Vinca Minor — Homeopathic Remedy Profile

Lesser Periwinkle, of the Apocynaceae, prepared from tincture of the whole fresh plant. Rosenburg proved it on four healthy persons who took the tincture in twenty to sixty drop doses. Its clinical range is narrow and specific: the scalp that itches until the hair mattes and falls; the passive uterine flow that will not close at menopause; the nose that reddens at the first flush of anger; and a weakness the provers named "as if he would die."

At a Glance

Source and Preparation

The plant is a low creeping evergreen of European woodland floors, gathered whole and fresh for the mother tincture. The proving was small, later confirmed by cases from Fincke, Boger, Clarke, and the Indian Homoeopathic Review. Murphy records the historical dose as "all potencies, first to third potency." The low decimals are the drainage register where the crude plant material is still present; classical prescription at 30C and above meets the case on its dynamic image alone. Any concern about the plant's alkaloid content belongs to the tincture and the low decimals, not to the higher potencies where nothing of the crude drug remains and the totality of the case is what is being met.

The Essence of Vinca Minor

The characteristic patient reddens at the tip of the nose whenever they become the least angry. That single detail organizes the remedy. There is anger without control, and the anger inscribes itself on the skin: a moist eruption on the septum, seborrhoea at the upper lip and base of the nose, frequent nose-bleeds. The face bloats and pimples. The lips are dry. Every affront draws blood to the surface, and, in the female, blood into the passive stream of a menorrhagia that will not close.

Prostration is the second key. Weakness as if he would die. The stool exhausts. Uterine loss leaves the woman almost unable to rise. The prover is compelled to stretch the limbs, trembles in every blood-vessel, starts at any mental excitement. The left side carries most of the picture.

Clinical Portrait

Scalp and hair

Vinca's most distinctive field is the scalp. Corrosive itching runs before an irresistible desire to scratch; the fingers open moist spots that ooze and mat the hair together in the older sense of plica polonica. Boericke lists the remedy under favus and crusta lactea. Where the hair has fallen, bald patches appear covered with short woolly regrowth, and what grows back is grey. Clarke records the cure of "sore spots on the scalp" in a young woman with Vinca, a small note carrying a large signature. Mezereum shows the thicker crust with pus underneath. Staphysagria fits the peevish, sickly child with the scald-head picture. Vinca is the image where the scalp itself is the presenting complaint, weeping under a crust or thinning in patches at the very site of that ooze. This is the remedy already differentiated on the alopecia-areata page.

Passive uterine hemorrhage

The menstrual picture is "a continuous flow, like a stream, without interruption." Boericke calls the flow profuse and passive; Murphy underlines passive uterine hemorrhages as a keynote. The clearest shape appears at the menopause, where the flow will not close and the woman is left in extreme debility. Bleeding fibroids belong under the same rubric when the loss answers to the passive picture. The Indian Homoeopathic Review (ix. 113) records a case of dark-red uterine hemorrhage, copious and uninterrupted, in which China and Helonias had failed; Vinca 1X acted rapidly and the cure held. Sabina fits the bright-red hemorrhage with clotting and labor-like pains. Lachesis fits the flooding of menopause that eases with the flow itself. Vinca's flow is passive rather than expulsive, and its weakness is the weakness of continued loss rather than of congestion.

Skin and nose

The skin is sensitive out of proportion to the touch upon it. Redness and soreness follow the slightest rubbing, as though the surface had been sanded before it was pressed. Pustules itch, burn and give off an offensive odor. Weeping eczema alternates with foul, thick crusts. On the nose the picture is small and reliable: the tip reddens on the least emotion, sores form inside, the septum carries a moist eruption, and the base of the nose and upper lip run to seborrhoea. Frequent nose-bleeds complete the sequence.

Throat and digestion

Diphtheria stands in Murphy's clinical list. Ulcers, difficult swallowing and frequent hawking sit under the throat rubric. Boger recorded a case in a woman of thirty-one with a cutting sensation low in the esophagus while swallowing, continuing after the bolus had passed; Vinca met the symptom she brought him. The stomach shows an empty, all-gone sensation, temporarily eased by eating. Empty belchings follow beer. Coffee brings nausea. Drinking any liquid tends to aggravate. Vomit is bitter, copious, and yellowish-green. The stool is first hard then soft, exhausting, with burning at the anus, and the abdomen distends afterwards.

Head, sensations, sleep

A tearing pain in the vertex runs with the ringing and whistling in the ears, and the sensation of cold wind especially in the left ear. Whirling vertigo comes with flickering before the eyes. A weight seems to lie on the cervical muscles, painful and stiff. Reading brings on foggy vision, and walking sometimes the same. Frequent yawning, sleeplessness and restlessness at night, lascivious dreams. Toothache is better from the warmth of the bed, a small confirming modality that recurs in the tearing pain of the teeth.

Modalities

Worse:

• Anger; mental exertion
• Swallowing; walking, stooping, moving
• Reading; open air
• Drinking liquids; beer (empty belchings); coffee (nausea)

Better:

• Warmth of bed (toothache; tearing in teeth)
• Eating (empty sensation in stomach)

Relationships

Compare: Oleander and Staphysagria for the general reaction and the scalp picture; Crocus for peevishness followed by repentance; Medorrhinum, Melitagrinum, Mezereum and Oleander again for crusta lactea; Viola tricolor where the urine has a strong smell; Lappa for swollen glands with axillary suppuration; Ustilago for the filthy eruption where part of the hair falls and part mats together.

Clinical Uses

Alopecia areata and scalp eruptions

Where the scalp itches to the point of self-inflicted moist patches, where the hair mattes at those patches, and where small bald areas emerge covered with a woolly regrowth of paler or grey hair, Vinca is the remedy of first thought. The hair-loss picture is inseparable from the skin picture. The scalp comes first; the loss follows. In children the same image runs into crusta lactea and honeycombed crusting behind the ears. Boericke's historical range covers all potencies from 1X upward.

Menopausal flooding and passive uterine hemorrhage

Continuous stream-like loss without interruption, extreme debility, no expulsive pain, no clotting to speak of. This is the field the remedy earned by clinical confirmation before it earned that place by proving. Bleeding fibroids belong here when the loss answers to the passive rubric. The Boger and Indian Homoeopathic Review cases stand behind the indication.

Diphtheria and pharyngeal ulceration

Murphy retains the older heading. The picture is of ulcers, difficult swallowing, frequent hawking, and the cutting sensation low in the esophagus that Boger's patient described. Where the diphtheritic membrane sits with the passive weakness and left-sided emphasis, Vinca has been used at the low potencies Boericke names.

Chronic nose-bleeds and seborrhoeic eruption of the nose and upper lip

The nose that reddens at the least anger, with a moist eruption on the septum, sores inside, and seborrhoea at the base of the nose and upper lip, points to Vinca more reliably than to any of the polychrests it superficially resembles.

Frequently Asked Questions

What potency of Vinca minor is used?

Murphy records the historical dose as "all potencies, first to third potency"; the historical prescription was the low decimals, and the Indian Homoeopathic Review case was cured on 1X. Practitioners who work at higher potencies use them where the totality is clear: passive uterine flow, scalp itching, red-tipped nose on the least anger. Fincke reported a cure with 41M in a case of constipation and sore hemorrhoids. The choice follows the case.

Is Vinca minor the same as the periwinkle in the garden?

Yes. Vinca minor is the lesser periwinkle of European woodlands, a low creeping evergreen of the Apocynaceae. The homeopathic preparation begins from the whole fresh plant as a tincture. What acts at 30C and above is the dynamic preparation, prescribed on the totality of the case; discussions of the plant's alkaloid content and its dosimetric effects concern the tincture and the low decimals.

How does Vinca compare with Sabina for uterine bleeding?

Sabina's flow is bright red, clotted, expelled with labor-like pain. Vinca's is passive: dark red, streaming, continuous, without interruption. The woman is not so much laboring as sinking under the loss. Sabina fits the fibroid that expels; Vinca fits the fibroid that oozes.

Can Vinca help with hair loss in patches?

The Vinca alopecia is preceded by corrosive scalp itching and moist matted patches. Where the loss is dry, with no scalp eruption or itching, Vinca is unlikely to meet the case. It is the scalp signature that authorizes the prescription: the itching, the ooze, the matting, and the woolly regrowth of paler or grey hair.

References

• Boericke W. Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory. Entry: Vinca minor.
• Clarke JH. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica. Entry: Vinca minor.
• Murphy R. Nature's Materia Medica. Entry: Vinca minor.
• Boger CM. Case cited under Vinca minor in Clarke: cutting sensation in lower esophagus, woman aged 31.
• Indian Homoeopathic Review, vol. ix, p. 113. Case of passive uterine hemorrhage cured with Vinca 1X.