Ustilago Maydis — Homeopathic Remedy Profile

Ustilago maydis is a smut fungus that grows on the ears of maize. The remedy is prepared from trituration of the spores and from tincture of the infected corn. It was introduced to homeopathy by W. H. Burt, who proved it on himself and others after an old field observation: pregnant animals fed on smutted maize aborted, mules cast their hoofs, and fowls laid eggs without shells. In classical practice it acts chiefly on the female reproductive organs, and on the hair and nails.

At a Glance

Source and Preparation

The material is taken from Zea mays infected with the fungus Ustilago maydis. Boericke gives the classical range as trituration and all potencies, with the tincture reserved for the third potency and below. This distinction is not incidental. Below 3C the preparation carries fungal alkaloids whose crude pharmacology on the pregnant uterus is well described in veterinary literature; at 30C and above no fungal material remains, and only the dynamic image of the remedy is prescribed. When Hurndall recorded his often-quoted case of the small female dog with alopecia and passive uterine hemorrhage, he prescribed 3X at five drops thrice daily — a low decimal at the border between the two registers, and one that a modern classical prescriber would rarely choose. Contemporary practice on the totality sits well above that line, at 30C, 200C, and higher.

The Essence of Ustilago

The center of the picture is a flabby, congested, easily-bleeding uterus. Everything about the discharge is passive: dark, watery blood in long stringy clots that ooze rather than gush, and prostration where a more sthenic remedy would show shock. The woman feels as if everything inside her would drop out, a bearing-down that returns whenever the child nurses, with menses that come on the slightest provocation and refuse to close. Boericke marks the constitution: tall, thin women at the menopause. Clarke describes the same terrain from a different angle: a uterus that has lost its tone, a cervix soft and spongy that bleeds at a touch.

Two features stand outside the pelvis and are worth memorizing. First, a peculiar sensation of boiling water flowing along the back — an excessively tired, heat-laden prostration that rises with the general venous congestion of the remedy. Second, the loss of hair and nails after childbirth or miscarriage, sometimes with the whole covering thinning at once — the same syndrome the maize-fed animals showed in the classical veterinary observations, met again in the consulting room. A warm room causes oppression and faintness; the patient is worn down and prostrated by the blood-loss and the general flaccidity the remedy produces.

Clinical Portrait

Mind and Temperament

Great depression of spirits. The patient weeps frequently. She cannot bear to be spoken to; being asked a question, or asked to repeat what she has just said, provokes an irritability out of all proportion. She wants nobody near her, and the day passes like a dream. What survives across cases is the pairing of weeping despondency with a sharpened intolerance of speech, appearing in a woman already exhausted by a long menstrual flow.

The Female Sphere

Here the remedy earns its keynote status. Menses come half-liquid, half-clotted, bright red, and are set off by the slightest provocation. Between the periods, blood oozes; the clots are dark and form the characteristic long black strings. After miscarriage the flow is profuse. In the postpartum the lochia will not stop. At the climacteric a flooding menorrhagia returns, on Boericke's authority comparable to that of Lachesis and Calcarea carbonica, though the Ustilago flow is darker and more passive than the Lachesis outpouring.

The uterus itself is hypertrophied and sub-involuted, spongy at the cervix. Bleeding fibroids are the flagship indication. In dysmenorrhea a bearing-down sits in the sacrum, and the pains of the period return whenever the infant takes the breast. Ovaries burn, swell and ache, worse on the left, with pains that shoot down the thighs. The uterus is felt as if drawn into a knot. Vicarious menstruation appears from the lungs and the bowels; between the periods a constant pain sits under the left breast at the margin of the ribs. Suppressed menses come on without apparent cause.

Hemorrhages Elsewhere

The bleeding tendency is not confined to the pelvis. Bright nosebleed, better from pressure, appears in the proving. Vomiting of blood, passive and venous rather than arterial, comes with nausea and is relieved by the act of vomiting. Across the picture the bleeding is dark and oozing, and always accompanied by a marked loss of tone.

Hair, Nails and Skin

The alopecia is what first drew field attention to the fungus in cattle, and Hurndall's dog case reproduced it in miniature: about a fortnight before he saw her, the animal had aborted five fetuses at the fifth week of gestation; since then, passive hemorrhage of dark clots had continued, and she was a perfect specimen of alopecia, with only a little hair about the head. The cervix was soft and spongy. On five drops of 3X three times a day the hemorrhage stopped in two days, tenderness reduced, spirits revived; three months later a full coat of hair had grown back.

In consulting-room practice the picture appears most cleanly as hair loss after childbirth, often with the nails thinning or shedding at the same time. Murphy lists painful, destructive disease of the nails among the confirmed indications. The scalp shows sticky secretion matting the hair, and in infants, milk crusts. Skin symptoms include a dry hot skin with a congested feeling, a tendency to boils, and eczema with copper-colored spots. Psoriasis is listed in the clinical rubrics without a differentiated proving picture.

The Male Sphere

Small but definite. An irresistible desire to masturbate, with emissions every night and again when talking to a woman. Spermatorrhea comes with erotic fancies and amorous dreams. Prostration from sexual abuse is one of the states Boericke names.

