PROFESSIONAL HOMEOPATHIC TRAINING

MATRICARIA CHAMOMILLA

MATERIA MEDICA

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Holistic and Homeopathic Resource
Center and Consultancy
A.H. L. Holdijk
 Matricaria Chamomilla

Matricaria chamomilla, L.Nat. order, Compositæ. Common name, Chamomile,

Amerale, Babunnej, Bayboon, Camomile, Chamomile, False Chamomile, German
Chamomile, Manzanilla, German Tea Chamomile,etc. Preparation, Tincture of the
whole plant when in flower.
Chamomill
a Image
Chamomilla Image
Chamomilla Keynotes

• excessive irritability; aversion to being spoken to and touched.

• oversensitivity to and despair from pain

• pain and heat, hot sweat, numbness, thirst

• < coffee; < anger

• dentition <; diarrhoea, grass-green, hot, lienteric, sour stool,

smell of spoiled eggs.

• < beginning of and during menses

Matricaria Chamomilla - Background

• Background
• flowers have an aromatic odour but a bitter taste, etheric oil is blue
in colour
• it is an energetic plant - 2 flowerings a year
• matricaria is uterus - good remedy for this organ
• used since ancient times by Asklepius, Dioscorides
• holy plant in northern Germanic cultures, bad meat washed in
Chamomilla for better odour, used for cramps
• no drug in human history used to cure diseases more than
Chamomilla
Herbal Effects
• included in the pharmacopoeia of 26 countries, with some 4,000 tons
produced annually
• Chamomilla is a tonic; stomachic; anodyne; antispasmodic; laxative;
diaphoretic; analgesic; carminative; sedative; anti-inflammatory
• Examples: commonly used as a mild herbal sedative
• aid to digestion after heavy meals. On account of its anti-inflammatory
and anti-bacterial properties an infusion can be used as a gargle for
inflamed gums or sore throat
• chamomile actually reduces gastric acid and may inhibit development of
peptic ulcers, in particular those induced by stress and alcohol
• stimulate the regeneration of cell tissue, and promote the healing of
refractory wounds and skin ulcers
• decreases histamine and thus can help reduce the puffy / itchy eyes,
headache, and swelling of allergies.
• may cause vertigo, nervousness, stomach muscle flaccidity, and emesis
when used in excess
Repertory presence

• strong relation between Cuprum and

Chamomilla (good Cham in copper rich soil)
• repertory contains over 4000 symptoms
related to Chamomilla
• 150 symptoms related to something that
penetrates or disturbs (Compositae)
 Mental/Emotional
Chamomilla- Mind • EXCESSIVE IRRITABILITY
• Ugly, cross, uncivil and quarrelsome;
vexed at every trifle.
• TANTRUMS
• Anger/vexation causes many
symptoms
No man is angry that feels • OVERSENSITIVITY to PAIN
not himself hurt.
Francis Bacon and EXTERNAL INFLUENCES.
• he cannot bear the slightest pain.
• CHILD wants to be CARRIED;
is only quiet when carried or
rocked.
Chamomilla- Mind
Mental/Emotional
• AVERSION to be being SPOKEN TO or
TOUCHED.
• Crying in sleep, without waking up, even in
adults.
• EMOTIONS FELT IN STOMACH: Calc., Cham.,
Coloc., Kali-c., Mez., Nux-v., Phos.
[Vithoulkas].
• Pre-eminently a remedy for CHILDREN and
nervous WOMEN.
Chamomilla- Affinities

• MIND. NERVES. EMOTIONS. Mucous

membranes [DIGESTIVE TRACT].
Liver. Women and CHILDREN. Sexual
organs. * Left side.
Chamomilla- Physical Generals
• Worse after becoming COLD [3]; aversion to OPEN AIR [3]; yet
Worse WARM BED .
• Worse beginning of and during MENSES.
• Worse motion of AFFECTED part .
• Pain with NUMBNESS of the affected part[s]. Benumbing
pains.
• Oversensitivity of the sense organs to fresh air and wind.
• Convulsions of children, after a fit of anger of the mother.
• AILMENTS from ANGER, COFFEE and narcotics ["in cases
spoiled by the use of opium or morphine"].
More Physical Generals

• HOT SWEAT with the PAINS.

• < After becoming COLD.
• Aversion to OPEN AIR; yet < WARM BED.
• < Beginning of and DURING MENSES.
• < Motion of AFFECTED part.
• Pain with NUMBNESS of the affected part[s].
Chamomilla- Modalities
Worse:
• ANGER. NIGHT. DENTITION. Cold [air; damp]. Wind.
Taking cold. COFFEE. Narcotics. Opium. Heat.
Evening; evening before midnight. Draft. Eructations.
After breakfast. Suppressed perspiration. Getting
warm in bed. Dry weather. Cloudy weather.

