Indigofera tinctoria

Indigo is the famed blue dye obtained by fermenting the leaves of Indigofera spp., precipitating the indoxyl to indigo (C₁₆H₁₀N₂O₂). The crude plant contains indican (a glucose–indoxyl conjugate), which by enzymic hydrolysis and oxidation yields the insoluble blue pigment; traces of indigoid relatives (indirubin, indigo brown) accompany it [Hughes], [Clarke]. Physiologically, large quantities of the dye have little direct irritant action, yet in workers and experimental use one meets gastric disturbance, stubborn headaches, neurotic excitability, and pruriginous states—threads that appear in the homœopathic picture [Hughes], [Allen], [Clarke]. The mother tincture has been made from the prepared dye in trituration, or from the fresh plant, with potencies carried in the usual centesimal scale [Allen], [Clarke]. Clinical use has chiefly grown from observations in children—worm disorders with reflex nervous phenomena (cough, spasms, enuresis) and peculiar frontal headaches—placing Indigo among the minor but pointed remedies for gastrointestinal–neurotic reflexes [Hering], [Boericke], [Clarke].

Indigo has had millennia of cultural and industrial use as a textile dye from India to Europe. In pharmacy, the soluble dye indigocarmine later served diagnostically to test renal excretion and locate ureteral orifices—an historical footnote rather than a basis for symptomatology [Hughes], [Clarke]. Traditional medicine occasionally used indigo preparations for ulcers or as a “cooling” agent, though Western toxicology found it relatively inert save for digestive disturbance in excess [Hughes].

Indigo’s pathogenesis rests on small provings and numerous [Clinical] confirmations culled by Allen and Hering: frontal headaches in bands or at the root of the nose; irritative, hacking or spasmodic coughs in nervous children; worm symptoms (pruritus ani, nose-picking, restless sleep, enuresis); spasmodic and hysteriform phenomena; abdominal colic with mucus and threadworms; and a notable modality from sweets aggravating stomach and nerves [Allen], [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke]. [Proving] [Clinical]

• Intestinal tract (small intestine, cæcum/rectum)—threadworm (oxyuris) irritation with pruritus ani, colic, and mucus stools; reflex coughs and spasms (see Rectum, Abdomen, Respiration). [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Nervous system—reflex excitability from gastro-intestinal irritation: startings, twitchings, hysteriform fits; night terrors in children (see Mind, Sleep). [Allen], [Hering].
• Head (frontal root-of-nose region)—periodical pressing/banding headaches, worse mental effort and warmth of room; relieved in open air (see Head). [Allen], [Clarke].
• Respiratory mucosa—tickling laryngeal coughs, “whoop-like” spells in nervous children with worms; scant expectoration (see Respiration, Chest). [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Urinary bladder—nocturnal enuresis with worms or night-cough; irritable, weak sphincter (see Urinary, Sleep). [Hering], [Clarke].
• Skin and mucocutaneous margins—itching, especially anus and nose; urticarious prickle after sweets (see Skin, Nose, Rectum). [Hering], [Boericke].
• Eyes/ears by congestion—blackness before eyes and buzzing with the cardiac rushes during cough or fright (see Eyes, Ears). [Allen], [Clarke].
• Female pelvic reflexes—pruritus vulvæ and bearing-down in wormy girls; dysmenorrhœa with gastric irritability (see Female). [Clarke], [Boericke].

• Open, cool air; walking slowly in fresh air relieves head and cough (Head/Respiration). [Clarke], [Allen].
• Lying quietly on the abdomen when colic is from worms (Abdomen). [Hering].
• Discharge of mucus or passage of worms—general relief of head/cough (Generalities/Rectum). [Hering], [Clarke].
• Cold applications to forehead; bathing the face cool (Head). [Allen].
• Small, bland meals; milk avoided; water in small sips for the cough tickle (Stomach/Respiration). [Clarke].
• Sleep on the right side in enuresis (Urinary/Sleep). [Clinical], [Clarke].
• Gentle pressure at epigastrium during nausea (Stomach). [Allen].
• Reassurance and diversion lessen spasmodic phenomena in children (Mind). [Farrington].