Head, Back and Nervous Sensations

Nervous headaches follow menstrual irregularities. Vertigo comes on with white spots before the eyes at the climacteric, appearing together with the profuse menses. The peculiar sensation runs along the back, as of boiling water flowing along it, and the lumbar region aches dully, in company with despondency and mental irritability. Sensations of the head being lifted off, of the forehead about to burst open, of a lump behind the larynx or something pressing upward under the root of the tongue, complete the nervous picture.

Digestion

Cutting in the stomach, with burning in the esophagus at the cardiac orifice. Belching of sour fluid and sour food. The colic pains carry a striking modality: they are relieved by hard stool or by constipation, not by the passing of a soft one. Pain sits in the right lobe of the liver, and cuts sharply at the umbilicus and hypogastrium. Stools alternate between loose lumpy black and light-colored diarrhea.

Modalities

Worse:

• Motion
• Rising
• Pressure on the ovaries
• Touch on the abdomen or eyes
• Warm room (oppression and faintness)
• Riding in a carriage (backache)
• Walking (frontal headache, pain in left groin, pain in loins)
• Menopause

Better:

• Hard stool or constipation (for the colicky pains)
• Pressure on the nose (for the nosebleed)
• Vomiting (for the bloody vomit and nausea)

Relationships

Boericke and Murphy give a short list. Compare Secale cornutum for passive uterine hemorrhage from a flabby uterus with a tendency to bleeding fibroids. The two remedies form the closest pair in this territory, distinguished chiefly by Secale's icy coldness, wrinkled dry skin, and violent burning pains, none of which sit inside the Ustilago image. Compare Sabina for menstrual hemorrhage in which bright red blood alternates with dark clots, and for post-abortal bleeding; Sabina's characteristic sacrum-to-pubis pain is its own, and its flow is brighter and more active. Compare Sepia for the bearing-down sensation and the flabby, sub-involuted uterus; Sepia's indifference to loved ones and desire to be alone differ from Ustilago's tearful irritability at being spoken to. Compare Thlaspi bursa pastoris for passive uterine hemorrhage with dark clots and no interval between periods. Compare Zea italica, drawn from the same host plant.

Clinical Uses

Bleeding Fibroids and Uterine Hemorrhage

The leading indication. The flow is dark, watery, and forms long black stringy clots that do not stop. The uterus feels flabby and drawn into a knot; the cervix is spongy and bleeds at a touch. It suits the woman worn out by months of menorrhagia, weepy and unable to bear being questioned about it. Boericke and Clarke both record that tumors have been seen to disappear under its use, a clinical observation they preserve without theorizing.

Dysmenorrhea and Menstrual Disorders

Menses come at the slightest provocation and continue as an oozing discharge between the periods, with a characteristic left-sided infra-mammary pain that runs through the picture. Suppressed menses without apparent cause, especially in a tall thin woman, are a further indication. The remedy also finds a place in endometriosis where the menses are heavy, dark and stringy and where left ovarian pain shoots down the thigh.

Postpartum Hair Loss and Nail Disease

Alopecia after childbirth, with or without concurrent uterine bleeding or lochia that will not close, is the most idiosyncratic indication and the one a modern practitioner meets often. The nails may thin, split or shed alongside the hair. Where the proving image and the presenting picture agree — the exhausted mother, weepy and irritable, whose flow refuses to close and whose hair comes out by handfuls — the remedy is prescribed on the totality of the case.

Menopause

For the climacteric with flooding menses, vertigo with white spots before the eyes, and an inner sense of heat. Boericke's constitution is the tall thin woman. Unlike Lachesis, the Ustilago flow is dark and passive where the Lachesis flow is hot and violent.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Ustilago maydis in homeopathy used for?

The remedy is used chiefly for uterine hemorrhage from a flabby, sub-involuted uterus. It covers bleeding fibroids, prolonged menses, postpartum flow that will not close, and menorrhagia at the climacteric. It is also prescribed for alopecia and nail disease, particularly after childbirth or miscarriage, when the picture of dark stringy clots and passive bleeding is present.

Which potency of Ustilago is used?

Boericke's classical range is from tincture through the third potency for material-dose work, and any of the higher potencies for classical prescribing on the totality. In modern practice 30C and 200C are common starting potencies for the menstrual and postpartum indications, with the potency chosen according to the case rather than the diagnosis.

How does Ustilago differ from Secale and Sabina?

All three cover passive, dark uterine hemorrhage with clots. Secale's woman is cold, dry-skinned and burning-pained; Sabina's flow is brighter red with sacrum-to-pubis pain and worse from warmth. Ustilago is set apart by the flabby uterus with long black stringy clots, the sensation of boiling water along the back, and the concurrent hair and nail loss.

Is Ustilago safe in pregnancy?

The question belongs to the low-potency register, where the smut carries ergot-like fungal alkaloids known to act on the pregnant uterus. The historical observation of abortion in cattle grazing smutted maize is what led Burt to the proving in the first place. Classical potencies (30C and above) contain no material substance and are prescribed on the totality of the case. Any prescription in pregnancy, in either register, belongs to an experienced homeopath.

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.
• Burt, W. H. Physiological Materia Medica (original proving of Ustilago maydis).
• Hurndall, veterinary case report of Ustilago maydis in a female dog with alopecia and passive uterine hemorrhage, cited by Murphy.