Baptisia Tinctoria
(Wild Indigo)
Pharmacy
Baptisia tinctoria. Wild indigo.
N.O. Legumino-ae. N.O. Papilionoideae. North America. Tincture of fresh root and its bark.
Historical dose: Tincture and all potencies.
Clinical
- Appendicitis
- Biliousness
- Blood poisoning
- Brain softening
- Cancer
- Delirium
- Delusions
- Diarrhea
- Diphtheria
- Dysentery
- Epidemic influenza
- Enemic fever
- Esophagus stricture
- Eye disorders
- Fevers
- Gallbladder disorders
- Gastric fever
- Headaches, bilious
- Hectic fever
- High fever
- Hysteria
- Infections
- Intestinal toxemia
- Mumps
- Miscarriage, threatened
- Plague
- Prostration
- Putrid discharges
- Relapsing fever
- Septic fever
- Septicemia
- Sewer gas poisoning
- Shivering
- Stomatitis
- Strokes
- Tabes mesenterica
- Tinea capitis
- Tongue, ulcerated
- Toxemia
- Tuberculosis
- Typhoid fever
- Typhus
- Vaccinations
- Variola
- Worms
Homeopathic
Baptisia, the wild indigo of America, has its reputation as a remedy for typhoid fever. In low potency, it increases the resistant power of the body against typhoid.
In one case, that of an old man, food could be swallowed and retained some days, but not on others. He had always liked very hot food. The esophagus was red and granular. Bapt. 12c cured.
Hale considered it specific in threatened miscarriage from mental depression, shock of bad news, watching, fasting, or low septic fevers. Patients in these conditions often complain of "dreadful sinking at the stomach," fetid breath, and other symptoms of Baptisia.
Many cases of tuberculosis are relieved by this remedy when the symptoms and type of fever correspond. It has cured hysteria with prostration, numbness, and fear of paralysis, wanting to die, rubbing hands continually, restlessness.
Baptisia tinctoria has the ill effects of anti-typhoid serum vaccinations. It affects the blood, causing septic conditions, like low fevers and malaria poisoning. The symptoms of this remedy are of an asthenic type, simulating low fevers, septicemia conditions of the blood, malarial poisoning, and extreme prostration.
Restlessness, does not sleep quietly, wants to be on the move. Indescribable sick feeling all over. Tired, bruised, sick feeling in all parts of the body. Great languor, wants to lie down. Weak and tremulous, as if recovering from a severe illness. Prostration with disposition of fluids to decompose. Great muscular soreness and putrid states are present. All the secretions are offensive: breath, stool, urine, sweat, etc.
It has proved specific in a large number of cases of epidemic influenza. Besotted look, bleary eyes, aching head, sore throat, pains and soreness all over the body, and profound prostration.
Chronic intestinal toxemia of children with fetid stools and belchings. Foul odor of the body, breath of excretions, stools, sweat, urine, etc. Brown sordes, stools, menses.
Discharges, stools, hemorrhages, etc. are dark in color, fetid. Dark spots appear upon the body. Mucous membranes that become dark. Ulceration of the mucous membranes, especially of the mouth, with a tendency to putrescence.
Feeling of soreness, heaviness, and aching of muscles. Prostration is rapid; bed feels too hard on account of soreness of muscles, yet he feels too weak to move.
Lifeless body but restless mind. Restless, always rubs the hands, hysterical. Insensitive to pain. Parts feel numb or too large. Bed sores. Intermittent pulse, especially in the elderly. Numbness, prickling, and paralytic feeling over the whole body, especially left side.
Mind
Dull and confused mind. Inability to think. Mind wanders as soon as eyes are closed. Confusion, as if intoxicated. Ideas confused. Aversion to mental and bodily exertion. Hopeless of recovery and certain of death. Melancholia with stupor. Indifference, doesn't care to do anything. Aversion to bear conversation about sickness or injuries. Falls asleep while answering or does not complete his sentence.
Delirium, wandering, muttering. Wild, wandering feeling. Bewildered. Sense of duality. Illusion of divided personality. Thinks he is broken or double and tosses about the bed trying to get pieces together. Imagines his limbs are talking to each other. Sensation as if some person touched him gently while dozing. Parts feel separated. Worse when thinking of pains in various parts of the body.
Abdomen
Distended and rumbling. Fullness and distention of the abdomen. Severe colic in umbilical and hypogastric region. Intestinal toxemia. Soreness of abdomen in region of liver. Right side markedly affected. Right iliac region sensitive. Pain in region of spleen. Abdominal muscles sore on pressure. Sharp, rheumatic pains in groins, worse from walking. Glands of left groin swollen, painful on walking.
Back
Back and hips very stiff, ache severely, worse walking. Symptoms radiate from small of back. Back sore and bruised. Feels as if lying on board. Neck tired, cannot hold it easy in any position. Dull pain in sacrum. Pain in sacrum around hips and legs. Bed sores. Stiffness and lameness of neck muscles, worse on moving head. Rheumatic pains in muscles of back, followed by burning.
Breasts
Dull stitches in left nipple.
Chest
Constriction and oppression of the chest. Weakness of chest. Sharp pains in center of sternum. Weight and oppression in precordial region, with a feeling of unsatisfied breathing, afternoon.
Ears
Ears feel hot and burn, yet cold to touch. Soreness in right ear, running down neck. Roaring in ear, with mental confusion. Dull hearing. Early deafness in typhoid conditions. Delirium with almost complete deafness.
Eyes
Blood vessels congested, eyes look red, inflamed. Eyes feel swollen. Eyelids heavy, half closed. Cannot bear light. Feeling as if eyes would be pressed into head. Eyeballs feel sore with great confusion of sight. Visually, everything appears to move. Severe pains in eyes on reading, compelling to stop. Partial paralysis of lids. Photophobia, eyes burn, but don't water. Chronic ophthalmia.
Face
Anxious, frightened look. Dusky, stupid. Besotted look. Dark red. Heat and redness of face. Sweats on face and forehead. Face and whole head feel numb. Pain at root of nose. Burning, prickling of left side of face and head. Cheeks burn. Muscles of jaw rigid. Cracked, bleeding lips. Pain in left parotid gland. Lower jaw drops.
Female
Menses too early and too profuse.
Threatened miscarriage from mental depression, shock, night-watching, low fevers. Lochia acrid, fetid. Puerperal fever. Stomatitis of nursing mothers.
Food
No appetite. Constant desire for water. Great thirst. Loss of appetite. Averse to nourishment and stimulants. Child can drink nothing but milk. All symptoms worse from beer (Kali-bi).
Head
Congestive headache. Headache, as if intoxicated. Dull, bruised feeling in occiput. Headache, fever, and delirium. Frontal headache, with pressure at root of nose. Headache, with stupor and confusion. Excitement of brain, with delirium at night. Feels too large. Heavy, numb feeling in head. Brain feels sore. As if a blow or heavy pain on occiput. Vertex feels as if would fly off. Brain feels sore. Skin of forehead feels tight, seems drawn to back of head.
Heart
Heartbeats seem to fill the chest. Feeling of greatly increased frequency of heart's pulsations, seem to fill chest. Audible palpitations. Pulse first accelerated, then slow and faint.
Kidneys
Sharp pain in region of right kidney. Shooting pain in left kidney. Burning when urinating. Increased secretion of urine at night. Urine is scanty, dark red, alkaline, and fetid. Light-green urine. Uremia.
Limbs
Muscles ache, sore and bruised pains. Feels as if lying on a board, changes position often. Bed feels too hard, worse in region of sacrum. Great weakness, especially in lower limbs. Stiffness and pain, aching and drawing in arms and legs. Wandering pains in all the limbs with dizziness. Bed sores.
Liver
Soreness over region of gallbladder with diarrhea. Pain in liver, from right lateral ligament to gallbladder, can scarcely walk. Constant pain in stomach and liver, worse walking, hot sensation, heavy aching in liver. Pain in liver region on going upstairs.
Lungs
Asthmatic oppression of chest, with frequent yawning. Bronchial asthma. Craves air. Afraid to go to sleep on account of sense of suffocation and nightmares. Snoring. Awakes with great difficulty of breathing. Lungs feel tight and compressed. Breathing difficult from weakness of chest, worse on waking, better standing. Cough from tickling in throat.
Male
Dull pain in right groin and testicle.
Orchitis. Pressing pain in testes as if squeezed.