Better:
• BEING CARRIED. Mild weather. Heat. Sweating. Cold
applications. Fasting. Warm wet weather.
Chamomilla- Particulars
• Hot and thirsty or HOT SWEAT with the PAINS. Warm sweat
on the head wetting the hair.
• Swelling or REDNESS of ONE CHEEK, paleness of the other.
• Stools hot, SOUR, GRASS-GREEN, SLIMY, HACKED,
yellowish green or LIENTERIC; smelling like spoiled eggs.
• Perspiration on face after eating and drinking.
• Soles of feet burning at night; puts them out of the covers.
• Twitchings, convulsions, diarrhoea DURING DENTITION.
• Dysmenorrhoea with excessive pain [despair from pain],
cold shivers, vomiting, diarrhoea and faintness.
Chamomilla- Food, Miasms,

• Food
• Aversion: Beer and smell of beer; coffee; warm drinks
• Desire: Cold drinks; bread; sour; vegetables
• Worse: Coffee; smell of beer; warm drinks; warm food
• Better: Coffee; cold food

• Miasmatic Process
• typhoid
Chamomilla- Homeopathic Clinical Indications

• The patient is oversensitive to pains.

• chilly type, cold himself, sensitive to cold air and
strong winds
• But, toothache, earache, facial and other neuralgias
and rheumatic pains are worse from warm
applications and in a warm room.
• Restlessness
• Outbursts of anger, or the effort to restrain them,
bring on various ailments, coffee will often agg

Source: Neatby and Stoneham, Homeopathic Therapeutics

Chamomilla- Homeopathic Clinical
Indications 2
• Reflexes are too active
• Moaning, starting and twitching, and talking during sleep
• flushings occur, such as heat and redness of one cheek, the
other pale or cold
• Numbness and paralysed feeling with pains
• Dentition; (b) toothache and rheumatic and neuralgic pains:
(c) diarrhoea, especially of infants; (d) dysmenorrhoea and
menorrhagia; (e) excessive and irregular labour - pains, rigid
os uteri, and "after - pains"; (f) intestinal colic (infants); (g)
cough, chiefly reflex; (h) earache and headache: (i) colic and
gastralgia; (j) mammary pains and tenderness (mother or
child)
Source: Neatby and Stoneham, Homeopathic Therapeutics
Chamomilla Case
• Mrs. JM brought by her son (a homoeopath) with c/o post herpetic neuralgia, median nerve
paralysis, hypertension and diabetes. She had been on steroids for the neuralgia without
much relief. She becomes very restless with pain at night. Keeps moving about. Weeps with
the pain. Wants to put her hands into cold water. There is a sensation as if nerves are
touching the hands. She has been to 12-13 doctors in 2 months. Her son described her
general mental state. She cries a lot when he goes for his job in the hospital and does not
allow him to go. Weeps a lot when he can't come home. Weeps when angry. Obstinate -
gets things done by weeping. She was weeping so much with the pain that everyone at
home got tense and decided to take her to the hospital. She became calm immediately and
started packing things as if going for a picnic. She seemed quite happy. All along, as the son
was narrating the case, she kept interrupting him with "why is this pain not going? I want
immediate relief" She was crying, restless and constantly complaining of pain, says "my pain
is not hysterical". She is the president of the Lioness club and is very bold. Comes from a
rich family but her in-laws are not very rich. She constantly complains and criticises her in-
laws in their absence but is very nice to them. She likes to go out, travel, make friends, dine
out in hotels etc. Feels very lonely when children are not at home but never bothered or
scared if they come home late. She loves consolation. Her pain increases when her son
comes home. She keeps asking "why am I getting thin?" Why is this happening to me" and
says "you people are useless, you can't do anything. You doctors don't know anything". If
shouted at, she weeps. She criticises a lot. Childhood: Mother died when patient was 3 years
old and father died when she was twelve. Was brought up by her elder brother and sisters.
Sometimes says she has not received enough parental love. She constantly complains that
she has suffered this or that; others are treated better than her etc. She gets wild at times
and you can tell there is hatred on these occasions
Chamomilla Case - Mentals - Keywords
• neuralgia
• very restless with pain at night. Weeps with the pain.
• put her hands into cold water.
• Nerves.
• Weeps when angry. Obstinate - gets things done by weeping.
• She was weeping then became calm immediately and started
packing things as if going for a picnic. She seemed quite
happy.
• constantly complaining of pain, constantly complains and
criticizes
• She loves consolation. Her pain increases when her son comes
home.
• She has been to 12-13 doctors in 2 months.
Analysis
• Beside oneself
• Complaining
• Impatience from pain
• Mood variable
• Obstinate, headstrong
• Reproaches others
• Restlessness, nervousness cannot bear pain
• Shrieking with pain
• Bathing with cold water amel.

