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Pokeberry; Uses/ Indications, Dosage, Side Effects

Pokeberry/ Phytolacca is a genus of perennial plants native to North America, South America, and East Asia. Some members of the genus are known as pokeweeds or similar names such as pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot or poke sallet.^[rx]^[rx] Other names for species of Phytolacca include inkberry and ombú. The generic name is derived from the Greek word φυτόν (phyton), meaning “plant,” and the Latin word lacca, a red dye.^[rx]Phytolaccatoxin and phytolaccigenin are present in many species which are poisonous to mammals if not cooked properly. However, the berries are eaten by birds, which are not affected by the toxin because the small seeds with very hard outer shells remain intact in the digestive system and are eliminated whole.

Materia Medica of Pokeberry

Mind – Irritable; holds everything in contempt. Full of desires, for what they know not.
Head – Bones of the skull feel crushed or bruised. Pain extends to teeth and root of the tongue.
Eyes – Inflamed, red. Pain through eyeballs. Profuse lachrymation. Cornea dim. Eyes tire from near vision. State of vision constantly changing. Spasm of accommodation from the irritable weakness of the ciliary muscle. Nausea from looking on moving objects.
Face – Blue rings around eyes. Periodical orbital neuralgia, with lachrymation, photophobia, and smarting eyelids.
Nose – Coryza, with stoppage of nose and nausea. Epistaxis.
Stomach – Tongue usually clean. Mouth, moist; much saliva. Constant nausea and vomiting, with pale, twitching of face. