Gnaphalium polycephalum
Made from cudweed — the woolly everlasting of American meadows, and the classical remedy of the sciatica with numbness.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a sciatic nerve that burns then numbs: intense sciatic pain down the back of the thigh and leg, worse lying and sitting, relieved by flexing the leg on the abdomen or walking bent; and between the pains, a creeping numbness of the part. The sciatica-with-numbness remedy: that is Gnaphalium.
The substance, in plain words
Cudweed is the woolly, everlasting-flowered herb of American meadows, its leaves once used in the smoking mixtures of the Indigenous peoples. Its chemistry is modest but real — the cudweed's essential oils are genuinely active. The proving gave the remedy its sciatic portrait.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety with the pain. Worry and dread of the next paroxysm, worse at night.
- Irritability. Cross from the constant, exhausting nerve pain.
- Despondency. Gloomy in the chronic, recurrent states.
The body
- Sciatica with numbness. The keynote: intense sciatic pain running down the posterior thigh and leg, with creeping numbness of the part — the books' celebrated combination.
- Worse lying and sitting. Recumbency and sitting drive the pain wild; the sufferer must move.
- Better for flexing the thigh. Drawing the leg up on the abdomen, or walking bent, relieves — the quoted amelioration.
- Chronic rheumatic pains. The books extend it to the chronic rheumatic pains of the damp season.
- Worse damp cold and night. Wet weather and the night bring the lightning down the nerve.
- Better for gentle motion. Moving gently about eases the nerve; rest and pressure aggravate.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| lying down; sitting; damp cold weather; night. | flexing the thigh; gentle motion; walking bent. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Sciatic nerve and lower limbs, general nerves, rheumatic tissue.
Where the classical picture comes from
The cudweed's proving gave the sciatica-with-numbness portrait — one of the library's most precise nerve pictures; Gnaphalium became the classical remedy of the posterior sciatic pain that only flexion relieves.
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.
Cudweed's essential-oil chemistry is genuinely active — studied for anti-inflammatory effects in laboratory models — though no drug emerged. The sciatica it portrayed is now neurology's and pain medicine's: examined, imaged and treated with real, effective modern pharmacology when it persists.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Colocynthis | Sciatica | Colocynthis' sciatica is pressure-and-doubling-loving; Gnaphalium's is flexion-and-motion-loving. |
| Magnesia phosphorica | Sciatic cramping | Mag-phos' is heat-and-pressure-loving; Gnaphalium's burns then numbs. |
| Rhus toxicodendron | Better motion | Rhus' is the stiff, damp-worse whole body; Gnaphalium the single sciatic nerve with the numbness. |
| Arsenicum album | Burning nerve pains | Arsenicum's burn at midnight with the anxiety; Gnaphalium's burn then numb down the nerve. |