• Night; after midnight—itching anus, cough-fits, enuresis, startings (Sleep/Rectum/Respiration). [Hering], [Clarke].
• Sweets, sugar, pastries—provoke abdominal distress, itching, cough, and restlessness (Food/Abdomen/Skin). [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Warm, close rooms; stove heat—head grows full; cough tickle increases (Head/Respiration). [Allen], [Clarke].
• Mental effort; study—frontal band headache, irritability (Mind/Head). [Allen].
• Touch about anus or nose—the irritation becomes unbearable; child picks and rubs (Rectum/Nose). [Hering].
• Lying on back—cough and enuresis worse; choking startles (Sleep/Respiration/Urinary). [Clarke].
• After meals—nausea, colic, and tickling cough (Stomach/Abdomen/Respiration). [Allen], [Clarke].
• Emotion or fright—spasmodic manifestations, cough and tremor (Mind/Respiration). [Hering].
• During dentition—nervous storms, worms and cough more active (Mind/Generalities). [Clarke].

• Worm affections (aetiology)
– Cina: classic worm remedy with canine hunger, grinding teeth, spasms; Indigo shares pruritus ani and irritability but adds frontal band headache and tickling cough worse sweets. [Hering], [Clarke], [Boericke].
– Teucrium marum verum: threadworms with violent anal itching and rectal polypi tendency; Teucr. more purely rectal; Indigo more head/cough reflex. [Clarke], [Boger].
– Sabadilla: worms and hyperaesthesia with violent sneezing; Indigo has less coryza, more frontal band and cough. [Allen], [Farrington].
– Santoninum: drug for ascarides with visual xanthopsia; Indigo lacks colour-vision changes and is gentler. [Allen], [Clarke].
• Cough (keynotes)
– Corallium rubrum: explosive whoop-like cough fits; Indigo fits tickling, nervous coughs with worm linkage and sweets agg. [Boger], [Clarke].
– Drosera: spasmodic, night-worse cough with gagging; Drosera has deep hoarseness and laryngeal spasm; Indigo is lighter and reflex. [Clarke], [Boericke].
– Ipecacuanha: choking cough with much nausea; Indigo’s nausea is mild, sweets-linked; Ipec. is gastric and moist. [Farrington].
• Headache (organ affinity)
– Spigelia: left frontal/supraorbital pains, sun agg.; Indigo has band-like frontal pressure with warm-room agg., sweets agg., and worm relief. [Clarke], [Boger].
– Gelsemium: band headaches with heaviness; Gels. is drowsy, muscular; Indigo is irritable, pruritic and child-centred. [Farrington], [Kent].
• Enuresis (modalities)
– Causticum: involuntary urination with cough and in first sleep; Caust. lacks the worm/itching chain and sweets modality. [Clarke], [Boericke].
– Sepia: enuresis in girls with pelvic laxity; Sepia is chilly, indifferent; Indigo is restless, pruritic and sweets-worse. [Kent].
• Mind / Reflex excitability
– Ignatia: hysteriform startings and sighing; Indigo is more peripheral-reflex from bowel irritation and paediatric. [Kent], [Clarke].
– Chamomilla: irritable, sleepless child; Cham. has heat-worse, pain intolerance; Indigo adds worms, sweets agg., and frontal band. [Hering], [Clarke].

• Complementary: Teucrium—both for oxyuris; Teucr. centres in rectum; Indigo completes the case when headaches and cough persist from reflex irritation. [Clarke], [Boger].
• Complementary: Cina—Indigo for the frontal band and sweets agg. when Cina covers worm core. [Hering], [Boericke].
• Complementary: Causticum—for enuresis with cough; Indigo when worm-pruritus and sweets agg. are present. [Clarke].
• Follows well: Santoninum—after expulsion of worms, to settle nervous reflexes and pruritus. [Allen], [Clarke].
• Follows well: Nux vomica—when dietary indiscretion (sweets) and gastric irritability are corrected but reflex cough remains. [Clarke], [Dewey].
• Precedes well: Sulphur—if psoric itching and periodic headaches persist after Indigo clears reflex cough. [Kent], [Clarke].
• Related: Sabadilla (sneezing–worm nexus), Spigelia (frontal pain), Drosera (night cough), Corallium (spasmodic cough), Ipec. (nausea–cough), Sepia (girls’ enuresis). [Clarke], [Boger], [Boericke].
• Antidotes: Nux (dietary aggravations), Coffea (nervous over-stimulation); avoid sweets during treatment—a practical “antidote” to relapse. [Clarke], [Dewey].
• Inimicals not recorded; selection by reflex chain and sweets/heat modalities prevents confusion. [Clarke], [Boericke].

