Araliaceae Anhang: cccc

Araliaceae Anhang:

[Frans Vermeulen]

Homeopathic name Common name Abbreviation Number of Symptoms

Aralia californica Elk-clover Aral-c. None

Aralia hispida Bristly sarsaparilla Aral-h. 5–10

Aralia nudicaulis Wild sarsaparilla Aral-nu. None

Aralia racemosa American spikenard Aral-c. 240

Aralia spinosa Devil’s-walking-stick Aral-sp. None

Eleutherococcus senticosus Siberian ginseng Eleut. None

Ginseng Ginseng Gins-c. 5402

1 = Identity uncertain: unclear whether it concerns Panax ginseng [Chinese ginseng] or Panax quinquefolius [American ginseng], or both. 2–4 = Symptoms provings not yet included.

Hedera helix English ivy Hed-c. 220

Hydrocotyle vulgaris Marsh pennywort Hydrc-vg. None

Oplopanax horridus Devil’s club Oplo-h. None 3

Panax quinquefolius American ginseng Panax-q. None 4

Sarsaparilla

As with many plants and common names, there is some confusion as to what is really what. In this case sarsaparilla is causing the confusion. It often recalls the imagery of the Wild West of the rugged ranch hand

bellying up to the saloon bar and hailing the bartender for a foaming sarsaparilla. What actually is that sarsaparilla? From Aralia species or Smilax species? In fact, it is from neither.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture, Food And Drug Administration, New and Revised Definitions and Standards for Food Products [1931]

mandates that sarsaparilla flavour be made from oil of sassafras [Laurales – Sassafras] and methyl salicylate or oil of wintergreen or oil of sweet birch. This seems to indicate that the botanical name sarsaparilla and

the flavouring named sarsaparilla are two entirely different things. Just to confound things even further, the flavour that was called sarsaparilla is not generally available any longer under that name.

It is simply not heard of anymore. There are exceptions, however.

Australians can still drink sarsaparilla-flavoured soft drinks and in Taiwan it is not all too difficult to find HeySong Sarsaparilla soda. Though the name is a dead end, the same old-time sarsaparilla flavour is still

very much alive, having reinvented itself as Root Beer.

Main Constituents:

Triterpene saponins – lipophilic steroid-like compounds: aralosides in Aralia, ginsenosides or panaxosides in Panax, eleutherosides in Eleutherococcus and hederacosides in Hedera.

Pharmacological Activities

Historically, the triterpene saponins in this family have been claimed to exert a strengthening effect and to raise physical and mental capacity for work. These properties are defined with the term adaptogenic,

involving a non-specific increase in resistance to the noxious effects of physical, chemical, biological or emotional stress. A less scientific sounding term could be ‘stress busters’.

Herbs of this family are thought to help support adrenal gland function when the body is challenged by stress, helping it adapt to any situation that would alter its normal function. They are thought to help reduce the

exhaustion phase of the stress response and return the adrenals to normal function faster. Triterpenes are also known to bind to steroid hormone receptors.

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis

Pharmacologically, the centre of activity of Araliaceae appears to be the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, called the HPA. The HPA is a complex set of direct influences and feedback interactions among the hypothalamus,

the pituitary gland and the adrenal glands. As a major part of the neuro-endocrine system, the HPA axis regulates many body processes, including digestion, the immune system, mood and emotions, sexuality and

energy storage and expenditure.

Furthermore, it is the common mechanism for interactions among glands, hormones and parts of the midbrain that mediate the general adaptation syndrome. It is through the regulation of all these body systems that

the HPA controls reactions to stress. The HPA axis response to stress is generally higher in women than in men.

The key hormones of the HPA axis include vasopressin, known as antidiuretic or water conservation hormone, and corticotropin-releasing hormone, CRH.

Vasopressin and CRH stimulate the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone, ACTH, which in turn acts on the adrenal cortices, which produce glucocorticoid

hormones, mainly cortisol in humans, in response to stimulation by ACTH.

Cortisol is a major stress hormone and has effects on many tissues in the body, including the brain. In healthy individuals, cortisol rises rapidly before or right after wakening, reaching a peak within 30–45 minutes.

