The relationship between the natural history of the Papaveraceae family of plants and the homoeopathic symptomatology of existing remedies of the Papaveraceae family

Abstract

During Samuel Hahnemann’s time, it was possibly simpler for homoeopaths to prescribe, as there were fewer remedies. Nowadays, there are thousands of remedies available to homoeopaths and the materia medica is continually increasing due to the increase in provings and homoeopathic research globally. As new remedies are being discovered annually, the abundance of homoeopathic data increases. While this is advantageous in many ways, some homoeopaths are concerned that the essence of some homoeopathic remedies is being lost. They also stress that the excess of data makes finding a similimum challenging.

The extent of homoeopathic data has led to the establishment of various methods of simplifying the prescribing process. Miasmatic theory, the doctrine of signatures, kingdom analysis and homoeopathic repertory are some of the methods developed to try to comprehend the materia medica.

Group analysis or kingdom analysis method is a relatively new method of classifying homoeopathic remedies. The group analysis method links similar remedies in terms of their botanical and natural history. It then analyses common characteristics from these remedies, thus forming a generalised picture of the whole group or kingdom. The aim is to form a broad understanding of all the remedies within the group by carefully studying the common characteristics found throughout the whole group. The group analysis method therefore highlights the polycrest remedies and subsequently illuminates the lesser-known remedies thus forming a complete picture of the group.

This study is a non-empirical correlation study of the Papaveraceae plant family’s natural history and homoeopathic symptomatology of selected remedies belonging to the Papaveraceae family. This study is aimed at establishing the commonalities of natural history between selected individual remedies belonging to Papaveraceae and their mental, physical and general symptoms. It is also aimed at establishing the collective commonalities that exist between the natural history of the Papaveraceae family and the mental, physical and general symptoms of the whole Papaveraceae family.

Homoeopathic software in the form of RadarOpus version 1.38 was used to select five sample remedies from the Papaveraceae family. The five plant remedies from the Papaveraceae family that had the most rubrics were chosen as the sample group. The Papaveraceae family has alkaloid remedies such as codeinum and morphinum but such remedies were excluded from the study because the researcher wanted to include whole plant remedies for a fair comparison of their natural history.

The study used qualitative thematic analysis to establish common themes that exist between the natural histories of each of the sample remedies and their homoeopathic symptomatology (the mental, physical and general symptoms) found in the materia medica. Plant habitat and distribution, description, active principles (primary alkaloids), uses, physiological action, historical significance, mythology and toxicology were used to describe the natural history of individual sample remedies. The keywords taken from the natural history were subjected to thesaurus consultation in order to find synonyms relating to the homoeopathic symptomatology.

RadarOpus was used to find rubrics and sub-rubrics which contain keywords and synonyms of individual sample remedies. The common themes relating to individual remedies were further tabulated and subsequently collective themes were established and further analysed.

Common themes found between the natural history and homoeopathic symptomatology included “violent” found in Chelidonium majus, “excitement” found in Opium, “vomiting” found in Sanguinaria canadensis, “pain” found in Fumaria officinalis and “condylomata” found in Corydalis furmosa. Common themes found in all Papaveraceae family include “aggressive”, “pain” and “nausea”. The results of the study established that there is a relationship between the natural history of the Papaveraceae family and the homoeopathic symptomatology of existing remedies of the Papaveraceae family.