Equisetum hiemale Anhang

x!y

[Eileen Nauman]

The plant is leafless, and almost looks like a pot of those green bamboo stakes florists use to hold up plants that have grown too tall. The spikes are tall, horizontally segmented, and taper from a broad base to a point, unless the tip has been damaged or broken. My plant is 29 inches high, but there are spikes of many heights and diameters. The stems are jointed, reminiscent of a leafless bamboo, and they come apart at the joints given a bit of an effort, with a loud popping sound. Where the tips are missing the stem ends bluntly in a broad, flat, circular depression with brown edges. The stem seals itself off just under the break, leaving a bowl-like ridge at the top of the stem. A white band highlighted with dark brown edges accents each joint, giving the stem a snake-like appearance. Hence one of the common names for the plant is "Snakeweed", as indeed, a stem lying on the ground with the broad base hidden could easily be mistaken for the tail of a snake.

It is not uncommon to see dark brown, dead tips atop a healthy green stem base. These segments must be a fall-back protection for the plant as the tips die back to one of the joints, possibly a safety valve for drought conditions. When the environment is more favorable and water is more abundant, the plant usually sends out shoots from the top edge of the remaining stem. It is a strange sight, those sturdy blunt stems piggybacking one or more slender young spikes, which adhere to the edge of the broken joint as if they were spot-welded there.

The hyemale species has an insatiable desire to keep its roots wet, and is one of the few plants I know that is happy sitting in a puddle of water. I imagine that a hyemale prover will have a great thirst, while a prover for its drier cousin, the Equisetum arvense, may even be thirstless, as this species grows on dry, hard-packed soils. The arvense is a much smaller plant and looks far more delicate, but it is just as tenaciously rooted to the soil as its larger relative.

The Equisetum species are called "scouring rushes" because people once scoured out cooking pans and used the rushes to polish brass and other metals. I love gathering the stems gently in my hands, feeling the abrasive qualities. The stems feel almost sandy, as if finely ground glass formed tiny vertical ridges on the stem. The older, lower segments are so rigid and gritty that I was able to file a snagged fingernail on the fresh green tissue. My nail was smoothed and the stem unchanged. The spikes rustle whenever they touch each other, making a scratchy sound that is intensified by the presence of a few dry, brown tips. The dried stems look like a dead grass, or the ghoulish back vertebrae of a long dead critter that has not yet completely returned to the earth. A soothing musical symphony must emanate as the breezes frolic through a large patch of these wonderful plants.

A comparison of Equisetum's herbal and homeopathic qualities

Equisetum is a "small remedy" in materia medica. Eileen Nauman was the first to indicate the plant's under-utilization and wondered why.

"...I feel this is a very "small" remedy that has far greater ramifications than is presently known about it... " She remembers her father boiling the stems for a long time, and giving it to her for "growing pains": "My Dad told me that his granny had used this when she was starting to "droop in the back" (dowager's hump), and that horsetail was used by hill folk for bone knitting, bone problems, joint pains, muscle pains, and older women used it to keep their bones strong, too. He also said it strengthened teeth."

Today, women are swallowing calcium pills by the hundreds in an attempt to replace calcium in the system and stave off osteoporosis. Many doctors prescribe estrogen replacement in an attempt to encourage the body to absorb more calcium. Broken hip or thigh bones are a constant reminder of our calcium needs that are not really being met. Calcium does not work alone. It, like many other minerals needed in the body, must be balanced with other substances—vitamins, magnesium, and some phosphorus to be effectively utilized. Natural plant materials such as Equisetum tend to contain these substances in easily assimilable forms that are already balanced for organic uses.

The grit in Horsetail is Silica. Sil. made from quartz, is a polychrest in our materia medica with a huge number of cures to its credit. There are lots of other minerals and substances inside Equisetum, yet it is considered a "small" remedy. The picture doesn't fit!

What fascinated me about homeopathic remedies after 25 years of using herbs was the ability of the potentised remedy to increase and enhance the healing effects of a herb. What has

happened with Equisetum? Why does the herbal information give us so much more than the potentization?

