A short Homeopathic Proving for Heracleum mantegazzianum

a.k.a Giant Hogweed

by Armand J. Crolli, NC

The whole herb was wild-crafted and washed. Samples of the fresh root, stem, leaves, flower and seeds were weighed and used in the making of the tincture. The diluent was a 40% alcohol solution and enough added to achieve in all probability, a 1:9 to 1:10 dilution of the whole fresh plant, which is approx. 80-85% water content, to make a tincture comparable to the French Homeopathic Codex definition of a Mother Tincture (1X). The macerate was allowed to brew for two weeks with it being stirred every day. Then some of the macerate was calcinated to a water-soluble, white ash and incorporated into the Mother Tincture for a more spagyric style of tincture From this point, hand-succussed homeopathic dilutions were made up to 7C in potency. This dilution was sent to four Provers. The original intent was to have at least ten Provers, five male-five female, but could not find enough people to participate or follow-through for the 5-6 weeks of the designated proving period. As with any alcohol plant tincture, just what influence the alcohol diluent had on the constituents remains unknown since in general terms the polysaccharides are water soluble. Had it been available at the time of preparation, I would have had the whole, fresh plant freeze-dried. With the water content being vacuumed away, the resultant mass complete with all its constituents and not just those which only come out with the 40% alcohol diluent, would have been triturated as a dry substance.

The foundational idea was to harness the healing energy of this plant considered to be a toxic, noxious, invasive species. Government eradication programs are underway and it is illegal to encourage anything that would propagate it. From a more esoteric perspective, many times things appear at the time of need. Many of our outstanding homeopathic remedies are made from toxic substances found in nature. i.e venoms, toxic plants like Aconite, Belladonna, etc. Looking at its Doctrine of Signatures and what conditions it would cause if coming in contact with the skin, the thought occurred to speculate in its use for skin conditions. The plant is in the Apiacea Family, native to Caucasus Mountain and contains furocoumarin that is known to be an aggressive skin photosensitizer and DNA disruptor. The homeopathic analog may offer benefit for various skin issues, perhaps even in skin cancer, keratosis, etc., since one of the Signatures are red/purple blotches on the stems and leaves. Acting on the skin, plus it may also work on any body system with epithelial/endothelial cells including the lungs, intestines, mouth, bladder, uterine, prostate, etc., the remedy then may likely have a connection to the Lung, Kidney and/or Liver Meridians as viewed through TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). The thick stems have ridges and are hollow, in looking at various sources of Signature interpretation this could infer that there may be use for the bone and/or nervous systems. It also has very stiff hairs associated with the stem and leaves. Again, these areas are covered by the Kidney and Liver meridians in TCM. In looking at the three plants in their native setting which would tend to be moist and at the edge of woods; they gave the immediate, quick-flash mental impression of three females conversing together therefore I thought it may be a female-favored remedy. My first impressions were three sisters or “old biddies” yakking up a storm, but not necessarily as older women. Rather tall (they can grow to 14-15 ft.) and regal in appearance with their large umbel-flowers and definitely larger than life, spiked leaves(can be 5ft across), they represented perhaps someone that may be dynamic, Yang, alpha, strong-willed, “prickly”, demonstrative and maybe even flashy in appearance and mannerisms. I don’t really like classifying a remedy as predominantly male or female because practitioner prejudice can then create a history of use thus limiting the definition for the remedy. None of these impressions or thoughts was shared with any of the Provers nor was the remedy revealed at any time during the provings.

Prover Number 1 A 54 yr old female, reported the following:

1. Symptoms primarily on the left-side and the order of occurrence:

2. Left-eye developed profuse mucus discharge, no burning. Disappeared in four-five days.

3. Nails on left foot developed discoloration typical of fungal infection. Disappeared in 4-5 days.

4. Received unsolicited comments about facial complexion. “Skin looks so pretty”, “You are lucky to have such nice skin.” Subject observed improvement in the skin texture and fading of a small colorless bump on the RIGHT side of nose which has been observed to come and go with viral infections.

5. This subject reported to feel emotionally and mentally stronger. Felt more like “oneself” [Author’s note– perhaps focused or single-minded? Being in the present moment?] than has been experienced in a long time.

6. Dreams were observed to bring up deep-seated emotional issues in personal relationships that have not been openly discussed with others involved. Appeared to have closure in at least two relationship areas.