Modalities
- Better drinking liquids
- Better open air
- Better motion
- Worse from open air, cold wind
- Worse autumn
- Worse hot weather, humid heat
- Worse fog
- Worse indoors
- Worse from pressure
- Worse on waking, walking
- Worse mental exertion
- Worse swallowing solids
- Worse during sleep
Mouth
Mouth and tongue very dry in fevers. Foul taste with flow of saliva. Flat, bitter taste. Foul or bitter nauseous taste.
Putrid, offensive breath. Breath fetid. Can swallow liquids only; least solid food gags. Lower jaw drops. Sore mouth of nursing child. Thick speech. Soft palate swollen. Putrid ulcers with salivation. Saliva viscid. Ulcers in the mouth. Sordes on lips. Dark red, tumid mouth and throat.
Nose
Dull pain at root of nose. Nosebleed of dark blood. Sensation of fullness, edema. Sneezing and feeling as after a severe cold. Thick mucus from nose. Right nostril stopped up. Illusion of smell of burnt feathers.
Perspiration
Fetid sweat. Beginning of typhus when the nervous symptoms predominate, causes sweat to break out and relieve. Typhus with sweat on forehead and face.
Rectum
Intestinal toxemia of children with fetid stools and belchings. Constipation with fullness of abdomen. Offensive diarrhea day and night. Diarrhea sudden, horribly foul, mushy, painless, dark or bloody stools. Aphthous diarrhea. Very fetid exhausting diarrhea. Dysentery of the elderly people with pain in limbs, small of back, and rigors. Painless dysentery with fever. Stricture from hemorrhoids.
Stools very offensive, thin, dark, bloody. Stool like sheep dung, dry and crumbling. Stool papescent, with large quantities of mucus.
Sensations
As if bruised or beaten all over the body. Bed feels too hard, makes him feel sore and bruised. Feels as if lying on a board, changes position.
Skin
Livid spots all over body and limbs. Burning and heat in skin (Ars.), worse in face. Eruption like measles or urticaria. Confluent smallpox, tardy eruption. Foul, gangrenous, eating syphilitic sores. Putrid ulcers with stupor, low delirium, and prostration.
Sleep
Fears going to sleep on account of nightmares and sense of suffocation. Drowsy, stupid, and languid, slides down in bed. Drowsiness, can only sleep awake by great effort. Falls asleep when answering a question. Lies curled up like a dog on one side. Sleepless and restlessness. Sleeplessness with wandering of mind. Weary, as if he had not slept enough. Cannot get herself together, feels scattered about bed. Troubled with dreams, but inability to remember them. Nightmares and frightful dreams.
Stomach
Gastric fever. Can swallow only liquids. Cramp in stomach, evening. Constriction at cardiac orifice. Cardiac orifice contracted convulsively. Ulcerative inflammation of stomach and bowels. Dreadful sinking feeling in the stomach. Pain in epigastric region. Feeling of hard substance (Abies-n.). Nausea with eructations, followed by painful vomiting. Easy vomiting. Sudden attacks of vomiting and diarrhea, with fever. Vomiting due to spasm of esophagus.
Teeth
Sordes on the teeth and lips. Teeth and gums sore, ulcerated. Gums oozing of large quantities of blood on pressure with finger.
Temperature
Chill with rheumatic pains and soreness all over body. Chilly with soreness of body. High fever, sudden onset. Sweat relieves. Gastric influenza.
Typhoid and cerebral forms of fever. Shipboard fever. Heat all over with occasional chills. Septic fevers. The whole surface hot and dry with occasional chills, mostly up and down the back. Typhoid fever. Flashes of heat, feeling as if sweat would break out. Uncomfortable burning all over surface, especially face.
Throat
Aphonia. Larynx sore to touch. Painful swallowing or speaking. Septic sore throat. Fauces red, dark, putrid ulcers. Painless sore throat and offensive discharge. Numb inside but sensitive outside. Mucus rattles in throat. Can swallow liquids only; least solid food gags. Spasms of gullet. Constriction at cardiac orifice of esophagus. Constrictive feeling in throat causing frequent efforts at swallowing. Dark redness of tonsils and soft palate. Tonsils and soft palate dark red and swollen. Sharp pain in right tonsil. Ragged ulcers in the throat.