About 80% of the day’s cortisol is secreted in this early morning time, getting a person pepped up for the day. It then gradually falls over the day, rising again in late afternoon about 16 h. Cortisol levels continue

falling through the evening, reaching a trough during the middle of the night, only to sharply rise again when a new day starts.

If adrenaline is the short-term, immediate danger, flight or fight hormone, then cortisol is the hormone of long-term continuous danger or stress. It picks up after adrenaline wears off.

Cortisol deficiency or an abnormally flattened circadian cortisol cycle has been linked with chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia and burnout. Increased production of cortisol results from long-term alarm reactions

to stress where adapting to the chronic on-going presence of stress is necessary for survival. The person is adapting to stress and the price for that adaptation is very high indeed. Many immune related conditions, incl.

rheumatoid arthritis, arteriosclerosis and even cancer can be the result of living with elevated cortisol levels chronically. A spectrum of conditions may be associated with increased and prolonged activation of the HPA

axis, including melancholic depression, anorexia nervosa with or without malnutrition, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic anxiety, chronic active alcoholism, alcohol and narcotic withdrawal, excessive exercising,

poorly controlled diabetes mellitus, childhood sexual abuse and hyperthyroidism.

Hypoactivation or depletion of the stress system, on the other hand, has been linked with post-traumatic stress disorder, atypical seasonal depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, post stress

conditions, postpartum, menopause and nicotine withdrawal.

Neurasthenia

Stress related syndromes are not at all new. In 1869 George Miller Beard first used the term neurasthenia to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, impotence, neuralgia and depressed mood.

Americans were supposed to be particularly prone to neurasthenia, which resulted in the nickname the Great American Disease or ‘Americanitis’, popularised by William James. Just as today with chronic fatigue syndrome,

in the late 1800s neurasthenia became a popular diagnosis, expanding to include such symptoms as weakness, dizziness and fainting. A common treatment was the rest cure (women), who were the gender primarily diagnosed

with the condition at that time. It was explained as being a result of exhaustion of the central nervous system’s energy reserves, which Beard attributed to civilisation. He might be credited with first developing the idea that

‘living was dangerous to your health’. Physicians in the Beard school of thought associated neurasthenia with the stresses of urbanisation and the pressures placed on the intellectual class by the increasingly competitive

business environment.

Typically, it was associated with upper class individuals in sedentary employment.

The modern view holds that the main problem with the neurasthenia diagnosis was that it attempted to group together a wide variety of cases. In recent years, Richard M. Fogoros has posited that perhaps ‘neurasthenia’ was a

word that included some psychiatric and psychological conditions, but more importantly many physiological conditions that are marginally understood by the medical community, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue

syndrome and irritable bowel syndrome. [Extracted from Wikipedia]

Today this syndrome, by whatever name it goes, is accepted as a psycho-pathological phenomenon. When first used by Beard in 1869, the pioneer who elucidated the physiological component to physical medical problems, Sigmund Freud, was only 13 years old. Understanding the interactions of mind and body were decades in the future.

The homeopathic materia medica is chock-full with the term neurasthenia. It wouldn’t make much sense to connect it with any plant family or remedy group in particular. On the other hand, little is known about the

Araliaceae as a group that some broad generalisations will help get a preliminary idea.

1^st: Ginseng features in the rubric, ‘Neurasthenia after debilitating diseases’, while Hed. has a key symptom of the condition, ‘Constantly lives in a state of anxiety and worry’.

2^nd: Louis Berman [1928]: the ‘relations of neurasthenia to the glands of internal secretion in general and to adrenal insufficiency in particular’.

3^rd:the symptoms in the proving of American ginseng [Panax quinquefolius] were characterised by ‘a condition of anxiety which is constantly present in all sexual hypochondriacs

. . . [making Panax] a curative remedy in such cases of sexual weakness that especially react upon the mind, causing lassitude, and uneasy mental condition even to fears of approaching impotence’.

