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Schwabe News Volume 2 | Issue 4 | August 2011
Amoora rohituka (Andersonia)
Amoora rohituka or Andersonia has been used by Indian physicians as a medicine for splenic disorders since longtime. In Ayurvedic literatures it has been mentioned as an alterative, astringent and a tonic for liver and spleen enlargement. In Homoeopathy, it has been used for conditions like constipation, prolonged fevers associated with enlargement of spleen and liver; headache and burning pain in eyes, face, hands, feet, stomach, nausea & vomiting etc.
A total of 4706 patients participated in this multicenteric clinical study at various Units/Institutes under Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy to confirm the uses of Amoora rohituka as mentioned in the homoeopathic materia medica and to evolve its clinical drug picture. This study not only confirms its therapeutic use in constipation , headache, fever, enlargement of liver and spleen and burning pain in different parts of the body etc. as noted in literature, but has also delineated the characteristics, which would help in differentiating Amoora rohituka from other similar remedies given in homoeopathic materia medica. Besides, a set of other symptoms were also relieved by the same drug, given for other purpose and emerged as clinical symptoms.
The Council has undertaken validation of the symptomatology reportedly attributed to Amoora rohituka as available in old literature under its Clinical Verification studies programme. The drug was procured from licensed pharmacy in various potencies viz. Q, 3x, 6c and 30c. 4706 cases were prescribed Amoora rohituka during the period April 1982 to March 2004, out of which 1963 were males and 2743 were females. Patients for the study were drawn from OPDs of respective Institutes / Units of the Council. Their presenting symptoms and signs were recorded in the predefined case recording proforma to prescribe medicine from the list of drugs chosen for clinical verification study .The medicine, which matched the symptoms of patient, was prescribed in mother tincture and any change in presenting symptoms and signs was recorded during the follow-up visits. If there was no change in symptoms and signs for significant period (according to the nature of disease), next higher potencies like 3x, 6c and 30c were prescribed and in case no considerable change was noted, the prescription was shifted to the second best indicated medicine.
The data of all the cases were collected, analysed and compiled. A list of clinically verified symptoms is presented below, indicating the number of patients prescribed on the basis of available symptoms and number of patients got relieved, in bracket. The symptoms superscripted with ‘1’ & ‘2’ are in conformity with the corresponding literature mentioned below and the remaining symptoms were found relieved wholly or partially during the study and emerged as clinical symptoms, not mentioned in earlier literatures of Amoora rohituka. This drug is available from Schwabe India in mother tincture, 6CH, 12CH, 30CH, 200CH and 1M.
Clinically verified symptoms observed during the study
The symptoms given below are arranged in descending order as per the effectiveness of the medicine found during the study:
- Fever with frontal headache2 (815, 562)
better by cold application2 (49, 40)
with burning in eyes2 (10, 6)
with bitter taste in mouth2 (48, 38)
desire for open air2 (6, 6)
- Constipation2 (568, 380)
- Headache in temporal region1,2 (341, 224)
better by cold application1,2 (269, 183)
- Burning in palms and soles2 (238, 180)
better by cold application2 (131, 102)
- Headache in frontal region2 (286, 219)
better by cold application2 (32, 20)
with nausea and vomiting1,2 (181, 124)
with liver enlarged1,2 (113, 73)
- Leucorrhoea1 (112, 71)
- Spleen enlarged1,2 (92, 62)
with pain in abdomen1 (22, 13)
- Headache with giddiness1,2 (77, 60)
with warmth in head2 (24, 22)
- Memory weak, cannot fix mind on any subject or matter1,2 (66, 58)
- Intermittent fever with enlargement of liver and spleen2 (48, 48)
with aching pain all over body2 (3,3)
- Burning in stomach1,2 (36, 28)
- Bad taste in mouth worse in morning1,2 (24, 17)
- Easily angered1,2 (9, 7)
- Heat sensation in vertex1,2 (7, 4)
- Makes mistakes while writing1,2 (5, 4)
Verified literature:
- Ghose S.C. Drugs of Hindoosthan, Eighth edition, Kolkata, Hahnemann Publishing Company Pvt.ltd; 1980, pp. 59 – 62.
- Boericke William. Boericke’s New Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica with Repertory, 3rd revised and augmented edition, based on ninth edition; New Delhi, B. Jain publishers (P) ltd; 2007, p 973.
Following symptoms or part of symptoms are the additional symptoms either relieved fully or partially and emerged as clinical symptoms not mentioned in earlier literature.
