Saponinum
Clarke - Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · John Henry Clarke · 10,167 chars · source ↗
General
Saponinum.
Saponin. (A glucoside obtained from Saponaria officinalis, Gypsophila, Struthium, Senega, Quillaja, &c.) C32H54O18. Trituration. Solution. (Watery solutions speedily decompose.)
Clinical
Boils. Constipation. Diarrhoea. Dysmenia. Enuresis, when walking. Exophthalmos. Fever. Headache. Leucorrhoea. Rheumatism. Sleeplessness. Spleen, pains in. Strabismus. Temperature lowered. Tongue, strawberry.
Characteristics
Saponin. has had a somewhat extensive proving (in potencies ranging from 1x to 30th), conducted by A. J. Hills. One prover, who took the 30th, for many years a sufferer from articular rheumatism, had none of his usual pains during the proving, and a great enlargement of the left knee was entirely removed.
Two female provers had marked disturbance of the menstrual functions, especially pain and sufferings before the flow. A miliary eruption, and colic and leucorrhoea before the menses, pain better but not removed when the flow was established. Severe sore throat, < right side, was experienced by several provers, and Hills had so much swelling of the tonsils that he was obliged to abandon the proving. Nausea and vomiting, colic and diarrhoea, were among the symptoms, and a particular one was "nausea more in oesophagus and throat, < in a warm room." This < by warmth was met with in relation to many symptoms, and is probably a keynote.
At the same time there was much chilliness, and lowered temperature is a characteristic feature. One of the provers who took the 12th had had his temperature reduced to 96° on the second day. Allen (Appendix) records an experiment which bears on this: 0.1 gramme of Saponin. was injected into the left thigh of a man. The immediate effect was to produce intense local inflammation resembling erysipelas, but much more painful; the pain extended to knee and hip, and the glands of the groin swelled.
For the first three hours there was rapid increase of temperature, which fell to normal in twenty-four hours. The next two days there was a little fever, evidently kept up by the local irritation, but by the fifth day the temperature had fallen to 93° and the pulse to 65. (The intense local irritation bears on the skin symptoms of the proving, large numbers of boils being produced.) The other symptoms of this experiment were marked bodily and mental depression; and exophthalmos and strabismus of the left eye (the side injected).
Among the Peculiar Symptoms of Sap. are: Involuntary emission of urine when walking. Roughness of mucous membrane of mouth, with raised papillae on palate and tongue. Strawberry tongue. The symptoms were markedly < by moving; even motion of the eyes < mental labour.
< By warmth. > By cold; by cold bathing; while sitting. < Swallowing. Desire to vomit and defecate, < when quiet.
> By stool; by onset of menses.
Relations
Compare: Tough mucus, K. bi. > Onset of menses, Lach. Spleen pain, Cean. Kidney pain, Santal. < By movement; moving eyes, Bry. Sleepy but cannot sleep, Bell. Early waking, Bels., Nux. < In warm room, Puls. As if damp stockings on, Calc., Sanic. Strawberry tongue, Frag., Bac. Involuntary emission of urine when walking, Fer., Caust. Compare also, Seneg.
Mind
Marked bodily and mental depression
Irritable; cross; wants to be let alone
Disinclined to study
Inability to fix mind; to recall names.
Head
Dizziness and nausea on stooping
Dizziness followed the vomiting
Dull, heavy headache, with depression;
< 4-6 p.m
After moving about in morning, dull, heavy sensation in head, mostly forehead, esp. over l. orbit, < stooping; eyeball sore and aches; later pain spreads to occiput; heat in forehead > pressure and cold, much < bending over
Headache < by least mental labour or motion
Severe pain in head, with throbbing carotids;
< l. side
Head exceedingly irritable, cannot turn it or even move eyes without causing nausea
Headache in temples; sensation as if both temples were pressed out
Sharp pain in l. temple.
Eyes
Could not turn eyes up or around they felt so sore; moving them = pain to dart back to occiput
Sensation of fulness in eyes, evening
Conjunctiva yellow and a little congested
Vision dull
Pain, exophthalmos and strabismus of l. eye (from a subcutaneous injection into l. thigh).
Nose
Dry coryza and frequent sneezing
R. nostril plugged in morning, with headache
Dull pain at root of nose and in temples
Nose cold and pale.
Face
Miliary eruption on face, neck, and head before menses
Face pale
Lips dry and burning.
Mouth
Tongue coated yellowish white on back; red on tip and edges; raised papillae (strawberry tongue), esp. on tip
Tongue brown in centre, deep yellow on edges
Hard palate rough
Salivation
Taste: sweet, sickish; flat; acrid.
Throat
Tough, tenacious mucus on posterior nares, extending to larynx
Throat sore, < r. side, feeling of constriction, hardly able to swallow
Throat: smarting, scraping, raw, rough
Irritation as from dust
Tonsils much swollen, bright red.
Stomach
No appetite
Loathing of food for two days till nausea set in
Thirst not > by drinking
Nausea, retching, vomiting of greenish-yellow fluid; with agonising pain in both temples, which disappeared as desire to vomit was >
On returning home one cold night from place of amusement nausea in oesophagus and throat as soon as she got comfortably warm; as nausea increased cold feeling began at tips of fingers and toes and slowly spread to abdomen, where they met, giving an electric-like shock; then followed griping pain and diarrhoea and vomiting
Sinking at pit of stomach without appetite; with fulness and heat in forehead.
Abdomen
Dull pain in l. hypochondrium, changing to epigastrium, very severe, then shooting up under l. scapula, < motion, > sitting
Painful stitches in l. hypochondrium
Dull pain in umbilical region after each stool
Colic 3 a.m. on waking
For twenty-four hours preceding menses, colic, cramps, and profuse watery leucorrhoea, > when menses established
Sudden colic, > immediately by stool
Pain in l. inguinal region.
Stool And Anus
Intense itching in rectum, afternoon and night
Burning in rectum
Smarting in anus, with constipation
Constant urging, stool insufficient, rather white
Desire for stool in evening as well as morning
Diarrhoea with tenesmus
Stool: profuse diarrhoeic, painless but urgent; with colic; first hard, then liquid, becomes involuntary; brownish, slimy; desire to defecate or vomit as soon as there is a little ease, both < by warmth.
Urinary Organs
Kidneys torpid; sharp pain in region of r. kidney
Burning during micturition
Waked early to pass water, which left brickdust sediment
Involuntary emission of water on walking
Urine more profuse and high-coloured.
Female Sexual Organs
Menses delayed and diminished
Menses: a week early; profuse, < on motion; blood dark red; paralysed bearing down all through period (unusual); before menses, shuddering all over body, intolerable aching in back and lower limbs; wants to be let alone
Colic with menses
For twenty-four hours preceding menses, colic, cramps, and profuse watery leucorrhoea; when menses established pain was less, but persisted through the four days of the period, leaving her weak and depressed
Fine miliary eruption on face, neck, and head before menses.
Respiratory Organs
At 4 p.m. peculiar cough, which is excited at every forced inspiration through nose, only one cough at a time.
Chest
Formication deep in tissue of lung
Repeated sharp stabbing in r. lung; middle lobe; dull aching in l. lung
Dull pains through thorax
At time of chill constriction in l. chest.
Heart
Dull pain in region of heart.—Pulse: accelerated; weak, hardly perceptible.
Back
Back and limbs tired walking, boots feel extremely heavy
Dull throbbing in l. scapula, running up
Severe dull pain in small of back, and sense of weight as if all clothes hanging from back; this sense of supporting a heavy weight extended to hips and knees, < from jar of riding in horse cars
Dull aching in lumbo-sacral region, extending down thighs, with increased tingling in soles
Lancinating pains in loins, < walking.
Limbs
Exhausted, weary feeling in limbs, with slight inclination to nausea.—Weakness in hands and feet.
Upper Limbs
Sudden pain in l. arm, apparently muscular, in region of insertion of deltoid; arms weak, muscles exhausted, as after lifting heavy weights
Pain in bones of l. forearm
Numbness and tingling in l. third and little fingers (ulnar nerve).
Lower Limbs
Dull aching in lower limbs; and l. loin; muscular pains
Dull pain in l. lower limb
Aching in calves
Soles sore, swollen, tender, numb, and tingling.
Generalities
Restlessness.—Muscular weakness.—Exhaustion.—Faintness: and prostration; with the chill.
Skin
Miliary eruption before menses
Angry-looking pustules on chest
Boils, single or in crops
Itching and crawling tingling in various parts.
Sleep
Sleepy
Sleepy but cannot sleep
Cannot sleep well after 4 or 5 a.m
Waking early, 5.30 a.m.
(a very unusual symptom with the prover)
Sleep disturbed by dreams; dreamed of urinating.
Fever
Slight chill accompanied by faintness
Severe chill over back on going into warm room
As nausea increased an icy feeling crept up extremities, commencing at very tip of fingers and toes, gradual in ascent and descent, when the two currents met in abdomen it was as if electricity had been applied to them, giving a shock which almost made me jump
During day great coldness of limbs, hands and feet feel as if damp stockings on
Temperature lowered
Temperature rose steadily for three hours (after subcutaneous injection of 0.1 grm. into inner l. thigh), then gradually fell to normal, which it reached in twenty-four hours; for the next two days there was some fever, but on the fifth day the temperature was far below the normal, reaching the collapse point of 930; the pulse, which was somewhat elevated at first, fell to 65 on the fifth day
Feverish and weak
Head hot, skin dry
A sensation of spreading heat, commencing in chest and spreading both ways, esp. to head.