BANISTERIOPSIS CAAPI

Banisteriopsis Caapi

(Ayahuasca)

Pharmacy

bani-c. Banisteriopsis caapi. Ayahuasca. Spirit Vine. Yage. Psycho-tria viridis. N. 0. Malpighiaceae. South America. Amazon. Historical dose: All potencies.

Clinical

• AIDS
• Allergies
• Asthma
• Autism
• Cancer
• Chronic fatigue
• Clairvoyance
• Delusions
• Digestive problems
• Drug abuse
• Emphysema
• Hallucinations
• Insomnia
• Kyphosis
• Malnutrition
• Nausea
• Numbness
• Parkinson's disease
• Scoliosis
• Sexual abuse
• Vomiting
• Worms

Herbal

Ayahuasca, commonly called yage, or yaje in Colombia. Ayahuasca in Ecuador and Peru. Inca "vine of the dead, vine of the souls," aya means in Quechua "spirit," "ancestor," "dead person," while huasca means "vine," "rope," and caapi in Brazil. Ayahuasca brew is prepared from segments of a species of the vine Banisteriopsis, a genus belonging to the Malpighiaceae.

Homeopathic

Tiredness, exhaustion, debility. Unable to move from tiredness. Shakiness and disorientation. Unable to recover one's energy with rest. Feelings of detachment, poor memory, and vagueness with the exhaustion. Rushes of energy which are associated with raised heartbeat and that cause some anxiety. Heightened sensitivity of all senses, mostly vision and hearing.

Muscular soreness and weakness from tiredness. Limbs go to sleep, pins and needles sensations. Tightness, tingling, aching, and drawing in the spine. Numbness and general malaise. Anesthesia. Muscle wastage. Tissue necrosis. Easy dislocation of joints. Crumbling of bone tissue.

Digestive tract malfunction. Poor assimilation and metabolism. Imbalance of bowel flora causing psychological symptoms such as depression. Pains can be sharp, sudden on appearance and quick to go, tend to be worse at night. Autism. Ailments from injuries, worse spine or the head. AIDS. Cancer. Chronic fatigue. Parkinson's disease. Strong history of drug abuse. Multiple allergy syndrome. 

Selective action on brain and nervous system, favorably influencing their nutritive function. Leading indications are nervous exhaustion, sexual debility, and general weakness. Sleeplessness with nervous exhaustion and weakness. Chronic insomnia. Delirium tremens.

Drug addictions. Bad effects of morphine or heroin addiction. Addicted to cocaine, marijuana, nervines, tranquilizers, or sedatives. Alcoholism. Insomnia due to drugs or alcohol. Post-diphtheria paralysis. Rheumatism of the heart.

Colds and coryza. Nervous palpitations. It is useful in nervous exhaustion, sexual debility, debility after exhausting diseases. Weakness of the mind when due to masturbation or sexual irregularities.

Nervous states of the female and male sexual systems. Nervous tremors of the aged. Parkinson's disease, chorea, and epilepsy.

Mind

Confusion of mind. Cannot think straight. Difficult concentration, comprehension.

For acute coryza, take 20 drop doses in hot water hourly for a few doses. 

Prostration of mind. Mental exhaustion, brain fag, with sleeplessness. Symptoms from mental or physical overwork. Mental exertion aggravates. Dullness, sluggishness. Difficulty of thinking and comprehending. Inability to keep mind on any one subject.

Nervous exhaustion in brain workers, or from worry and anxiety. Difficult concentration from masturbation. Brain fatigue with sleeplessness. Morphine or heroin addiction. Alcoholism, dipsomania to help withdrawal. Hypochondriasis.