Indigo lives where the bowel and the nerves converse. In the classic child, the centre is the rectum—threadworms kindle an intolerable itching and a vague, crawling unrest which propagates to the larynx as a tickling cough and to the head as a banded frontal pressure. The mind follows the gut: irritable, peevish, obstinate, and fretful under the smallest contrariety, then docile once the itching abates or after a stool. Sweets are the tinder: a cake or pastry in the afternoon, and evening finds the child more restless, scratching, coughing, and clutching the forehead; the night is broken by startings, cries, and often a wet bed. The modalities therefore are not decorative but diagnostic—worse night, warm rooms, sweets, and mental effort; better open air, cold sponging, lying on the abdomen for colic, and—most tellingly—after the passage of worms. This chain appears paragraph by paragraph in the pathogenesis and is clinically reliable [Hering], [Allen], [Clarke], [Boericke].
The kingdom signature (Leguminosæ) shows a functional, surface-reactive picture rather than deep destructive pathology. Miasmatically the remedy is psoric in its itch, restlessness, and fatigue, with sycotic recurrency (worms, mucus stools, habitual cough fits) and a faint syphilitic edge in the periodicity of headaches and spasms. Its pace is remittent; crises are brief but recurrent, tied to diet and bedtime. Compared with its neighbours, Indigo is smaller in range but precise in application: where Cina and Teucrium cover the brute worm business, Indigo is chosen by the nervous echo—tickling coughs, frontal band headaches, startings, enuresis—and by the dietary modality, sweets agg. Drosera and Corallium overshadow it in whooping-cough, yet Indigo will often end a lingering tickle in a wormy child. Spigelia is more neuralgic and left frontal; Gelsemium is more muscularly heavy; Chamomilla more pain-raging; Ignatia more psychogenic. Indigo’s portrait is homely and simple: a child who cannot bear the heat and closeness of the room, who picks the nose and scratches the anus, who coughs at night in little spasms with gagging, and who grows calm and clear-headed by the open window after the bowels have moved and the sweetmeats are put away. The practical lesson is as old as Hering’s: align remedy and regimen—cool air, bland diet, early sleep, hygienic care of the rectum—and the medicine shows quickly in quieter nights, a drier pillow, a brow relieved of its band, and a bed that stays dry till morning.

Typical indications: Threadworms with pruritus ani (night-worse), nose-picking, frontal band headache, tickling coughs in warm rooms, nocturnal enuresis; irritability and startings in sleep; sweets aggravate the whole chain [Hering], [Clarke], [Allen], [Boericke]. Posology: For paediatric functional states, 6C–30C once or twice daily for several days, then review; in acute cough nights, repeat 6C every few hours; avoid routine repetition once nights are quiet. Chronic periodic headaches with sweets agg. may answer to 30C at longer intervals [Dewey], [Clarke]. Repetition strategy: reduce as soon as modalities turn (sleep settles, itching falls, cough intervals lengthen); intercurrent Teucrium or Cina can be used if rectal signs dominate. Adjuncts: strict reduction of sugar and pastries; cool, well-ventilated bedrooms; careful hygienic cleansing of anal margin; timed voiding to address enuresis; treat threadworms conventionally as needed while the remedy moderates reflex states [Clarke], [Farrington].
Case pearls:
• Wormy boy, nightly cough with gagging, wets bed first sleep; pruritus ani, sweets agg.—Indigo 12C nightly; cough and enuresis ceased in one week. [Clinical], [Clarke].
• Schoolgirl frontal band headache after confectionery; nose-boring; warm room agg.—Indigo 6C b.i.d.; headaches gone, appetite normalised. [Clinical], [Allen].
• Threadworm pruritus with tickling cough in heated classrooms—Indigo 30C q48h + diet; cough only in relapses after sweets. [Clinical], [Boericke].

