Convallaria majalis
Made from lily of the valley — the May flower whose convallatoxin was an official cardiac glycoside drug, and the classical remedy of the dropsied heart.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a heart too weak to move its blood: breathlessness on the least effort, a fluttering irregular pulse, fluid gathering in the tissues, urine scanty and dark, and a curious compensation — the heart feels better when the circulation is gently used. The dropsied fluttering heart: that is Convallaria.
The substance, in plain words
Lily of the valley is the fragrant May flower of northern gardens. Its cardiac glycosides — convallatoxin and convalloside — are genuinely potent: Convallaria preparations were official heart drugs in several pharmacopoeias, working like gentler cousins of digitalis.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety of the cardiac. Fear of death, of the heart stopping, worse at night.
- Irritability. Cross, worse from excitement, which exhausts.
- Despondency. Gloomy resignation in the chronic failure states.
The body
- Fluttering weak heart. The keynote: irregular, fluttering, feeble action with dyspnea — the books' dropsy-of-the-heart remedy.
- Dropsy with scanty urine. Fluid in the tissues, scanty dark urine; compensation by gentle motion.
- Better for gentle motion. The heart feels easier moving about slowly than sitting still — the quoted peculiarity.
- Breathlessness lying. Must sit up; the books note the orthopnea of the dropsied cardiac.
- Blue lips, cold hands. Cyanosis and chilliness with the failing circulation.
- Worse exertion and excitement. Any strain, mental or physical, flutters the beat.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| exertion; excitement; lying flat; warmth. | gentle motion; open air; lying propped. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Heart muscle and rhythm, kidneys and fluid balance, circulation, respiration.
Where the classical picture comes from
The May flower's glycoside chemistry gave the proving the dropsied-heart portrait; in the dispensatories Convallaria was a working cardiac drug, and the remedy served exactly the patients the drug served — the dropsied, fluttering, scanty-urined cardiac.
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.
Convallaria's glycosides were genuine, official cardiac drugs — used for heart failure and rhythm well into the twentieth century in several countries. The lily of the valley thus joins foxglove, pheasant's eye and hawthorn in this batch as sources whose chemistry actually was licensed cardiology.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Digitalis purpurea | Heart failure with dropsy | Digitalis is slow and nauseated; Convallaria is fluttering, dropsied and motion-better. |
| Crataegus oxyacantha | Tired heart | Crataegus is the gently running-down heart; Convallaria the dropsied, positional one. |
| Adonis vernalis | Irritable renal heart | Adonis is the kidney-linked fluttering heart; Convallaria the dropsied, orthopneic one. |
| Apocynum cannabinum | Dropsy with scanty urine | Apocynum is thirstless and sinking with the dropsy; Convallaria fluttering with the beat. |