Prover Number 2 A 40 something female

1. Initially reported no headache before menses and “actually no PMS at all” for first month. Second month a pre-menses headache was recorded but the severity or degree was not noted. Sleep still good and felt well rested.

2. Better sleep and deeper sleep

3. Third month there was no headache before menses and sleep still good and felt well rested.

4. This Prover’s husband tried the remedy and verbally reported deeper sleep. This was not written down in the summary but verbally reported to me. If there were any other provings for him, they are not known.

Prover Number 3 Female, age in the thirties. [The most concisely reported of the three]

Took 5 drops orally, BID plus applied one drop BID to the skin on the inner-arm crease at the elbow.

Prior to proving: Emotionally upset often due to severe unhappiness and feelings of constraint in my teaching job. Physically my knees hurt on and off. (MD cannot figure out why despite x-rays and blood work galore) Emotionally I am happy and feeling relief once the work day is over and feel fine in my knees on weekends when I don’t worry about how dissatisfied I am with work. It’s been since August when I was feeling sufficiently relaxed and calm everyday.

Week 1 October 12^th

– The morning after my first dose, I awoke with a very mentally clear and peaceful state of mind which I have not had for many weeks due to job-related stress.

– I awoke with a similar peaceful state of mind for the first three days.

– Also, the first morning of my first dose, I received a clarifying dream that was an accurate portrayal of the stresses I was feeling in my real life job.

– My dreams throughout the week were much clearer and crisp in visual appearance than normally experienced.

– Physically my knee pain which I’ve had on and off for a year now continued to come and go as usual.

– The rest of the body is healthy and in balance.

Week 2

– My state of mind is much happier these days. I’m unsure if it’s because I’ve decided to leave my day job in a few months or due to the proving solution.

– Premonition dreams happened a lot this week, which IS unusual for me. I dreamt of a friend I’ve not seen in ten years and out-of-the-blue she emails that day. I also dreamt of my cat peeing outside of the litter box, which she never has done, and that morning I found she really has done so. I dreamt of another seeing a friend only to be called by her a day later. [Authors note: Did the remedy activate the research-proposed, right-brain site of intuition?]

– I also found myself thinking of people throughout the week and in two instances had those people call and visit me. I do hear from them now and then though.

– I awoke to seeing orbs floating above my head which I have experienced twice before the proving solution usage.

– Awoke later that week to see three spirit beings leaning over me (my guides/friends) I intuitively knew. I’ve never had this happen before.

– I feel emotionally light and happy this week, which is such a nice change from the last few months of being unhappy.

– My knees are not hurting as much this week. I am also trying to stay relaxed as I know my career stress makes them worse.

– Rest of body is healthy and in balance.

Week 3

– Have had multiple instances this week of myself thinking of something only to have a friend say exactly what I was thinking within the hour. Little phrases, nothing truly outstanding but enough to get my attention and think how I’d had those exact same thoughts!

– Clear dreams continue though I can’t say I understand them all

– Still feeling emotionally happy and content overall

– Knees are not hurting as often this week and I’ve decided not to think about them so as not to attract pain my way. I did have three kids at school this week complain about having knee pain themselves and they did not know I was having issues myself. (Were they reflecting me?) This was really odd. Were they picking up my thoughts?

– My body is healthy and in balance otherwise.

Week 4

– My school teaching day job is causing me stress again this week and I’m not waking up calm and relaxed like the first couple of weeks on the proving solution. I wake up with the feeling of just not wanting to go to work at all.

– During meditation, which I do on and off seemed to be a real struggle lately

– Dreams continue at night and again are clear enough to see but not easy to figure out.

– I wake up a lot at night and my mind thinks and sleep comes but not immediately. This is very unusual for me. I usually sleep soundly and right through the night.

– My knees are light and not very bothersome this week. Again it may be due to my refusing to think about them and not attracting pain.

– Emotionally this was a challenging week for me. I am struggling with myself and wanting to return to emotional peace.

Week 5

– I made a breakthrough with one of my cats who was having aggression issues. I have changed my mental state of being peaceful and have realized she is who she is and I can’t change her. She has so calmed down in a way I’ve never seen before since my taking a step back. I like to do animal communication and our relationship is growing more pleasant as a result. Huge changes here. Not sure if breakthrough happened due to proving solution but it’s a significant occurrence for me and so I mention it.

