Oleander
Made from the oleander leaf — the garden shrub whose oleandrin is a genuine cardiac glycoside poison, and the classical remedy of the weeping skin and the involuntary stool.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a heart and a skin in concert: palpitations with a weak, irregular beat, an eczema of the scalp and behind the ears that weeps and crusts, and the books' odd pairing — involuntary stool passing with the urine — in a person worn thin by both. The weeping-skin-and-heart remedy: that is Oleander.
The substance, in plain words
Oleander is the beautiful, deadly garden shrub of the Mediterranean, its leaves carrying oleandrin — a genuine cardiac glycoside, kin to foxglove's chemistry, dangerous enough that a single leaf can poison a child. The proving gave the remedy its dual portrait of heart and weeping skin.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Anxiety and sadness. Worry over the palpitations and the skin, gloom in the chronic states.
- Irritability. Cross, worse from contradiction and heat.
- Forgetfulness. The books note a foggy, forgetful mind with the complaints.
The body
- Palpitations, weak and irregular. The keynote: fluttering, irregular heart-action with a sense of weakness — the oleandrin shadow.
- Eczema of scalp and ears. The weeping, crusted eczema of the scalp margin and behind the ears.
- Involuntary stool with urine. The celebrated pairing — stool escapes as urine passes — the books' confirmatory sign.
- Weakness after stool. Profound exhaustion following the involuntary evacuations.
- Worse cold damp and night. Wet weather and night deepen the heart and the skin.
- Better for rest and quiet. Rest and quiet steady the heart and the skin.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| cold damp weather; night; exertion; emotional excitement. | rest; quiet; moderate warmth. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Heart and circulation, skin (weeping eczema of scalp), bowels, general vitality.
Where the classical picture comes from
The deadly shrub's proving gave the heart-and-weeping-skin portrait; the old books applied it to the palpitating, eczematous constitutions — and the plant's own glycoside chemistry explains the cardiac half of the picture.
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.
Oleandrin is genuinely a cardiac glycoside — the same molecular family as digoxin — and oleander poisoning is a real, documented emergency in every warm region of the world, its heart-toxicity precisely the toxicology of the digitalis family. No drug came of this shrub (its chemistry is too dangerous); its portrait in the library is the poison's faithful mirror.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Digitalis purpurea | Weak irregular heart | Digitalis is slow and nauseated with dropsy; Oleander is the weeping-skin cousin of the same glycoside family. |
| Graphites | Weeping crusted skin | Graphites oozes sticky honey behind the ears; Oleander weeps with the heart beside it. |
| Petroleum | Crusty weeping skin | Petroleum cracks in winter cold; Oleander weeps with the palpitations. |
| Muriaticum acidum | Involuntary stool | Muriatic's stool escapes with the protruding piles; Oleander's with the urine and the weeping skin. |