Breaking Down under too Great Demands

Berman: ‘The neurasthenic is to be recognised by the fact that the most painstaking objective examination of his organs reveals nothing the matter with them. Yet, according to his complaint, everything is the matter with

him. He cannot sleep when he lies down, he cannot keep awake when he stands up. He cannot concentrate, but still he is pitifully worried about his life. The slightest irritant causes him to go off the handle.

‘As he works himself up into his hysterical state as a reaction to a disagreeable person or problem, irregular blotches may appear on his face and neck. Generally, his hands and feet are clammy and perspiring, his face is abnormally flushed or pallid, the eyes are worried or starey, unwonted wandering sensations involving now this area of the body or now that obsess him. As the blood pressure is too low for the age, the circulation is nearly

always inadequate and palpitation of the heart is a frequent complaint. So frequent that attention is often centred upon the heart, a diagnosis of heart disease is made and the unfortunate is doomed for life – to brood over

horrible possibilities.

The brooding over themselves and their troubles is one of the distinctive features of the whole complex.

Neurasthenia may masquerade as any organic disease. An individual with a soil for a neurasthenic reaction to life will become neurasthenic when confronted by any stone wall, including a serious ailment within himself’.

Compare Berman’s description with a symptom in Aralia racemosa. ‘I have been annoyed all day by a dread that my right lung is seriously diseased. Could not shake off the fear’.

Berman goes on to say: ‘Neurasthenia, regarded as a reaction of people to the stress and strain of life, has without a doubt increased. The most casual of observers will tell you that the generation of the Great War is a

neurasthenic generation. It takes its pleasures too intensely, its pains too seriously, its troubles too flippantly. . . . Now one of the outstanding effects of disease of the adrenal glands is the feeling of muscular and mental inefficiency.

And as a matter of fact, a good number of observations conspire for the idea that a certain number of neurasthenics are suffering from insufficiency of the adrenal gland. The chronic state of the acute phenomenon, known

as the nervous breakdown, really represents in them a breakdown of the reserves of the adrenals and an elimination of their factor of safety. In the light of that conception, the great American disease – dementia americana –

is seen to be adrenal disease – and the American life to be the adrenal life, often making too great demands upon that life and so breaking down with it’.

Reading Berman’s depiction, it is easy to find oneself thinking how accurately he was describing modern life and the sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome that has been so prevalent in the last 20 years. Recalling that Beard blamed neurasthenia on ‘urbanisation and the pressures placed on the intellectual class by the increasingly competitive business environment’ it would appear that Berman must be referring to our modern world with its work pressures, fast-paced demanding life style, whiz-bang advancing technology, globalisation and terrorism threats. Settled with that image, it is something of a surprise to come upon his reference to the ‘Great War’, meaning

1914–1918.

He was not speaking about the current era, but about one that is looked back upon with nostalgia for its sublime simplicity, slow-paced graciousness and bucolic peacefulness. How could they think they were stressed?

The Tired Competition

Beard and Berman have given us sterling descriptions of neurasthenia as fatigue or a breakdown resulting from the stress and strain of life. More recently Betsy Berne gave her unsurpassed observations of fatigue of our time,

what could be called the ‘new neurasthenia’. Her article, The Tired Chronicles, contains scathingly accurate commentary. ‘I’ve noticed recently that the main topic of conversation among my friends is tiredness.

Actually, there is an underlying contest over who is the more tired and who has truly earned his or her tiredness.

. . . According to the tired married people with kids, there is no contest. They are the royalty of the tired kingdom. They are smug with exhaustion. I belong to the tired-single-people-who-work-at-home group and in the tired

Race I don’t have a prayer. . . . By now it might be time to mention my brother, the jazz musician. He is bone tired. This is because he is a member of yet another group, the international-jet-set tired people. My brother is

always on the road playing gigs – from Istanbul to Helsinki to Houston Street. When he is on tour in Italy, for example, not only must he deal with adulation of fans, but he must consume sumptuous free meals and stay in

Tuscan castles. And he must always hang out after a gig. “Hang” is jazz lingo for drinking all night with fans, who are often female. You can imagine the tiredness this leads to. . . . Just last year, my big wheel writer friend

joined the ranks of the international-jet-set tired group. Now she, too, is always flying to exotic locales. . . . She, too, is forced to consume sumptuous free meals and stay in Tuscan castles. And, if that weren’t tiring enough

she is also searching for a mate . . . naturally leading to you know what’. [The New Yorker; Aug 7, 1995]

Courage

Dr. James Lembke of Riga in former Russia, now Latvia, proved a large number of remedies upon himself between 1845 - 1868. The Ginseng proving elicited a unique feeling in him – courage. It is one of the first sensations noticed some two hours after the first dose. The word courage goes right back to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, more particularly to Louis Berman and his view on the adrenals.

Berman writes: ‘Courage is commonly thought of as the emotion that is the opposite of fear. It would follow that courage meant simply inhibition of the adrenal medulla. As a matter of fact, of course, the mechanism of

courage must be more complex. One must distinguish animal courage and deliberate courage.

Animal courage is literally the courage of the beast. Animals with large adrenals are the pugnacious, aggressive, charging kings of the fields and forests. . . . In courage, deliberate courage, there is more than instinct.

There is an act of volition, a display of will. Admitting that without the adrenals such courage would be impossible, the chief credit for courage must be ascribed to the prepituitary.

. . . The prepituitary has been called the gland of intellectuality [to use that term for lack of better]. By intellectuality is meant the capacity of the mind to control its environment by concept and abstract ideas. . . .

Now the emotion that is the precursor of intellectuality is curiosity, with wonder and its expression in the various constructive and acquisitive tendencies. . . . The ability to profit by experience and to make more and more

accurate judgements as one grows older implies at least a maximum efficiency of the prepituitary’.

The rubric ‘Courageous’ played a key role for Maud Nerman in finding Ginseng as the similimum in two cases. About the first case, a woman with lumbar herniation and sciatica after a fall on the sacrum, she says: ‘What

do we mean by courage? And what is the kind of courage particular to this remedy [Ginseng], rather than other remedies, in this rubric?

To be courageous, one has to have a firm conviction that the way one sees the world is good and valid. Otherwise, that person cannot move forward with confidence and fortitude. In my unpublished novel, “A Deep Sworn Vow”

I address the issue of courage: In a limited sense, courage is about enduring the unendurable. On another level, courage is the ability to maintain important human values, kindness, tenderness, respect in the face of the intolerable.

The ultimate act of courage is not moving forward without fear. Ultimately courage is the act of moving forward wisely, despite pain, fear or desire.

‘Clearly, despite tremendous pain, this patient persevered. She worked to help others, she travelled and she even went into the pain with meditation. All of this, for someone suffering from tremendous pain, is an expression of

her courageous nature. . . . As one of my friends suggested on hearing the case, perhaps Ginseng is the woman warrior remedy: fierce, protective, enduring. . . . Did courage in these Ginseng cases have a tinge of pathology?

Possibly. In the first case, she may have pushed herself too hard, too sure of her own vital, physical strength. Whereas some cultures demand a lot of emotional suppression, as we have seen in some of the English and some

of the Asian cultures, perhaps America drives people of talent to “burn out” and pushes most of us to our limits. Aristotle said that core virtues are based on a balance between two extremes. Courage is the balance between recklessness and cowardice on either side’. [Maud Nerman, Osteopathy and Homeopathy: a Marriage of Similars; IFH 1993; RefWorks]

Pacemaker of Ageing

Aging is a feature inherent to all multi-cellular organisms and is defined as a progressive, generalised impairment of functions resulting in a loss of adaptable responses to stress and a growing risk of functional loss, disease

and disablement. No two individuals age in the same way. Genetics and adaptability are key personal factors that determine how well a person ages, while environment and behaviour are major modifiers of biological structures and processes.

Longevity, in Berman’s endocrinal view, is ‘perhaps largely a matter of preventing or postponing the wane of all of the glands of internal secretion, at least the most important (thyroid/pituitary/adrenals/gonads).

