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Calendula officinalis L.
Compiled and edited by Ivor Hughes.

 

Introduction.
Marigold is a wonderful wound cleanser and healer and as such may be made into an ointment for that purpose. Its designated title 'Official' speaks of its lasting utility as a healing plant. Although the orthodox school are scathing. Experience teaches us that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. 

Homeopathically inclined surgeons use the tincture to swab out wounds. A strong infusion of 1 pint  in 3 pints of warm water (500 ml in 1.5 lt.) makes a good foot bath for many of the fungal conditions of the feet. It is readily available and flowers across a number of months.

Never Harvest the same plant flowers more than twice. Give the plant chance to recover from the ordeal.

1. Martindale�s 24^th.
Calendula (B.P.C. 1934). Marigold Flowers. The dried ligulate florets of the garden marigold, Calendula officinalis (Composite).

It contains a bitter principle, traces of an essential oil, and a tasteless yellow substance, calendulin. It is said to have diaphoretic, diuretic, and stimulant properties but it is doubtful whether it has any action beyond that of a mild aromatic.

Tincture of Calendula (B.P.C. 1934) (1 in 5) has been used in doses of 5 to 20 minims for amenorrhea and as a lotion ( diluted with 10 to 20 parts of water) for sprains and bruises.

2. U.S.D. 21^st 1926.
CALENDULA. N. F. CALENDULA.
Calend. [Marigold] Marigold, Mary-bud, Holligold; Fleurs de Tous les Mois, Souci, FT.; Ringelblume, Todtenblume. Goldblumen, G.; Calendula, Sp.
Calendula consists of the dried ligulate florets of Calendula officinalis L. (Fam. Composite). Calendula contains not more than 2 per cent, of foreign organic matter. N. F.

An annual, ornamental herb with spatulate or oblanceolate leaves having toothed margins and terminal flower-heads of yellow to orange-colored ray- and disk-florets. French or African Marigold, so called, is very frequently substituted for the official drug. It is the Tagetes patula L., and T. erecta Linn., both of Mexico. The flowers are readily distinguished by the scales of the involucre being united to form a tube, and by the slender, flattish achenes being crowned with a few chaffy or awned scales. The broadly strap-shaped ray-florets are toothed, and of a light or deep orange color sometimes striped with red. Latour and Magnier de la Source isolated from African marigold a yellow crystalline substance, quercetagetin, which Perkin examined and gave the composition C₁₅H₁₀O₈ (P.J., 1902, 294.) The odor is much stronger in the fresh than in the dry flowers, and on exposure to light, the orange-red or yellow color fades.

Description and Physical Properties.� Unground Calendula.� Florets from 15 to 25 mm. long, yellow- or orange-colored, 1- to 3-toothed, 4- to 5-veined, margin nearly entire, the short hairy tube occasionally enclosing the remnant of a filiform style and bifid stigma. Odor slight, somewhat heavy; taste slightly bitter, faintly saline.

Powdered Calendula. � Light yellow to orange-yellow; a few characteristic, non-glandular hairs, consisting of a double row of thin-walled, more or less collapsed cells with a 1- or 2-celled apex, and up to 0.950 mm. long; elongated epidermal cells with thin, somewhat wavy walls, a striated surface, and containing irregular chromoplasts and oil-like globules, the latter coalescing when mounted in chloral hydrate T.S.; pollen grains, more or less spherical, with numerous spinose projections, three-pored, and up to 0.045 mm, in diameter; tracheae about 0.009 mm. in width with spiral or annular markings, prisms or rosettes of calcium oxalate from 0.002 to 0.006 mm. in diameter." N. F.

It contains traces of a volatile oil, a bitter principle, and an amorphous tasteless substance called calendulin (discovered by Geiger most abundantly in the flowers) which swells up in water and is considered by Berzelius as analogous to bassorin, though soluble in alcohol.

Uses. � In the days of therapeutic darkness calendula was thought to be medicinally active, but it has no virtues beyond that of a feeble aromatic. Both the leaves and the flowers were used; but the latter were preferred, and were usually administered in the recent state in the form of tea. It has also been used as a local application in various inflamed conditions of the skin or mucous membranes and even as a stimulant to wounds and ulcers.

Dose, from fifteen to sixty grains (0.9-3.9 Gin.).

Off. Prep. � Fluidextractum Calendula, N. F.; Tinctura Calendulas, N. F.

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3 Boerickes Homoeopathic Materia Medica.

CALENDULA OFFICINALIS.
CALENDULA OFFICINALIS (Marigold)
A most remarkable healing agent, applied locally. Useful for open wounds, parts that will not heal, ulcers, etc. Promotes healthy granulations and rapid healing by first intention. Haemostatic after tooth extraction. Deafness. Catarrhal conditions. Neuroma.

Constitutional; tendency to erysipelas. Pain is excessive and out of all proportion to injury. Great disposition to take cold, especially in damp weather. Paralysis after apoplexy. Cancer, as an intercurrent remedy. Has remarkable power to produce local exudation and helps to make acrid discharge healthy and free. Cold hands.

Head. � Extremely nervous; easily frightened; tearing headache; weight on brain. Submaxillary glands swollen, painful to touch. Pain in right side of neck. Lacerated scalp wounds.

Eyes. � Injuries to eyes which tend to suppuration; after operations; blenorrhoea of lachrymal sac.

Ears. � Deafness; worse in damp surroundings and with eczematous conditions. Hears best on a train, and distant sounds.

Nose. � Coryza in one nostril; with much green discharge.

Stomach. � Hunger immediately after nursing. Bulimia. Heartburn with horripilations. Nausea in chest. Vomiting. Sinking sensation. Epigastric distention.

Respiratory. Cough, with green expectoration, hoarseness; with distention of inguinal ring.

Female. � Warts at the os externum. Menses suppressed, with cough. Chronic endocervicitis. Uterine hypertrophy, sensation of weight and fullness in pelvis; stretching and dragging in groin; pain on sudden movements. Os lower than natural. Menorrhagia.

Skin. � Yellow; goose-flesh. Promotes favorable cicatrization, with least amount of suppuration. Slough, proud flesh, and raised edges. Superficial burns and scalds. Erysipelas (use topically).

Fever. � Coldness, great sensitiveness to open air; shuddering in back, skin feels warm to touch. Heat in evening. Modalities.� Worse, in damp, heavy, cloudy weather.

Relationship.� Compare: Hamamel.; Hyperic.; Symph.; Arn.

Compare in deafness: Fen. pic.; Kal. iod.; Calc.; Mag. ,c; Graph.

Antidote: Chelidon.; Rheum.

Complementary: Hepar

Dose. � Locally. Aqueous Calendula [Marigoldin.] for all wounds, the greatest healing agent. Also as an injection in leucorrhoea; internally, tincture, to third potency. For burns, sores, fissures, and abrasions, etc., use Calendula Cerate.

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