Iroquois: Equis-a.: possibly diabetes; babies chewed the stems while teething; rheuma, joint aches, headaches, minor aches and pains.

Equis-h.: white spot on the eye (stems were mashed and put in warm water and let stand, water was then dropped in the eye); for kidney trouble, backache or too infrequent urination; for summer complaints (boil 3 minutes and drink warm); venereal disease; excessive urination in women who are ruptured (boil up like tea).

Richard Mabey: Equis-a.: 70% Silica + Sapo. + equisetonis + traces of alkaloids (nicotine, palustrine, and palustrinine), flavonoids, manganese, potassium, sulfur, magnesium, tannin. With all these dynamite contents, though, the only indication for use medically was: "Urinary infections and stones; lung complaints and arteriosclerosis." He indicates that folk-medical uses were for Tb., damaged lungs, anemia and general debility; broken nails and lifeless hair; bed wetting in children; and to treat an inflamed or enlarged prostate, cystitis and urinary stones.

Maude Grieve: 4 different Equisetum varieties and gives the species a little more than two pages. Under medicinal action she mentions diuretic and astringent; beneficial in dropsy, gravel and kidney affections; spitting of blood; the ashes used for stomach acidity and dyspepsia (disturbed digestion or indigestion), a decoction for emmenagogue (stimulates the menstrual flow), efficient for hemorrhage (massive bleeding), and cystic ulceration (an abnormal sac containing gasses and fluids that has ruptured).

M. and J. Weiner: Equis. used as a poultice to promote wound healing; ashes of burnt stems to burns; promotes urination in dropsical complaints and kidney dysfunction; useful in sitz baths due to silica content aids in treating peripheral vascular disorders (disorders affecting the blood supply to the extremities), chilblains (frostbite, or a condition characterized by destruction of skin tissue due to exposure to cold), swellings, as well as affections of ligaments and tendons; used in menopausal women to promote growth and collagen formation.

Remedies from tinctures vs. trituration

A plant that contains Si + P + Mn + K + S + Mg. With this kind of rich medicinal history horsetail enjoys, it should have "proven" to be far more useful than is presently indicated by our homeopathic forbears. Jonathan Treasure, a herbalist on the homeo-list, supplied the missing element. Silica is not soluble in alcohol. Minerals are not readily soluble in alcohol. The keys to the kingdom! Equisetum is made by tincture of the mashed stems, therefore the mother tincture will be lacking all the minerals contained in the fresh plant. It took a few days to do what would normally have taken months or years to accomplish.

If the physician prepares his homeopathic medicines himself, which is what he should do if he is to liberate mankind from disease,

a. he can use fresh plants themselves, since only a small amount of crude substance is required—unless he happens to need the extracted juice for purposes of treatment. He will put a few grains of the fresh plant in the mortar and bring it to the one-one-millionth attenuation [third centesimal trituration] (Aphorism 270) with 3x 100 grains of milk sugar, and then proceed to further potentization by dissolving a small part of their triturate and succussing it. One also proceeds in this manner with all other crude medicinal substances of a dry or oily nature.

We had several discussions on the Homeopathy Mailing List regarding H.'s new methods of potency preparations described in the 6th edition of the Organon. Did H. indeed change his procedure with vegetable materials also in the 6th edition? I take Aphorism 271 to indicate that he felt all fresh plant substances should be triturated. [H. suggests trituration as the superior method of

preparing homeopathic medicines in general?]

Trituration of Equis. insures that Sil + P + Mn + K + S + Mg would wind up in the remedy. A discussion with Joe Lillard from Washington Homeopathics secured the information that indeed triturated Equisetum potencies are available, and no, they were not usually made that way. But they "were around," he said. He had some triturated Equisetum that someone had given him and he had used it for a "failure to thrive" in an infant with much success.

Plant materials are excellent medicinal substances. I have always called them building blocks or bridge substances because they contain the nutrients in nature's balance, which makes them easier for the body to assimilate and use.

