Echinacea Angustifolia — Homeopathic Remedy Profile

Echinacea angustifolia belongs to the Composite family, alongside Arnica and Calendula, and it is prescribed in two clearly distinct registers. The mother tincture and low decimals carry the plant's blood and lymph tonic action. The classical potencies (30C and above) meet septic conditions of low vitality where the self-governing principle has failed to react. Boericke lists it under "Tincture and all potencies." Practitioners should know which register they hold before writing the prescription.

At a Glance

Source and Preparation

The remedy is prepared from the whole fresh plant of Echinacea angustifolia, the western species — not to be confused with Echinacea purpurea, the eastern Black Sampson, which is a different plant. The whole plant, including the root, is pounded to pulp and macerated in two parts by weight of alcohol.

Following the eclectic tradition, homeopaths have generally used substantial doses of the tincture, five to forty drops, adjusted to the particulars of the case. This is the herbal register, and the ordinary dosimetric cautions belong to it. At 30C and above no molecule of the plant remains; the substance-based cautions do not apply at those dilutions, and what acts is the dynamic preparation, prescribed on the totality.

Echinacea entered the American materia medica by an odd route. The plant first came to notice as "Meyers's Blood Purifier," a proprietary tonic whose seller did not know the name of the drug he was selling. The plant was identified at Cincinnati and passed into the eclectic and then the homeopathic materia medica; the proving that stands behind the modern picture was carried out later in the nineteenth century, and Murphy notes that with one exception the provers were male. The whole clinical picture reads male in its texture.

The Essence of Echinacea

The old eclectic summary, quoted in Murphy, calls Echinacea "a corrector of the depravation of the body fluids." The phrase is old-fashioned and exact. Echinacea is called for where the organism's fluids — blood, lymph, exudates — have taken on a putrid or septic character, and where the vital reaction against them has begun to fail.

Prostration is the accompaniment of that failure. Aching runs through the muscles. Weakness is felt in the stomach, the bowels, the heart, the knees. Vertigo comes with it. The mind slows: speech, pace, action, thought all drag. The patient does not wish to think, does not wish to be contradicted, and becomes cross when corrected. The head feels dull, enlarged, too large for the skull.

The clinical scope follows from this picture. Boils that will not suppurate. Carbuncles of a bluish-red color and intense pain. Erysipelas. Gangrene. Snakebites and the bites of other venomous animals. Puerperal septicemia. Foul, membranous discharges from the nose and throat. The eruptions and prostration that follow a bad vaccination. Any acute or sub-acute state that shows what Murphy calls a "tendency to malignancy" — the affected part turning blackish, the discharges fetid, the whole organism ebbing.

Clinical Portrait

Mind and Temperament

The mental sphere in Echinacea is not large, and it does not need to be. What is there is coherent. Prostration of mind is the leading feature. Slowness in every action, in speech and in pace. Confusion. An inability to exert the mind. The patient is very nervous and cannot study; there is an aversion to thinking, a positive dislike of it. Dullness from headache is common, and with the dullness comes a cross, irritable feeling. When corrected the patient becomes angry. Contradiction is not tolerated.

This is a mind that has been dragged down by a physical process. It is not a mind that generates its own disturbance. Baptisia, the closest analog, presents a similar low-typhoid dullness with a stronger sense of being scattered in the bed. Echinacea is duller and more sluggish; the crossness is more marked.

Head

Headaches come with a peculiar periodical flushing of the face, dizziness, and profound prostration. The brain feels enlarged, or a sharp pain sits deep within it. Fullness settles in the temples and motion aggravates it. Throbbing and pulsation run through the temples; hot burning across the forehead. The pale face with headache and vomiting belongs to Echinacea when the whole picture is septic. Pain in the forehead on sneezing appears here too, a symptom shared with Natrum Muriaticum, though the two remedies otherwise look nothing alike.

Face

Pale during the headache, bluish when circulation fails, flushed and hot with fever. Fine eruptions on the forehead and cheeks. A neuralgic pain runs in the left upper branch of the fifth nerve. The lips grow numb, may tingle, and their corners crack.

Mouth, Tongue and Fauces

The first symptom the provers noticed was a biting, tingling sensation on the tongue, lips and fauces, with a sense of fear and of pain about the heart — a combination Murphy pairs with Aconitum. The tongue is dry and swollen. Sores appear on it. Its coating turns dirty brownish, or white with red edges. Slight burning of the tongue. A peppery taste. Numbness. A metallic taste in general. A bad taste in the mouth on waking.

The mouth shows canker sores and aphthae. Gums recede and bleed easily. Corners of the mouth crack. Saliva flows.

Throat

The throat is where Echinacea repays close attention. Sore throat is worse on the left side and passes through to ulceration. Tonsils turn purple or black. A gray exudation extends from them to the posterior sinuses and toward the air-passages. Frothy mucus is hawked constantly. The larynx is irritated and the voice grows husky.

This is the seat of the remedy's reputation in tonsillitis, and it is the picture on which it is chosen. Belladonna belongs earlier, when the throat is bright red and sudden. Mercurius belongs where the diphtheritic membrane is leathery. Echinacea's throat is fetid, dark, and undermined by systemic prostration. Recurring strep in a run-down constitution is another indication.

Rheumatic pain in the limbs after tonsillitis is a specific Echinacea note. When it appears, it is often the reason the case did not close cleanly, and Echinacea is the remedy that finishes it.

Nose

Stuffed nostrils with mucus in the sinuses and pharynx. Foul-smelling discharge, sometimes with membranous formations protruding — the classical fetid ozaena. Post-nasal catarrh with ulceration and fetor. The right nostril raw and bleeding. Both nostrils sore.

Eyes and Ears

The brows twitch. On closing the eyes they feel hot. Lachrymation from cold air. Sharp pains cut through the eyes and temples, and behind the right eye. Reading brings on ache. A sleepy sensation in the eyes without the capacity to sleep. Shooting pain in the right ear.

Chest, Heart and Lungs

A pain sits like a lump under the sternum. Sharp burning in the sternum itself, sometimes in the pectoral muscles, the diaphragm or the right lung. The upper part of the lungs feels full and sore. Burning under the left scapula.

At the heart the picture is one of anxiety and unsteady rhythm. The pulse is increasing but variable, or full and accelerated. Rapid beating. A slight pain over the heart. A stitching pain at the apex on the left. The tingle of tongue, lips and fauces is felt together with a sense of fear and pain about the heart. This shared moment across three regions is the note that first announced the remedy in the proving.

Stomach, Abdomen and Rectum

The stomach carries a sense of something large and hard within it. There is dull pain and distension. Eructations do not relieve — a differential note against China, whose belching does. Nausea comes with chilliness and is better lying down. The vomit may be sour, bloody, coffee-ground in color. Sour belching burns the throat, or the belch is tasteless. Heartburn. Sleepiness after eating. Appetite is lost. The patient desires cold drinks and cold water.

The abdomen is tender, sensitive and tympanitic. Pain sits in the right hypochondrium. Appendicitis is a leading clinical field for the remedy, with pain about the umbilicus, better by bending double, and sharp cutting pains that come and go suddenly. Cramping is better by passing flatus. A full feeling comes with borborygmus.

Griping pain in the rectum is followed by offensive flatus or a loose yellowish stool, and the passage brings great exhaustion. Diarrhea follows pain that begins in the stomach and passes down through the bowels. Blood may flow after stool. In enteric fevers this is Echinacea's territory: the diarrhea of typhoid, of enteric fever, of any state where the organism is being poisoned from within.

Liver and Urinary Tract

A weight sits at the back part of the liver, "as if a load" carried there. Hepatitis is among the clinical indications. The kidneys give a picture of frequent urination, sometimes involuntary. Urine is either scanty, dark and albuminous, or increased, pale and copious. A sense of heat while passing urine. Pain and burning on urination.

Male

Seminal emissions. Soreness and pain in the perineum, which feels stretched. Pain in the right spermatic cord. The testicles are drawn up and sore. Pain in the meatus while urinating.

