keynote remains acid rather than biliary. Cross-ref. Abdomen. [Hughes], [Clarke]

• Sitting upright; head high in bed; walking slowly after meals (reduces reflux). [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Dry farinaceous morsels or a little alkaline (e.g., bicarbonate) to blunt the acid for a time. [Hughes], [Clarke]
• Cold water in sips for scalded throat; cool mouth-rinses after acid regurgitation. [Allen], [Clarke]
• Open air after a close, heated room aggravation. [Clinical]
• Small, frequent meals; long gaps worsen burning. [Clarke]
• Looser clothing at epigastrium/waist. [Clinical]
• Dozing propped rather than flat; left-side sometimes (pyloric emptying) better than right. [Clinical]
• Relief of acidity brings frontal headache down (mind–gut link). [Clarke]

• Night; after midnight; lying down, especially right side; on first falling asleep. [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke]
• After eating, especially sweets, fatty/greasy foods, wine, coffee, and sour fruit. [Allen], [Clarke]
• Stooping or tight belts (increase reflux). [Clarke]
• Pregnancy; dentition in children (acid state). [Boericke], [Hering]
• Warm room or stuffy air; heat of bed provokes heartburn. [Clarke]
• Mental exertion during indigestion (frontal ache mounts). [Clarke]
• Milk in some (curdling and acidity) — compare Aethusa, Mag-c. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Late suppers; eating then lying soon after. [Boericke]

• Hyperacidity / reflux (night, lying)
  • Iris versicolor — Acrid, burning vomit with periodic sick-headache and often burning diarrhoea; more migraine-cycle than Rob.’s steady night reflux. [Clarke], [Boericke].
  • Nux vomica — Dyspepsia from stimulants and late meals with spasm, irritability, morning nausea; less fixed sour flood at night than Rob.; Nux is often antecedent in overworked gourmands. [Clarke], [Hering].
  • Phosphorus — Heartburn, regurgitation; craves cold drinks, vomits when warm; burning yet “empty” feeling; less purely acid than Rob. [Hughes], [Clarke].
  • Sulphuric acid (Sul-ac.) — Profound acidity with tremulous weakness, haemorrhagic tendency, and desire for alcohol; oesophageal burn present but systemic tone differs. [Allen], [Clarke].
  • Carbo vegetabilis — Heartburn with flatulent distension and collapse, wants to be fanned; eructations easier than in Rob.; less nightly reflux focus. [Boericke].
  • Kali bichromicum — Burning, heaviness, stringy mucus, gastric ulcer type; not the clean sour flood of Rob. [Clarke].
• Sour child / dentition diarrhoea
  • Rheum — Sour everything with umbilical colic, chill during stool, brief relief after stool; overlaps but is bowel-fermentation rather than upward acid reflux. [Hering], [Clarke].
  • Magnesia carbonica — Milk intolerance, green sour stools, chilly thin child; Rob. shows more nocturnal heartburn in nursing mother and sour stool in infant without the Mag-c. craving. [Phatak].
  • Calcarea carbonica — Sour head-sweat with dentition but commonly constipation; Rob. guides when stools or vomit are sour with acid regurgitation. [Tyler], [Boericke].
• Pregnancy pyrosis
  • Pulsatilla — Rich-food indigestion, bland tongue, thirstless; heartburn not necessarily nocturnal; emotional softness; Rob. is more night reflux and sour flood. [Clarke].
  • Sepia — Nausea with empty sinking, bearing-down; heartburn may occur but not with the persistent sour regurgitation of Rob. [Boericke].

• Complementary: Nux-v. in diet/stimulant dyspeptics—Nux re-sets irritability; Rob. then resolves the acid reflux residue. [Clarke], [Hering].
• Complementary: Rheum/Mag-c. where the infant shows sour stools or milk intolerance while the nursing mother needs Rob. for her night reflux. [Hering], [Phatak].
• Follows well: Iris-v. when periodic sick-headache has been broken but a steady nocturnal acidity persists. [Clarke].
• Precedes well: Nat-phos. as a tissue balancing measure in chronic acid states once acute reflux settles (clinical usage). [Boericke].
• Compare: Phos., Sul-ac., Carb-v., Puls., Sep., Kali-bi.—see Differentials above.
• Practical measures (synergy): Avoid late suppers; elevate head of bed; small, dry meals; loosen belts—mechanical complements repeatedly noted by the old authors and echoed in Modalities. [Clarke], [Boericke].

The essence of Robinia is acid—pure, nocturnal, upward. The patient retires seemingly well and, after midnight, wakes with burning from the epigastrium up the oesophagus, sour water in the mouth, and often sour vomiting that excoriates the fauces and sets the teeth on edge. The attack is worse lying—especially on the right side—and better for sitting upright, head high, a dry morsel, or a little alkali. Errors of diet—sweets, fats, wine, coffee, sour fruit—are faithfully reported as triggers, and the frontal headache that many bring to the practitioner falls as soon as the acid storm is quelled, proving its gastric origin [Clarke], [Boericke], [Allen]. Children manifest the same theme at the other end: sour stools and napkin excoriation, often in dentition; mothers with pregnancy heartburn often present as classic Rob., night-worse, lying-worse cases. The remedy neither paints the spasmodic irritability of Nux-v. nor the periodic migraine of Iris-v.; it is simpler and more mechanical—reflux of acid—and its modalities are likewise mechanical: posture, timing, provoking foods. When a case literally speaks of sour burning every night on lying and shows the “teeth on edge” after regurgitation, Robinia is front and centre. Practical regimen—no late meals, head elevated, small dry feedings, belt loosened—is not adjunct but synergy, and classical authors advocate it beside the dose [Clarke], [Boericke]. The remedy’s portrait is thus both precise and economical: night reflux, sour flood, head–stomach axis, posture and food modalities, with infant and pregnancy analogues.