Knowledge of materia medica is essential for a true study of our medicines. The information gleaned from the materia medica are the proving symptoms, the symptoms found in healthy people once they had taken this remedy. Remembering "proving symptoms" can be a very difficult task, therefore we often look towards the Doctrine of Signatures, which helps our memory a bit and is a wonderful learning device. The Doctrine of Signatures is an ancient idea which predates Paracelsus.x,. It is the belief that each element and plant carries a signature which signifies the plant's use in medicine. A heart-shaped leaf may signify a potential application for heart disease. A yellow plant root may point toward jaundice.

Clarke: Clinical symptoms: cystitis, dropsy (edema or an abnormal accumulation of fluids in tissues or body cavity), enuresis (involuntary urination or bed wetting), general paralysis, gleet (a chronic discharge from the urethra), gonorrhea, sand or gravel like stones in the gall bladder, kidneys, or urinary bladder, hematuria (blood in the urine), retention of urine.

Murphy: weak kidneys and polyuria (passing large amounts of urine).

Mind: a strong plant, almost "headstrong" but "irritable" would also fit. The spikes shoot out in all directions. Some lie flat; strong stems mingle with weak ones; old, thick stems with young, thin ones; some bend right, some left, other arch randomly everywhere. With insufficient water, the plant dies back. With enough water it grows rapidly. If bent over, the stem will stay bent; once "fatigued" it cannot right itself.

Mind: Very irritable and easily fatigued after mental effort.

The spikes look like sharp little spears, the touch is rough and gritty. Many pains are sharp, sticking, piercing, cutting or burning.

Head pain: sticking, darting, changing localities.

Eye pain: Sharp in outer angle of right eye outer canthi (the outer corner of the eye). Severe pain in roof of right orbit.

Throat pain: Sharp and sticking.

Abdominal pain: Sharp in hypogastrium with stitching pains in the arms, sharp pains extending to the middle line. Sticking pains in anus at 11:00 am (Clarke).

Urinary organs (one of the major spheres of this tinctured remedy): Sharp cutting pains in urethra and sharp pain at root of penis (Murphy). Sharp, burning, cutting pains in urethra.

Chest and heart: Sharp stitching in left breast, and sharp pains in the region of the heart worse by inspiration.

Other pains Equis. can cause. Remember the fibrous root system described in the beginning? It pressed itself so tightly into the pot that I had to take pruning shears to cut the pot away from the

roots. The roots were such a dense, pressing mass, there is no way fingers could ever penetrate it. Pressing and constriction are other kinds of pain are noted.

Clarke (Murphy):

Head: Constricting feeling across forehead. Constriction of the whole scalp as if drawn tightly over the whole scull. Continual desire to wrinkle up forehead. Skin over frontal bones TIGHT

with feeling of skin continuing to contract.

Kidneys: Feeling of fullness in bladder, not relieved by urinating (Murphy).

Clarke (Murphy): Equis-h. only variety mentioned has insatiable thirst. It is a swamp plant that wants and needs large quantities of water. It doesn't store the water in the stem, so it must be contained in the fibrous roots. The urinary system, i.e., water processing system, is the main organotropic focal point of the plant tincture.

Stomach: Excessive hunger (we hunger for food, the plant for water?).

Abdomen: Distended feeling; dull; heavy pains with frequent desire to urinate (Clarke).

Kidneys: 1. Slight pain in r. kidney, 2. in l. kidney. Pain extends down the left side of the sacrum. Dull pain in r. kidney, with urgent desire to urinate.

Clarke: Profuse urination of light color. Pain in bladder from distention. (Does the plant's desire to hold fluids cause us to do the same?) Severe dull pain in bladder, not > urination.

Tenderness in bladder and r. side of the lower abdomen.

Pain in urinary organs (possibly from fluid absorption and retention causing pain and tenderness, distended feeling?). Pains run up the spermatic cords. Burning in urethra, prickling, biting, itching. Great desire to urinate but only a small quantity passes. Frequent nocturnal urination, passes small amounts yet desire to urinate is greater. Pain in back especially while sitting, < lying/walking. Heavy sensation in lumbar region. Rheumatic pains in sacroiliac joint and through the left hip, ext. outer side of leg, ending 3 inches above the knee.

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum