Matricaria Chamomilla,
L
Matricaria (U S P)
Part used : Flower heads.
Nat.
Ord. : Compositae.
Common name : German chamomile.
Botanical Source :
A branching
annual, having a stem from 1 to 2 feet high, with alternate, smooth, deep
green, pinnate leaves.
History and
Description : This
plant is found in wastes and fields in Europe northward to Finland,
and is cultivated in this country by our German population. It is likewise
found in Asia in the temperate localities, and, through naturalization, has
become one of the plants of Australia. All parts of the plant are
medicinal, but the flowers are generally employed.
Chemical Composition : In addition to the ordinary
constituents of plants, matricaria contains a small portion of tannin and
tannates, malates, bitter extractive, and a volatile oil.
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage : Matricaria is usually listed as having properties similar to
anthemis, but of less activity. It has, however, come to be preferred over
the latter by Eclectic practitioners, and is now an important remedy with
us, particularly in affections of young children. It has two particular
specific fields of action--one upon the nervous system, subduing nervous
irritability, and the other upon the gastro-intestinal tract, relieving
irritation. Upon the nervous system its action is most pronounced, affecting
both the sensory and motor nerves. It is peculiarly adapted to the nervous
manifestations of dentition, and in other affections where there seems to be
a morbid susceptibility to pain. Earache, rheumatic and neuralgic pains,
abdominal neuroses, etc., are relieved by it when the nervous apprehension
is all out of proportion to the actual amount of pain experienced. A
matricaria patient is restless, irritable, discontented, and impatient, and,
if a child, is only appeased when continually carried. In pregnancy, it
relieves nervous twitching, cough, false pains, etc., accompanied by great
unrest.
It should be borne in mind, however, that it is not the gross dose of
matricaria that will overcome these morbid, nervous phenomena, but the
small, or almost minute dose. It is one of those agents, and we have many,
that exert their peculiar effects only in small doses, yet can be used
without harm in large doses, but without the peculiar benefit derived from
the smaller amounts. It relieves the erethism producing hysteria--a little
slowly, perhaps, but its effects are lasting--and for the conditions that
threaten infantile convulsions, during dentition, it is one of the most
certain of drugs. Either small or large doses of matricaria (specific or
infusion) are of value in amenorrhoea, with sense of weight and heaviness in
the womb, and bloating of the abdomen, accompanied with sudden nervous
explosions of irascibility. The infusion, given to the extent of producing
free diaphoresis, relieves dysmenorrhoea, with labor-like pains, and tends
to prevent the formation of clots. Various painful conditions, due to
contracting colds, are relieved by matricaria infusion associated with
aconite. Among these may be mentioned earache, rheumatism, catarrhal
affections of the bowels, ears, nose, and eyes. Locally, it has been used as
a wash for leucorrhoea, mammary abscess, ulcerating bubo, and catarrhal
conjunctivitis.
Specific Indications and Uses : Nervous irritability, with peevishness,
fretfulness, discontent, and impatience; sudden fits of temper during the
catamenial period; muscular twitching; morbid sensitiveness to pain; head
sweats easily; alvine discharges, fetid, greenish and watery, and of green
mucus with curds of milk, or of yellow and white flocculi, associated with
flatulence, colic, and excoriation of the anal outlet; a remedy particularly
fitted for the disorders of dentition, and to correct the condition
threatening to end in dentition convulsions.
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