Menispermum
Made from the Canadian moonseed — the vine of the northern woods, and the classical Eclectic remedy of the bilious and the jaundiced.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a liver that sours everything: the bilious headaches and nausea of the books, the jaundiced tint and the yellowed eye, the sick-headache of the hepatic chapter, and the climbing vine of the northern woods. The bilious-vine remedy: that is Menispermum.
The substance, in plain words
The moonseed is the climbing vine of the northern American woods, its crescent seeds warning of the genuine alkaloids it carries — and a genuine drug of the old Eclectic school for the bilious and the jaundiced. The proving gave the vine the hepatic portrait.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety and irritability. Cross, worried, worse with the bilious state and the morning.
- Gloom of the liver. The books' bilious melancholy — the heavy mood of the hepatic chapter.
- Dullness. Heavy mind with the congested liver.
The body
- Bilious headaches and nausea. The keynote: the sick-headache and nausea of the bilious constitution — the books' great use.
- Jaundiced tint. The yellow skin and eye of the hepatic chapter.
- Worse fats and rich food. The rich meal thickens the bilious state.
- Worse cold damp and morning. Wet weather and the waking hours aggravate.
- Better for the bile flowing and rest. The flowing bile and rest ease the vine state.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| fats and rich food; cold damp weather; morning; exertion. | the bile flowing; rest; warmth. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Liver and bile, digestion, head (bilious headache), general vitality.
Where the classical picture comes from
The Eclectic vine's proving gave the bilious portrait; Menispermum became the classical remedy of the bilious headache and the jaundiced tint — the moonseed of the northern woods serving the liver of the old school.
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.
The moonseed's real career is the woods and the warning — its alkaloids genuinely toxic, its medical career an Eclectic footnote beside its better-known relatives. The bilious states it portrayed are now hepatology's and gastroenterology's: the jaundice imaged, the liver tested, the sick-headache diagnosed. The vine's chemistry is real; its portrait's answers are modern.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Chelidonium majus | Bilious, right side | Chelidonium shoots to the right scapula and is food-better; Menispermum is the bilious headache and the jaundice. |
| Iris versicolor | Sick-headache | Iris' sick-headache ends in sour burning vomit; Menispermum's is the bilious, jaundiced one. |
| Carduus marianus | Liver | Carduus is the engorged, positional liver; Menispermum the bilious vine. |
| Taraxacum officinale | Torpid liver | Taraxacum maps the tongue and chills after food; Menispermum sours the whole hepatic chapter. |