Iberis amara
Made from candytuft — the bitter annual of the old physic garden, half of the genuinely modern digestive combination Iberogast, and the classical remedy of the gasping palpitation.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a heart that flutters with the stomach: violent palpitations with vertigo and the sensation of the heart stopping, the gasping breath of the proving, the heartburn and flatulence of the digestive chapter, and the books' great candytuft remedy. The fluttering-heart remedy: that is Iberis.
The substance, in plain words
Candytuft is the bitter annual of the old physic gardens, its seeds and leaves genuinely among the most bitter of the pharmacy — and its modern career is real and current: Iberis is a principal ingredient of Iberogast, the standardised combination studied and prescribed across Europe for functional dyspepsia and heartburn. The proving gave the plant the palpitation portrait.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety of the palpitations. The dread of the fluttering heart, the fear it will stop — worse at night.
- Irritability. Cross from the constant flutter and the gas.
- Despondency. Gloomy in the chronic, recurrent states.
The body
- Violent palpitations with vertigo. The keynote: violent palpitations with the vertigo and the sensation that the heart stops — the books' great characteristic.
- Gasping respiration. The proving's gasping, sighing breath of the heart chapter.
- Heartburn and flatulence. The digestive half of the picture — the bitterness serving the stomach it disturbs.
- Worse lying and exertion. Recumbency and effort bring the flutter.
- Worse cold damp. Wet weather aggravates.
- Better for rest and eructation. Rest, and the wind coming up, ease the heart.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| lying down; exertion; cold damp weather; the least motion. | rest; eructation; warmth. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Heart and palpitations, stomach and digestion, respiration, general vitality.
Where the classical picture comes from
The physic-garden bitter's proving gave the fluttering-heart portrait; Iberis became the classical remedy of the palpitation with the vertigo — and its modern descendant Iberogast serves the dyspepsia the same plant was grown for.
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.
Iberis's modern career is genuinely current: candytuft is a principal ingredient of Iberogast, the standardised herbal combination with clinical evidence in functional dyspepsia, used across Germany and beyond — a real, licensed-adjacent digestive medicine carrying the plant into the twenty-first century. The palpitations it portrayed are now cardiology's; the dyspepsia the plant serves is met by a real medicine bearing its name.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Digitalis purpurea | Fluttering heart | Digitalis is the slow, irregular, nauseated heart; Iberis is the flutter with the vertigo and the gas. |
| Lobelia inflata | Heart and stomach | Lobelia's asthma is married to the nausea; Iberis's palpitation to the dyspepsia. |
| Carbo vegetabilis | Gas and sinking | Carbo-veg is the bloated, fanned collapse; Iberis the fluttering heart with the bitter stomach. |
| Nux vomica | Dyspepsia, irritability | Nux is fiery and spasmodic; Iberis is the bitter garden remedy with the flutter. |