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Hepatica triloba
Its common name is liverwort and botanical name is Hepatica nobalis. The genus name Hepatica refers to the liver like shape of the leaves. It is an evergreen, stemless herb, with a fibrous root. It grows up to 5-15 cm in height. The leaves are round have three lobes and hairless when old and fleshy, dark olive green and purplish beneath when old. The flowers are purplish, blue, or nearly white during winter and spring. Flowers are solitary and have 5-10 oval showy sepals and 3 green bracts1.
It is native to Cooler latitudes of the North Temperate Zone, Great Britain, Europe, northern Asia, North America, and northern Mexico, etc.
Hepatica contains only the ordinary constituents of herbs. It contains tannin, sugar, mucilage, protoanemonin; its value is due to its astringent principle.
It is covered by Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of India as well as Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of United States.
It is indicated in Pharyngeal catarrh, with profuse, serous sputa and hoarseness, tickling and irritation of the throat. It also used in scraping and rough sensation in throat, causes free and easy expectoration. Viscid, thick, tenacious phlegm causes continued hawking. Patient may complaint pain in the nostrils2. It has sensation about epiglottis as if particles of food remained. It is used in Sputa sweet, profuse, creamy with hepatic congestion.3 It is reported that some herbalists include it in treatments for pimples, bronchitis and gout.4
Recommended dose: 5-20 drops 2-3 times a day.
References:
- P. N. Varma, Indu Vaid, Encyclopaedia of Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia, Updated edition 2007, B. Jain Publishers, New Delhi.
- W. Boericke, New Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica & Repertory [with Relationship of Remedies], Second Re-Augmented & Revised Edition Based on Ninth Edition, Reprint Edition 2002, B. Jain Publishers, New Delhi.
- A. L. Blackwood, A Manual of Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacology, Reprint Edition 1995, B. Jain Publishers, New Delhi.
- Howard, Michael. Traditional Folk Remedies (Century, 1987); p.161–2. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemone_hepatica#Contents