– I am emotionally feeling lighter and happier again this week.

– I am having a renewed interest in energetic healing. Is this a coincidence or do to my own emotions coming back into balance? (used Reiki a little in the past year)

– I am finding an interest in scanning another’s energetic body. (my own and others)

– My knees don’t seem don’t seem to bother me as much these last two weeks compared to the beginning of the school year.(Sept-Oct.)

– My body overall continues to feel good and healthy otherwise.

Week 6

– I am peaceful most of this week. School is something I’m dealing with and don’t dwell upon much at night anymore.

– I am feeling empowered to take “mental health” days as needed from work to stay emotionally relaxed.

– I don’t want to lose the state of peace that I’ve obtained

– I dreaming of college a lot this week. To me this means my intuitive animal communication work. The dream’s meaning is coming through well.

– I am still not thinking about my knees much. The occasional twinge of pain is there on and off but very, very light. This is a nice change.

– Feeling healthy and physically balanced otherwise. Whereas family members have been sick with the flu/cold and despite exposure to them, I did not catch it, which is amazing for me. In the past I picked-up colds easily.

As a post-script. I have been off the proving solution for a long while

– My state of mind now: Peaceful. I resigned from teaching to pursue my animal communication career. I do not have emotional ups and downs like I did in Sept/Oct of the school year.

– My knees have not been painful at all in about an entire month.

– My dreams’ clarity wavers off and on and I’m really thinking about taking the proving solution again for its dream clarity/benefit I felt it had.

Prover # 4 57 year old male

1.) Took remedy for only 8-9 days.

2.) After two days had a very vivid dream about chocking in anger an older women. Being troubled by the dream, he realized later that she was dressed as the quintessential school ‘marm and this reflected his teachers he had in school who were female, dominant and embarrassed him.

3.) About a week into the proving he started to develop enlarged prostate symptoms that he did not have prior to taking the remedy. Decided to stop.

Summary and Speculations

As indicated in the introduction, this remedy may support the Water Element (Kidney/Bladder meridians), the Wood Element (Liver/ Gall Bladder meridians) and Lung Meridian of the Traditional Chinese Medicine[TCM] system due to its noted effect upon the skin and sleep patterns of the Provers. It may even work with yeast/fungi issues with the one indication of the toe nail locality. Since a common theme seemed to report a sleep pattern improvement and a happier, lighter sense of well-being, it might be conjectured that the remedy may work on the hypothalamus-pineal axis. Also, continuing to think in TCM meridian terms, in treating the head’s Shen or Spirit issues, the Liver/Gall Bladder meridians are usually considered in the course of that body of work. Since it’s well known in holistic wellness circles that sleep aberrations can occur with chronic dis-ease patterns, particularly with some people with cancers, there may be a possibility that this remedy may aid in relief of those dysfunctional sleep patterns. Perhaps it may even aid in trauma disorders. Dream patterns seem to also be a common theme among the Provers, again speculating on its action, there may be subconscious areas in the brain that are reached which may help in a conflict resolution process. This could then indicate an ability to provide some kind of long-term, healing action. The actions of the various Flower Essences, which one may consider as a sub-branch of homeopathy, are thought of here and this remedy did consist of the whole herb including the flower and seed. Further investigation needs to be done with a larger proving and include males.

The author did use the remedy with a case of a reported UV-light sensitive skin issue. This client, a 50 something female and smoker even reported that the light at the dentist’s office caused her to itch. She had originally come for some life-style improvement consultation and mentioned the skin issue as part of an over-all discussion. It was not part of her primary reason for the visit. After several weeks of use of the low potency 7C, relief was reported for the skin issue but the client never returned or followed-up on her primary reason to know if it was permanent. In a second case of a reported pre-cancerous actinokeratosis, the remedy was tried with a male client, after tracking him down, he thought they were looking better after three weeks but never returned and could not be further tracked down to see if any favorable changes permanently ensued.

I do have some of the remedy left to supply for a larger proving.

I would like to thank the Provers for sharing their personal impressions to better illuminate the quantum

connections between all things.

Thank You!– Kathy, Elaine, Danielle, Mike plus Constantino V. for permission to harvest.

Also thank you Jeffrey Kinnear LaC, Dipl OMD. for your TCM input.