Mind
• Irritability—children—in worm affections. Useful gauge of reflex irritability. [Hering], [Clarke].
• Fear—at night—in children—start from sleep. Wormy night terrors. [Hering].
• Hypochondriasis—about health—digestion/heart. Secondary neurotic colouring. [Clarke].
• Mental exertion—agg.—headache. Schoolroom confirmation. [Allen].
• Weeping—capricious—soon followed by calm when bowels act. Reflex chain hint. [Clarke].
Head
• Head—Pain—frontal—band-like—warm room agg.—open air amel. Core Indigo keynote. [Allen], [Clarke].
• Head—Heaviness—on study—better in open air. School fatigue rubric. [Allen].
• Head—Heat—vertex with cold extremities—children. Psoric stamp. [Clarke].
• Head—Periodicity—same hour daily—worms. Timing clue. [Hering].
• Eyes—Blackness before—on rising—headache with. Circulatory swing. [Allen].
Nose / Face
• Nose—Picking—children—worms. Classic oxyuris sign. [Hering], [Clarke].
• Nose—Itching—ala—night—agg. Worm-corroboration. [Hering].
• Face—Twitching—sleep during—children. Reflex excitability. [Hering].
• Face—Pale—headache during—then flushed with cough. Alternation marker. [Clarke].
• Sneezing—paroxysmal—does not relieve head. Distinguishes from Sabadilla. [Allen], [Clarke].
Stomach / Abdomen
• Stomach—Nausea—after sweets—children. Diet modality. [Clarke].
• Stomach—Pressure—epigastrium—better from hand. Practical soother. [Allen].
• Abdomen—Colic—around umbilicus—lying on abdomen amel. Worm colic pointer. [Hering].
• Abdomen—Gurgling—worms in—sweets agg. Reflex irritability. [Clarke].
• Appetite—Capricious—worms—with irritability. Clinical “feel”. [Hering].
Rectum / Urinary
• Rectum—Itching—night—children—worms. Master Indigo rubric. [Hering], [Clarke].
• Stool—Mucous—with threadworms. Objective sign. [Hering].
• Enuresis—first sleep—children—worms. Pelvic reflex rubric. [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Urination—Frequent—day—nervous children. Secondary support. [Clarke].
• Rectum—Scratching—bleeds—returns worse. Behavioural loop. [Hering].
Respiration / Chest
• Cough—Tickling—warm room agg.—open air amel. Central respiratory modality. [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Cough—Night—children—worms. Bedside chooser. [Hering].
• Cough—Paroxysmal—gagging at close. Clinical image. [Clarke].
• Larynx—Irritation—talking agg. Schoolroom cough. [Clarke].
• Chest—Oppression—warm room—agg.—loosen clothing. Simple confirmation. [Clarke].
Sleep / Generalities / Skin
• Sleep—Starting—children—night—worms. Night-terror nuance. [Hering].
• Sleep—Grinding of teeth—children—worms. Old but useful marker. [Hering].
• Generalities—Night—agg.; Sweets—agg.; Open air—amel. The master trio. [Clarke], [Boericke].
• Generalities—After stool—amel.—headache/cough. Reflex relief rubric. [Hering].
• Skin—Itching—after sweets—children. Diet-provoked pruritus. [Clarke].
• Skin—Urticaria—night—vanishing by morning. Occasional accompaniment. [Clarke].

Hering, C. — The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica (1879–1891): clinical confirmations—worms, pruritus ani, night terrors, enuresis; paediatric reflex chains.
Allen, T. F. — Encyclopædia of Pure Materia Medica (1874–1879): proving fragments—frontal band headache, gastric and laryngeal irritation; modalities (open air, heat).
Clarke, J. H. — A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica (1900): Indigo profile—paediatric worm states, tickling cough, sweets aggravation, enuresis; relationships.
Boericke, W. — Pocket Manual of Homœopathic Materia Medica (1901): keynotes—threadworms, tickling cough, frontal headache, pruritus ani, open-air amelioration.
Hughes, R. — A Manual of Pharmacodynamics (late 19th c.): substance background (indoxyl/indigo), toxicologic notes; general clinical deductions.
Boger, C. M. — Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica (1915): repertorial bearings—worms, rectal itching, reflex cough; differentials with Teucr., Cina, Sabad.
Farrington, E. A. — Clinical Materia Medica (1890): reflex nervous phenomena from gastro-intestinal irritation in children; management pearls.
Kent, J. T. — Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica (1905): miasmatic colouring; paediatric irritability and reflex states used comparatively.
Dewey, W. A. — Practical Homœopathic Therapeutics (early 20th c.): therapeutics of worms, coughs of children, enuresis; posology suggestions.
Nash, E. B. — Leaders in Homœopathic Therapeutics (1899): comparisons for worm remedies; notes on reflex coughs and diet.
Tyler, M. L. — Homœopathic Drug Pictures (20th c.): sketching the wormy, irritable child; sweets aggravation; open air as a practical modality.
Dunham, C. — Homœopathy, the Science of Therapeutics (1877): reflections on reflex neuroses of children and remedy selection (used comparatively).