Female

Discharges suppressed. Mucus from the vagina in the evening. Excoriating leucorrhea, sometimes bright yellow "as from a suppurating surface." Pain in the right iliac region that seems deep and lasts a short time. And, at the head of the female sphere, puerperal septicemia — the picture for which Echinacea has been named for more than a century. Where the post-partum patient is prostrated, the discharges are foul, and the vitality is ebbing, the remedy is at home.

Back and Limbs

Chills up the back. Pain in the back of the neck. Dull pain in the small of the back over the kidneys. Pain in the lumbar region, worse from stooping. Rheumatic pain after tonsillitis. Aching in the limbs and general lassitude. Pain between the shoulders that extends to the axilla and down the arms. Sharp pain in the left elbow. Pain in wrists and fingers. Pain in the right thumb. Cold hands and feet. The hands alternately numb or restless on waking. Chilliness in the right leg. Pain in the left hip and knee, and in the right leg.

Skin

Dry skin. Intense itching and burning of the skin on the neck. Small red pimples on the neck and face. Little papules with redness, feeling like nettles. Recurring boils. Carbuncles. Irritations from insect bites and poisonous plants — cases of Rhus-poisoning have been cured with Echinacea. Dissecting wounds. Enlarged lymphatics. Gangrene. Old tibial ulcers. The one keyword-sign that draws the remedy into the case is blackness of external parts.

Boils that will not suppurate belong especially here. The boil that fails to come to a head, that lingers as a bluish or blackish induration under the skin, that pulls the whole patient down with it: this is the picture. Hepar Sulphuris brings the abscess to a head cleanly when heat and touch aggravate; Echinacea is called when the reaction never began.

Sleep and Perspiration

Drowsy. Cannot read, yawning. Sleepiness carries confusion and weakness with it. Sleep is disturbed and the patient wakes often. Sleepiness after eating. Dreams turn to difficulties, to laborious or quarrelsome scenes, to exciting things, to dead relations. Sweat forms chiefly on the upper part of the body and on the forehead.

Temperature

Irregular. Chills, rise of temperature and sweat all in turn. Chilliness with nausea. Cold flashes run over the back. A chill sits in the left occiput. Temperature raised a degree with flushed face and fullness of the head. Malarial fever belongs in Echinacea's field, and the remedy has been used for it.

Modalities

Worse:

• After physical or mental exertion
• Injury and operations
• Cold air
• Evening
• After eating

Better:

• Lying down
• Rest
• Bending double (abdominal cramping)
• Passing flatus (abdominal cramping)

Pains characteristically come and go suddenly.

Relationships

Baptisia is the closest analog. The low-typhoid dullness, the septic mucous membranes and the ebbed vitality run in parallel across both remedies. Baptisia's tongue is more foul and the patient more scattered in the bed. Echinacea leans further toward suppurative and gangrenous change.

In septic states the comparison extends to Pyrogenium (septicemia from a wound or after surgery), Lachesis and Cenchris (snakebite and dark, purplish tissue), Arsenicum Album (gangrene, burning restlessness, last-stage cancer pain), Rhus Tox (gangrene, and rhus-poisoning itself, though Echinacea has cured rhus-poisoning where Rhus Tox did not), and Cistus (septic glandular states).

Among the vulnerary Composites — Arnica, Calendula, Bellis Perennis — Calendula is the closest partner for local use. As an antiseptic wash for wounds, both remedies are called for and their fields overlap where the injury is external. Arnica is nearer at hand for crush, bruise and shock; Bellis Perennis for deeper tissue injury and abdominal trauma.

In snakebite the near comparison is Lobelia purpurascens. In boils, Anthracinum. Where the head feels enlarged the compare group is Argentum Nitricum, Baptisia, Bovista, Glonoinum, Nux Vomica, Moschus. In insect stings and the bites of venomous animals the field overlaps with Ledum, prescribed on cold, puffy, better-by-cold-application pictures where Echinacea is called on prostration and septic tendency.

Clinical Uses

Tonsillitis and Recurring Sore Throat

The Echinacea throat is dark. Tonsils are purple, sometimes black. A gray exudation extends from the tonsils into the posterior sinuses and toward the air-passages. Pain is worse on the left side. Frothy mucus is hawked constantly. The voice grows husky. The whole patient is prostrated. Rheumatic pain in the limbs after the sore throat is a leading confirmation. Recurring strep in a run-down constitution is another. See sore throat for the broader differential.