• Homeopath used these symptoms:

• Carried, desires to be
• Restlessness relieved by being carried about
• Weeping, child is quiet only when carried about
Repertorization
 The Chamomilla Poem:
Chamomilla- Poem Sad is the story of Peevish Leah
Who is running around with a pain in the ear.
(An attack of Infantile Diarrhoea
Nearly cut short her painful career.)
She feels dull and stupid, her life seems flat,
And she can't bear this and she can't bear that
And she won't keep her troubles under her hat.
She's a thankless and most aggravating brat.
Source: Patersimilias Songs She's got a bad headache in half of her forehead.
from Reference Works
And one cheek is pale and the other is florid.
And her teeth feel too long and they ache "something
horrid. "
The pain getting worse as the room gets more torrid;
Improving again as the climate gets chiller.
(She's always been known as a cold water swiller).
She can't stand the pain and she'll surely get iller
If no one prescribe her some nice Chamomilla.
 Chamomilla don’t you cry!
Arching back and shrieking high
Little babes with tummy aches
Chamomilla - Doubled up with pain that rakes
Materia Poetica Mama too, with pain extreme
Makers her rageful, makes her scream
Sensitive to daily life
Noises, odors, sounds, and light
When she is mad you’d better hide
She won’t take her day in stride
This touchy female at your side
At 9 or 10 on your dial
Chamomilla will not smile
Source: Materia Poetica: She is easy to offend
Homeopathy in Verse by Though she wants you as her friend
Sylvia Seroussi Chatroux, Anger makes her quite a mess
M.D. She’s a grouch with PMS
If a kid when waking, screams
His teeth are aching, ears inflamed
He yells, he needs you right away
He sends his nurse and toys away
This little guy was just so sweet
Now he’s got you on your feet
Little terror of the night
One cheek red, the other white
Babies, women, rarely men
Need Chamomilla now and then
FINIS
 Typhoid miasm

Actions
Successful:
 Intense, short effort;
 Do or die;
 Impatience, demanding, taking chances, recovering lost ground,
 Reaching position of comfort
 Grab it!, Want it all right now!
Failure
 Collapsed, inactive;
 Has given up the struggle
 Sinking
 No effort

Attitude
 If somehow you come out of the crisis, all is fine; if you do not, you are sunk
 Intense short effort needed to find rest

Source: Sankaran, An Insight Into Plants

 Typhoid miasm

Typhoid Miasm
 Bed is sinking
 Losing position of comfort;
 Sudden loss or business failure
· Dangerous, risky, urgency

Feeling of miasm:
That someone has occupied his bed, and place of comfort.
He wants to regain this position of comfort (“desires
repose”) and will try and do this (zealous, in a fiery way) by
hook or by crook.

Source: Sankaran, An Insight into Plants

 Typhoid Miasm Overview

Typhoid Miasm
Also known as the subacute miasm. Remedies in this miasm were originally used
for typhoid fever – that is high, unremitting fever often associated with prostration
from violent diarrheas or other infections. The infections are slightly less rapid in
their onset (like all our descriptions of Bryonia) than the remedies in the acute
miasm. Now we find these remedies can be useful in a variety of chronic
conditions such as colitis, Crohn’s disease, collapse states, psychosis. Patients in
this miasm who have acute or recurring psychotic breaks have good prospects from
homeopathic treatment. The patient feels himself to be in an urgent, life-
threatening situation requiring his full capacity to survive. The patient is
willing to use any means to return to a secure position: Violence, scheming,
flight, lying, etc. Willful children who demand their desires so strongly that
parent’s cave in often require remedies from this group. The patient’s goal is to
conserve every resource to combat the threat. Thus materialism and business
struggles are a strong component. The feeling is, “If I can just get through this
crisis, I have it made and I can rest.” He seeks rest and a secure position..

N.B. The following material is largely structured around Roger Morrison’s recent article (2003) on miasms,
notes from Gabriela Rieberer (Cairo, 1996), and David Littles
 Compositae + Typhoid miasm

Chamomilla has been mentioned in the treatment of typhoid.

The combination of the miasm plus the plant family gives us

the feeling: if I scream, yell, kick, abuse enough I will stop
being injured and hurt and will recover

Source: Sankaran, An Insight into Plants