This may well be a great idea, however, human biology does not support it. Scientific data have conclusively shown that there is a natural decline in many hormones with age (oestrogen/testosterone/growth hormone/melatonin/calcitonin /renin). The endocrine system with its variety of hormones is called the ‘pacemaker of ageing’. This process of endocrine decline is responsible for many manifestations of ageing. For instance,

lean and fat masses, as well as skin elasticity, immune functions, bone density, energy levels and mood swings closely correlate with levels of a number of hormones.

Many women have found out the hard way what happens when attempting to give their bodies a hormone complement appropriate for an age at a time when they are a very different age. Providing post-menopausal women

with oestrogen or oestrogen-containing combinations, called Hormone Replacement Therapy [HRT] is such an attempt. For decades this treatment approach was hailed as the panacea for not only the symptoms but also for

the ravages of ageing.

It was youthfulness in a pill. Recent comprehensive studies, however, have unequivocally demonstrated that the dangers of this include increased risk of breast and uterine cancers, heart attacks and other serious diseases.

Forever Young

Tonic herbs have long been advocated as promoting immunity, longevity and rejuvenation. Incl. Aralia spp/Eleutherococcus/Ginseng/Panax). Used as flavouring in beverages, sarsaparilla was regarded as a detoxification

agent as well as a general pepping up tonic to invigorate and cleanse the body.

Like other evergreens, ivy [Hed.] symbolises eternal life and resurrection. It also signifies true love, faithfulness and undying affection both in marriage and in friendship. Ivy itself is noted for its vigorous growth habit

and longevity. It is nearly indestructible. Famed American writer of the late 19^th century, O. Henry, featured Ivy as the main character in his story The Last Leaf, which encompasses all of these themes.

TCM distinguishes a variety of herbs for realising ‘deathlessness’, among them ginseng. It is said that the continuous use of ginseng ‘leads one to longevity with light weight’.

With this in mind, it is fascinating to look at Lembke’s proving of Ginseng. There are four entries recorded by all three provers. The time frame shows that it involves the primary action.

After 2 hours the ‘feeling of weakness entirely disappears and gives place to an agreeable sensation of lightness and clearness of mind’. After the first day, there was a ‘peculiar lightness and vigour in the limbs in spite of

much walking’. The second day produced a ‘peculiar pervading joyous sensation of vigour and elasticity, especially in the upper extremities. There was a peculiar lightness and flexibility of the limbs in the morning, in spite

of a bad night’.

It can be safely assumed that a ‘pervading joyous sensation of vigour and elasticity’ equates a feeling of being young. ‘Delusion she is young’ is a leading indication for Ginseng in a case by Dr. Prashant Shah.

A brief synopsis of the case:

‘She is a spinster aged 47. . . . She is very adventurous in nature in her life as well as in her profession. Signature of disease: Her temperament and adventures give us a feeling of a young and energetic person. That is the state

Of being in which she likes to stay. So the body has also produced a similar phenomenon.

Her reproductive system was not ready to go into a state of menopause [growing old]. This was the reason for her physical ailment in the form of hot flushes.

Many of the following characteristics are not found in the repertory so you may note the following rubrics with pencil in the repertory. I feel it requires a few more experiences before it gets included. These characteristics

I have derived from the doctrine of signatures of the remedy and the case. Delusion: she is young. Energetic. Adventurous. Mannish woman. Courageous. Fearless. >> Physical exercise.

On the physical side, she has more eruptions on the right side of the body, as well as face. Second strong physical symptom was dryness of mouth, to the extent, that she had to drink water every hour during sleep’.

It has long been a human wish to be forever youthful in mind and body, full of the vitality, verve and enthusiasm that only the idealistic young appear to have. People now live longer, having almost twice the lifespan of 41 yrs

that males had at the turn of the 20th century. The desire is for those extra years to be vigorous years, not ones of aging incapacity. A universal age defying stress-buster is needed to fulfill one’s wishes.

To be youthful is to be energetic, fearless and flexible. One is able to adapt and bend with changing circumstances, handle the onslaught that life delivers and endure the unendurable. There is strength and courage enough

to push oneself to the absolute limit, roll with the punches and persevere in the face of challenges.

