Chelidonium majus
Made from greater celandine — the yellow-latex herb of European walls whose alkaloids remain active subjects of pharmacological research.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of the liver speaking through the back: pain under the right ribs that shoots straight to the right shoulder blade, a yellow tinge to skin and eyes, a thickly coated yellow tongue, and — the surprising keynote — relief from eating a little and from hot drinks. Right scapula pain, jaundice, better for food: that is Chelidonium.
The substance, in plain words
Greater celandine is the wall-side herb whose broken stem bleeds orange latex — the alkaloid signature of the poppy family it belongs to. Chelidonine, chelerythrine and sanguinarine are genuinely bioactive alkaloids, still researched for liver, antimicrobial and anti-tumour effects.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Cross indifference. Irritable, gloomy, averse to company; the books paint a resigned bilious temperament.
- Anxiety with liver states. Fear of sickness, fixed on the right-sided pain.
- Dullness. Slow thinking with the coated tongue and the jaundiced heaviness.
The body
- Pain to the right scapula. The keynote: hepatic pain boring through to the right shoulder blade — a path so characteristic the old books made it a signature.
- Jaundice picture. Yellow skin and eyes, pale or clay stool, dark urine, itching skin.
- Coated yellow tongue. Thick yellow coating, teeth-marks at the edges, bitter taste.
- Better for eating. The famous amelioration: the stomach and liver pains ease after eating, unlike almost every other gastric remedy.
- Worse right side. Everything right: right hypochondrium, right shoulder, right side of the tongue.
- Worse motion and touch. The liver region cannot bear touch or jarring; must move carefully.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| motion and jarring; touch of the liver region; right side; damp weather. | eating a little; hot drinks; lying on the left |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Liver and gall-bladder, right shoulder region, digestion, bile ducts.
Where the classical picture comes from
The latex alkaloids proved on the liver region: right-sided pain, yellow coating, jaundice. Clinically Chelidonium became the remedy of the bilious, jaundiced, right-scapula-pained patient — the portrait of every 'liverish' constitution of the era.
The substance in real medicine Pharmacology
What this section is: the pharmacology and toxicology of the source substance. It is not clinical evidence that a homeopathic preparation of it treats any condition. What controlled trials do and do not show is set out on the Evidence page.
Celandine's alkaloids are real pharmacology under study: chelerythrine shows antimicrobial and anti-cancer activity in laboratory models, and the herb persists in European phytomedicine for biliary complaints — though its liver toxicity at crude doses is also documented, a genuine warning. The remedy's source is a two-edged plant, exactly as the portrait suggests.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Lycopodium clavatum | Right-sided complaints, liver | Lycopodium is the flatulent, 4–8 p.m., right-kidney remedy; Chelidonium the jaundiced, scapula-shooting one. |
| Bryonia alba | Worse motion, irritable | Bryonia is dry, thirsty and stitching everywhere; Chelidonium is bilious, jaundiced and food-better. |
| Nux vomica | Irritable, digestive | Nux is stimulant-born and spasmodic; Chelidonium is jaundiced with the right-scapula path. |
| Carduus marianus | Liver engorgement | Carduus is the engorged, stitching liver with left-side intolerance; Chelidonium the jaundiced scapula-shooter. |