Juglans cinerea
Made from butternut bark — the 'American jalap' of the old dispensatories, whose juglone chemistry is a genuine allelopathic weapon, and the classical liver remedy.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a torpid liver announcing itself: an occipital headache like a tight band, a liver region that feels full and sore, itching of the whole skin without eruption, yellow-tinged whites of the eyes, and a dragging, sour stomach. Liver torpor, occipital band, itching without rash: that is Juglans cinerea.
The substance, in plain words
Butternut is the North American walnut relative whose inner bark was exported to Europe as a purgative — 'American jalap' of the official dispensatories. Its juglone chemistry defends the tree against rivals in the soil, a real allelopathic weapon; the proving gave the sluggish-liver portrait of the classical books.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Low spirits and dullness. Gloomy, indifferent, averse to mental effort with the liver state.
- Irritability. Crossness in the morning with the headache and the sour stomach.
- Restlessness of the mind. Unquiet thoughts despite physical lethargy.
The body
- Occipital band headache. The keynote: pressure as of a band or cord about the head, worst at the occiput.
- Liver fullness. Right upper abdomen heavy and tender; appetite lost, bowels sluggish; jaundice tendency.
- Itching without eruption. Generalised itch of the skin with nothing visible — the books' internal-itch remedy.
- Sour stomach. Sour eructations, nausea, aversion to fatty food.
- Burning anus. Burning and smarting at the anus with the sluggish stool.
- Worse morning and after eating. The whole picture worse on waking and after meals.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| morning; fatty food; alcohol; eating | loosening clothing; open air; after stool. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Liver and portal system, skin (pruritus), bowels, head.
Where the classical picture comes from
Butternut's official career as a laxative gave the remedy its proving picture — hepatic torpor, sour stomach, occipital band — and the old books applied it to the bilious headaches and itchy skins of the constipated, well-fed constitution.
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.
Butternut bark held an official place in the dispensatories as a real laxative — a genuine botanical drug of the nineteenth century, since retired. Its juglone remains studied as an allelochemical with antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties. The tree's chemistry is authentic even if its drug career is history.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Chelidonium majus | Liver, right shoulder pain | Chelidonium's liver pain shoots to the right scapula with jaundice; Juglans is the band-head and internal-itch picture. |
| Nux vomica | Liver, sour stomach, irritability | Nux is fiery and spasmodic; Juglans is torpid and band-headed. |
| Taraxacum | Liver, sour digestion | Taraxacum is the disordered-stomach liver remedy mapping to the tongue; Juglans the occipital band. |
| Dolichos pruriens | Itching without eruption | Dolichos is the classical internal-itch remedy of old age and jaundice; Juglans the hepatic one. |