The fact remains that human beings age. The mere act of living is dangerous to one’s health. Stresses, the constant exposure to cares or worries and a fast-paced, demanding lifestyle slowly erode vitality, causing a progressive,

generalised impairment and chronic diminishment of facilities and capacities, both mental and physical. Whatever the name – nervous exhaustion, neurasthenia, chronic fatigue syndrome or simply ‘burn out’ – the result is

the same: weakness, lassitude, forgetfulness and prostration. Such are the ravages of ageing.

Araliaceae won’t accept the natural decline wherein youthful vigor and well-being are replaced by ageing debility. Aralia is noted for the ‘constant dread of disease’. They seek indestructible, enduring, eternal, ever-lasting life.

Clinging to the dream of longevity, all their energy goes to rejuvenation, where it is possible to postpone or prevent the natural wane of functions.

There should be resistance to and protection from noxious effects and stresses so that physical and mental capacities are once again raised and restored. Purification, cleansing and even supernatural or spiritual practices

are used to try to achieve these ends.

Though equipped with fortified strength to live with high stress, this is not really the best strategy for living. One readily crosses the fine line between helpful and harmful. This route to longevity achieves the opposite by

burning out mind and body in the youthful spree of spending energy and vitality. The collapse, the sheer exhaustion, the weakness that follow are practically unsupportable.

A more measured pace, appropriate for each phase of life, allows for the dynamism of youth to yield gracefully and productively to the more settled, calm, contemplative pursuits as one ages. The dilemma for the Araliaceae is

how to stay flexible and youthful while embracing all stages of life with open-minded enthusiasm and joy. The wisdom to do this is the true preserver of health and life.

1 Youthful, vitality, enthusiasm, fearless and flexible. Courage, vigour, verve.

2 Enduring the unendurable. Fighting against resistance. Perseverance, strength. Adaptability.

3 Stress, worries, cares, demands, fast-paced life. Pushed to the limit.

4 Generalised impairment, chronic diminishment of facilities and capacities.

Aging.

5 Nervous exhaustion, neurasthenia, burn out, weak, forgetful, prostration.

6 Indestructible, enduring, ever-lasting life. Longevity. Clinging to Life.

7 Strengthening, restoring, enhancing mental and physical capacities.

8 Purification, cleansing, supernatural or spiritual practices.

9 The fine line between helpful and harmful.

10 Pushed to exhaustion. Collapse and exhaustion; fatigue, weakness.

Unsupportable.

11 Endocrine system, adrenals and thyroid. Cortisone.

12 Coldness.

13 Constriction.

Aralia californica = Elk-clover/= California spikenard.

Native range: Western USA – California, Oregon. Habitat: Moist shade, canyons, streamsides. Deciduous herbaceous perennial, to 2–3 m high, with creeping rhizomes and thick stems that are not woody. Laticiferous.

Leaves large, papery, 1–3-pinnate,1–2 m long, 1 m broad; leaflets ovate to oblong, toothed.

Flowers small, greenish-white flowers, in large compound umbels 30–45 cm across. Fruit a dark purple or black drupe, with 3–5 seeds.

Native Americans: treating upper respiratory complaints, arthritis with a root decoction as a soak, colds, fevers, stomach ailments, itching sores with a wash and to facilitate labour. As a tonic it is said

to give great strength to weakened parts and weakened people.

No symptoms in MM.

Aralia hispida = Bristly sarsaparilla/= dwarf elder/= bristly spikenard.

Native range: Eastern North America. Habitat: Fields, hedges, rocky places, roadsides. Herbaceous perennial or semi-woody shrub, to 1 m high, with stem base woody and shrubby, and thickly beset with sharp, stiff bristles.

Leaves 2-pinnate; leaflets oblong-ovate, sharply toothed. Flowers greenish-white, in simple, long-stalked, globose umbels. Fruit a round, black drupe with 3 seeds.

Specific eclectic indications include: ‘Diffused anasarca; dropsy of cavities; oedema; dropsy with constipation; renal and hepatic torpor; dyspnoea; and pain in the lumbar region’. [King 1898]

Boericke:

Valuable diuretic, useful in dropsy of the cavities, either due to hepatic or renal disease with constipation.

[1] Urinary disorders (with dropsy).