Case pearls. A pregnant woman with nightly pyrosis and sour vomiting, worse on lying, sleeping in a chair for relief, recovered sleep after Rob. 30C at bedtime and head-of-bed elevation [Clarke]. A child with sour stools and excoriated napkin area, and a mother who complained of after-midnight heartburn, improved together—Rob. to the mother; Rheum reserved for the infant only if umbilical colic dominated [Hering]. [Clinical]

• Night reflux/heartburn with sour vomiting; lying-worse: Rob. 6x–30C at bedtime (and on waking with heartburn), along with head elevation and late-meal avoidance; step to 30C–200C for persistent nightly flares after triggers are controlled. [Clarke], [Boericke]
• Pregnancy pyrosis: Rob. 30C at dusk; small dry biscuit at lights-out; avoid sweets and coffee; sleep propped. Distinguish Puls. and Sep. when sourness is not central. [Boericke], [Clarke]
• Sour child: If reflux up is conspicuous, consider Rob.; if umbilical colic/chill during stool predominate, prefer Rheum; switch if the picture declares. [Hering], [Clarke]
• Headache–acid link: In recurrent frontal headaches of dyspeptics, test the Rob. hypothesis by posture and alkaline trial while prescribing—headache often falls as acid recedes. [Clarke]

Head / Mind

• HEAD — PAIN — frontal — night — with heartburn; acidity — during. — Frontal ache tracks acid state. [Clarke]
• MIND — ANXIETY — at night — heartburn; from. — Anticipates reflux on lying. [Clarke]

Mouth / Throat / Teeth

• MOUTH — SALIVA — sour — waterbrash — with. — Classic water-brash of acid states. [Allen]
• TEETH — SENSITIVE — after acids — eructations; from — “teeth on edge.” — Dental sequelae of reflux. [Clarke]
• THROAT — BURNING — oesophagus — regurgitation of acid — from — night. — Oesophageal scald of reflux. [Hering], [Clarke]

Stomach (core)

• STOMACH — ACIDITY — excessive — night. — Keynote hyperacidity after midnight. [Boericke]
• STOMACH — HEARTBURN — lying — aggravates — night — aggravates. — Posture and time modalities. [Clarke]
• STOMACH — ERUCTATIONS — sour — with burning. — Acid air and burn together. [Allen]
• STOMACH — VOMITING — sour — night — after lying down. — Sour flood of the night. [Hering]

Abdomen / Rectum / Skin (child)

• STOOL — ODOUR — sour — children — excoriating. — Sour napkin rash. [Hering], [Clarke]
• SKIN — EXCORIATION — from stools — sour. — Acid burn of perineum. [Hering]

Modalities / Generals

• GENERALITIES — POSITION — lying — aggravates — complaints of stomach. — Reflux posture. [Clarke]
• GENERALITIES — FOOD and DRINKS — sweets — aggravate; fat — aggravates; wine; coffee — aggravates. — Dietary triggers. [Allen], [Clarke]
• GENERALITIES — EATING — after — aggravates — heartburn. — Post-prandial burn. [Boericke]
• SLEEP — WAKING — after midnight — heartburn — from. — Night wake with reflux. [Clarke]

Allen, T. F. — Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica (1874–79): toxicology and clinical notes—sour regurgitation, acrid vomiting, water-brash, dental “on edge.”
Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica (1879): night-worse heartburn; sour stools of children; pregnancy pyrosis confirmations.
Clarke — A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica (1900): remedy portrait—nocturnal reflux, frontal headache tied to acidity; regimen (posture, diet).
Boericke — Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica (1901): keynotes—hyperacidity, heartburn at night, lying-worse; pregnancy application.
Hughes — A Manual of Pharmacodynamics (1870s): toxicologic background (bark alkaloids), gastric irritant arc informing remedy sphere.
Boger — Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica (1915): modality grid—night, lying, sweets/fats aggravate; comparisons with Iris-v., Nux-v., Phos.
Farrington — Clinical Materia Medica (late 19th c.): differentiations of acid remedies (Iris-v., Sul-ac., Phos., Nux-v.) in dyspepsia.
Nash — Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics (1907): practical hints in hyperacidity and reflux; food and posture rules.
Dewey — Practical Homoeopathic Therapeutics (1901): pregnancy heartburn therapeutics; diet counsel.
Tyler — Homoeopathic Drug Pictures (1942): reminders for sour child vs maternal reflux; contrasts with Puls., Sep.
Phatak — Concise Materia Medica (1977): comparisons in sour children—Mag-c., Calc-c., Rheum; triggers (milk, sweets).
Dunham — Lectures on Materia Medica (1870s): clinical observations on posture and timing in gastric remedies.