Ptelea
Made from the wafer ash bark — the hop-tree of the American riverbanks, an official tonic of the old dispensaries, and the classical remedy of the torpid liver and the sick-headache.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a liver that turns every meal against its owner: the nausea and the heavy fullness after eating, the sick-headache of the hepatic chapter, the constipation and the bitter taste, and the hop-tree of the riverbanks. The meal-turning liver: that is Ptelea.
The substance, in plain words
The wafer ash is the hop-tree of the American riverbanks, its bitter bark an official tonic of the old dispensaries for the liver and the sluggish digestion — a genuine working drug of the pre-modern stomach shelf. The proving gave the bark the hepatic portrait.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Gloom and irritability. The cross, low-spirited bilious state, worse after eating and in the morning.
- Anxiety about health. Worry over the digestion, the headaches, the chronicity.
- Dullness. Heavy mind with the torpid liver.
The body
- Nausea and fullness after eating. The keynote: the nausea and the heavy, full oppression after every meal — the books' great use.
- Sick-headache of the hepatic chapter. The bilious sick-headache of the same state.
- Constipation and bitter taste. The bound bowel and the bitter mouth of the torpid liver.
- Worse fats and rich food. The rich meal thickens the whole 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 hop-tree state.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| fats and rich food; cold damp weather; morning; eating. | the bile flowing; rest; warmth. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Liver and bile, stomach and digestion, head (sick-headache), bowels.
Where the classical picture comes from
The official bitter bark's proving gave the meal-turning portrait; Ptelea became the classical remedy of the torpid liver and the sick-headache — the hop-tree of the riverbanks serving the stomach its bark was dug 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.
The wafer ash was a genuine, official tonic of the old dispensaries — its bitter bark really does move the bile and the stomach, the mechanism of every honest bitter. The liver it portrayed is now hepatology's; the sick-headache is neurology's and gastroenterology's. The bark's chemistry is real, its career a chapter of the bitter era.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Iris versicolor | Sick-headache | Iris' ends in the sour burning vomit; Ptelea's is the nausea and fullness after eating. |
| Menispermum canadense | Bilious chapter | Menispermum is the bilious headache and the jaundice; Ptelea the nausea after eating. |
| Chelidonium majus | Liver and right side | Chelidonium shoots to the right scapula and is food-better; Ptelea is the meal-turning nausea. |
| Quassia amara | The bitter tonics | Quassia is the appetite-forgotten bitter; Ptelea the hop-tree of the meal-turning liver. |