Vertigo
Vertigo (37, 26)
worse on movement, better by rest (3, 2)
Head
Falling of hair (51, 47)
Headache on top of head (162, 121)
worse from cold air (4, 4)
Headache
better by pressure (54, 40)
better at sunset (6, 4)
worse in evening (29, 23)
worse on closing eyes (10,6 )
with pain in eyes (6, 4)
worse from sun (161, 110)
better in evening (30, 24)
better by pressure (106, 64)
worse during study (30, 24)
with burning pain (80, 60)
Headache, occipital, worse during day (17, 16)
worse from sun and from pressure (23, 16)
Eye
Burning in eyes
worse from cold application (12, 8)
worse while studying (24, 16)
Stomach
Appetite decreased (171,121)
Nausea and vomiting
soon after breakfast (19, 16)
worse after drinking water (20, 6)
Abdomen
Distension of abdomen (2, 2)
Burning pain in abdomen (20, 14)
better by taking cold drinks (13,11)
Pain in hypochondrium better by passing flatus (11, 11)
Spleen enlarged
covering whole left side of abdomen (22, 13)
Rectum
Constipation with dry, hard stool (431,283)
with flatulence (51, 43)
with headache (6, 5)
with ineffectual urge to pass stool (6, 5)
Bleeding piles (336,220)
Stool loose, watery (91, 54)
mixed with mucus (61, 37)
Bleeding piles
with burning in anus (9, 1)
with soreness in anus (47, 33)
Urine
Burning urination (2, 2)
Female genitalia
Leucorrhoea
thin, whitish (35, 21)
with burning in hands and feet (12, 9)
Cough
Cough with whitish expectoration, worse in morning (16, 4)
Chest
Pain in chest, worse on coughing (10, 8)
Palpitation (3, 1)
Extremities
Burning in palms and soles (238, 180)
Pain in knee joints, worse on sitting, by crossing legs (9, 7)
Fever
Fever
worse at night (55, 42)
worse in evening and daytime (144, 97)
with chill (124, 90)
with restlessness (3, 3)
with giddiness (11, 11)
with excessive thirst (7, 5)
with flushes of heat from whole body (491, 346)
with nausea (10, 6)
with body ache (306, 199)
with urticaria (3, 3)
with cough and cold (19, 16)
with cough and thick expectoration (4, 4)
with weakness following fever (22, 18)
Skin
Dry reddish eruption with itching and burning (10, 4)
Vesicular eruption with tendency to suppuration (47, 25)
Generalities
Aching pain allover body (90, 59)
with general weakness
Discussion
The medicine was prescribed to 815 cases presenting with fever, out of which 562 cases (68.95%) were improved. Apart from this, 48 cases of intermittent fever with enlargement of liver and spleen were improved (100%), which belonged to the pathogenesis of Amoora rohitika. The sphere of action of Amoora rohitka in lower gastrointestinal tract can be marked out in the clinical symptom of ‘constipation’ and ‘bleeding haemorrhoids’ as 380 cases (66.90%) out of 568 got relieved from the former and 220 (65.47%) out of 336 cases got relieved from the later.
Beside this, headache of different types, especially frontal headache, were also alleviated by this medicine. The most common modalities of headache, which was frequently verified in the study were ‘worse from sun and better by cold application’. The medicine was found efficacious in numerous patients suffering from ‘leucorrhoea, particularly of bland thin, whitish nature with concomitant symptom of burning in palms and soles, a clinically proved symptom. In ‘weakness of memory’, Amoora rohituka was found to be a very effective in 58 cases (87.87%) out of 66 cases prescribed Liver and spleen enlargements are the other symptoms which were verified clinically and improvement was found in 73 (64.60%) out of 113 cases with enlarged liver and 62 (67.39%) out of 92 cases with spleen enlargement. This study extends horizon of usefulness of Amoora rohituka in conditions like fever, headache, bleeding haemorrhoids, weakness of memory, leucorrhoea, falling of hair, anorexia, nausea &vomiting, enlargement of liver and spleen, loose stool, leucorrhoea, burning in palms &soles, weakness of memory and myositis. The additional modalities and concomitants associated with various symptoms of this medicine were also noted during study, which need further clinical trials under suitable study design and scientific parameters, to validate their usefulness. In conclusion, it can be said that, Amoora rohituka has been reasonably verified for the clinical conditions for which it is suggested.
Reference:
- P.S.Chakraborty, J.P.Singh, M.K.Rai, Pramodji Singh, Hari Singh, S.R.Bhagat, V.A. Siddiqui, A.K.Vichitra, A.K.N.Singh, D.K.Singh, Mohan Singh, M.N.Sinha, Rajpal Singh, R.K. Rai, S.Prakash, S.D. Pathak, Vijay K. Paul, V.K.Singh, Yogendar Rai1, & Deepa Chakraborty, Amoora rohituka – A multicentric clinical verification study conducted by CCRH, Indian Journal of Research in Homoeopathy, Vol. 2, No. 1, January-March 2008