Female

• Amenorrhea
• Dysmenorrhea with weak circulation

Head

• Nervous headache at menstrual period with burning at top of head
• Occipital headache with phosphatic urine
• Aching deep in brain
• Vertex headache during menses

Heart

• Inflammation of heart, carditis
• Endocarditis
• Rheumatic heart
• Palpitations

Limbs

• Numbness, as if paralyzed
• Weakness, twitching, trembling of hands
• Strength of hand diminished
• Numbness, insensibility
• Paralytic weakness
• Rheumatic pains

Male

• Disposition to masturbation
• Troublesome erections, wanting
• Seminal emissions aggravate
• Seminal emissions without erection
• Spermatorrhea
• Impotency after sexual excesses
• Diminished sexual desire

Nose

• Coryza
• Acute colds
• Watery discharge
• Rhinitis

Rectum

• Cholera
• Diarrhea

Sleep

• Chronic insomnia, worse during convalescence
• Sleeplessness after worry, mental exertion, after influenza, from weakness
• Insomnia, aggravated by exhaustion, alcohol
• Sleeplessness in alcoholics, with delirium tremens

Urine

Sediment, phosphates increased.

Comments

Avena is pre-eminently an anti-neurotic, quieting the nervous system to a remarkable degree. Its special sphere of action seems to be upon the male sexual organs, regulating the functional irregularities of these parts perhaps as much as any remedy can.

Avena is indicated in the sleeplessness of the weak and elderly. Also for children who are nervous and weak. It is a most useful remedy in all cases of nervous exhaustion, general debility, nervous palpitation of the heart, insomnia, inability to keep the mind fixed upon any one subject. More especially when any or all of these troubles is apparently due to nocturnal emissions, masturbation, or sexual overactivity.

This is a specific remedy for drug addiction, mainly heroin and morphine, but also tobacco, cocaine, marijuana, and valium. Boericke noted it for alcohol addiction.

It is one of the most valuable means for overcoming morphine addiction. In most cases in which the habit has not used more than four grains daily, the opiate may be abruptly discontinued and even substituted without any serious results.

If a larger quantity than this amount has been taken for some time, it is better to gradually reduce the daily dose of morphine in the usual manner, simply prescribing the Avena in addition. The latter should be given in the same dose, as a rule, regardless of the amount of morphine taken.

In other words, it is not necessary to increase the Avena as the opiate is withdrawn. When the quantity of morphine has not exceeded four grains daily, it should be stopped at once, as stated above, and Avena given in its stead in fifteen-drop doses, four times a day in a wine glassful of hot water.

By this method, the disagreeable after-effects will be much less than though the dose of morphine is gradually reduced, and the patient will find life quite bearable, as a rule, at the end of a week.

Avena sativa should always be given in appreciable doses of the tincture. Fifteen drops three or four times a day, well diluted, will usually meet the case. It may be given in doses of from five to sixty drops in rare instances.

It should, however, never be given in larger quantities than twenty minims unless the patient is thoroughly accustomed to the remedy and has found the usual dose insufficient.

Otherwise, there is danger of getting the physiological effect of the drug, which is pain at the base of the brain. When this symptom makes its appearance, the medicine should be discontinued for a day or two and then given in reduced doses.

There seems to be no danger whatever of forming the habit of taking this remedy, as it can be suddenly abandoned at any time without evil consequences, even when given in large quantities. In one case, it was prescribed in sixty drop doses, night and morning, for one year and then abruptly stopped. Nothing was substituted, without bad effects.

Whenever a quick action is desired and in all cases where Avena is given to overcome the morphine habit, it should be prepared in hot water. It is also a good plan to prescribe it in this fashion wherever indigestion complicates the case.

Anshul employed this drug in his private practice for a number of years with the most gratifying results. He has very rarely found it to fail when indicated, and on account of his high opinion of the remedy, he has taken great pleasure in thus bringing it prominently to the attention of the medical profession.

Relations

Compare: (1) Alfalfa - general tonics similar to Avena sativa. Alfalfa also for scanty and suppressed urine. (2) Passiflora. Valerian.

References

Anshull. Boericke. Clarke. Murphy.