Tongue
Burning at root of tongue. Tongue feels burned. Tongue feels thick. Brown down the center, cracked, sore, ulcerated. Tongue is dry, glistening edges. Yellow-brown coating in center, edges dark-red and shining. Tongue cracked, bleeds, heavily coated. Numb, prickling sensation in tongue. Root of tongue feels numb.
Vertigo
Confused, swimming feeling in head. Vertigo, with paralysis of eyelids. Vertigo, with severe nausea. Vertigo with a weak feeling, especially of lower limbs and knees. Vertigo as if intoxicated, worse walking. Vertigo, pressure at root of nose.
Comments
Stupor, falls asleep while being spoken to, confused as if drunk. Cannot keep his mind together, a wild wandering feeling. This scattered feeling is further exemplified by the illusion that the body is double, limbs separated and conversing with each other. Can't sleep because body seems scattered about and cannot collect pieces. Indifferent and apathetic.
There is a dull, heavy sensation in the head with drowsiness and heavy eyelids. The head feels large with a numb feeling of head and face. Bruised headache, as if soreness in brain, bruised feeling in occiput, heavy feeling at base of brain with drawing in of cervical muscles. Frontal headache with pressure at root of nose. The neck is tired, cannot hold head easy in any position. The jaw drops, prostration.
The eyes cannot bear light, burn, are weak, painful on reading. Weight on eyes, eyeballs sore, feels lame on moving eyes. Blear-eyed. Lids partially paralyzed. An illusion of smell "as of burnt feathers" has been caused and cured by it. Pain in left parotid gland.
Flat, bitter taste. Tongue swollen, feels numb, speech difficult. Whitish yellow coating and feels burnt or scalded. Dry, parched, brown center, cracked and ulcerated. Canker sores in mouth. Ropy saliva. Sore mouth in nursing children. Thirsty. Sore throat with abscessed tonsils and pus (Mere.). Painlessness is a feature in the sore throat, putrid, painless, dark ulcers.
Esophagus feels constricted down to stomach, can only swallow liquids; cases of convulsive contraction of esophagus and cardiac orifice with regurgitation of food have been cured by it. Nausea, retching, and vomiting. For food poisoning from bad water.
Gastric flu with nausea, loss of appetite, and diarrhea (Nux-v., Ars.). Sinking, gone feeling.
Pain in liver and gallbladder. Pain in spleen, in right iliac region, in groin, swollen glands. Soreness of abdominal muscles in right iliac region. Fetid, exhausting diarrhea, dysentery in autumn or hot weather. Bleeding from the colon, dark, offensive blood. Worms.
The urine is high-colored, scanty, alkaline, and fetid. Orchitis, squeezed pain in testes.
Lumbar backache. Feels as if lying on a board; bed feels hard. Pain in sacrum. Weakness of lower limbs. Much prickling and numbness in left foot. Numbness and soreness. Excessive drowsiness. Bedsores with offensive discharge (Hyper., Led.). Offensive, putrid discharges, like something is decomposing. The sweat is putrid, cadaver-like odor.
Threatened miscarriage (Pyrog., Caul.), from overexertion, excitement, emotional stress, morning sickness, or lifting.
Sudden onset septic fevers. Overall feeling of toxicity. Drugged look, "besotted appearance," "dusky appearance." Septic infection from blood poisoning from an infected wound, or after childbirth or surgery. Good for toxic flu.
On a spectrum, Gelsemium is the mild toxic flu, then Baptisia, then Pyrogen for the most toxic. The first keynote is a bad taste in the mouth, foul mucus in the back of the throat.
Used in the past as the primary remedy for typhoid, contemporary interest for AIDS, as they share many symptoms. Possible remedy for toxic fever with an AIDS case, with diarrhea, emaciation, and chronic recurring fever.
Relations
- Compare: (1) Echinacea angustifolia is perhaps its nearest analog.
- (2) Gels., Am., Ars., Pyrog., Bry. or Ars. may be needed to complete the favorable reaction.
- (3) Ailanthus differs, being more painful. Bapt. more painless.
- (4) Rhus-t., Mur-ac., Hyos., Kali-m., Lach., Mur-ac. and Nit-ac. Follows well Ars. Followed well by: Ter., Nit-ac. Ham., in typhoid Nux-v., Op., Rhus-t. Sil. has like Bapt., ability to swallow only liquids like milk, but unlike Bapt., Sil. has aversion to milk.
References
Boericke, Clarke, Murphy, Phatak.