Boils, Carbuncles and Wounds

For boils that will not suppurate, the boil that stays a hard bluish-red knot, the carbuncle with intense pain and dusky discoloration, Echinacea is the remedy of low reaction. Locally the mother tincture may be applied as an antiseptic wash. Internally, doses are adjusted to the case. The bad wound falls in the same field: the dissecting wound, the wound with lymphatic streaking upward from it.

Vaccination Poisoning

Murphy records the case that made the remedy's name in this indication. A man of 45 was left with ebbed vitality after vaccination. He became so weak he could not sit up. His hair fell out. An eruption of psoriasis appeared on his limbs and extended to his body. The nails fell off. Left iritis supervened, then keratitis of the right eye. Kali Iodatum and phospho-albumen as a food arrested the hair fall, but the other symptoms worsened rapidly. Echinacea was then given. The disease slowly stopped, gradual improvement followed, and an ultimate cure ensued. The report does not say whether sight returned in the left eye.

This is the picture Echinacea is prescribed on when the record of vaccination is read. Not a single symptom, but a whole train of progressive collapse in the wake of the inoculation.

Septicemia, Puerperal Septicemia and Enteric Fever

In blood poisoning from a cut, a wound or after surgery (septicemia, pyemia, lymphangitis), Echinacea is the remedy of the ebbed patient. The septicemia that follows childbirth, with foul discharges and prostration, has been treated with it since the eclectic period. In typhoid and enteric fevers with diarrhea, foul stools and exhaustion, it stands with Baptisia among the low-typhoid remedies. See influenza where a febrile prostration echoes this picture without the fully septic development.

Bites, Stings and Poisoned Wounds

Snakebite, insect bite, and the sting of poisonous animals. Locally the tincture is applied. Internally the remedy is given on prostration and septic tendency. Cases of Rhus-poisoning have been cured. Ledum stands for the small puncture wound; Lachesis for darker, purpler tissue reactions; Cenchris runs parallel.

Last-Stage Malignancy

Murphy notes the remedy as "useful in the last stages of cancer to ease pain," comparing Arsenicum Album. This is a comfort indication, written down in the source with that exact scope.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is echinacea homeopathic medicine the same thing as the echinacea tincture sold at pharmacies?

The Latin name is the same and the plant is the same, but the prescribing register differs. The mother tincture (Ø) and low decimals up to D8 are herbal doses of the plant, and the immune-stimulant reputation of echinacea belongs there. 30C and above are classical homeopathic potencies where no molecule of the plant remains and the prescription is made on the totality of the patient's symptoms. Both registers are legitimate. Practitioners often use the tincture in five- to forty-drop doses for its herbal action on the blood and lymph, and reserve higher potencies for septic acute states of low reaction.

What is echinacea most commonly used for in homeopathy?

The classical indications are septic states where the vitality has dropped: blood poisoning, boils that will not come to a head, dark purplish tonsils with foul exudate, foul discharges from the nose, puerperal fever, poisoned wounds, and the aftermath of vaccination in the picture recorded by Murphy. Where the patient is prostrated, the discharges are fetid, and the affected tissue tends toward blackness, Echinacea is at home.

How does echinacea compare with Baptisia?

Baptisia is the closest analog. Both remedies belong to the low-typhoid field of dullness, foul mucous membranes and ebbed vitality. Baptisia's tongue is more foul and the patient often feels scattered in the bed, as though the limbs did not belong to it. Echinacea leans further toward suppurative and gangrenous change: the bluish-red carbuncle, the boil that will not come up, the darkening tonsil.

Can echinacea be used locally on wounds?

Yes. The tincture applied externally is a classical antiseptic wash for wounds, comparable in that use to Calendula. This is a real dosimetric application of the plant and the standard herbal cautions govern it. Homeopathic potencies at 30C and above are given by mouth in the ordinary way and are chosen on the totality of the case.

References

• Boericke, W. Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica with Repertory.
• Clarke, J. H. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica.
• Murphy, R. Nature's Materia Medica.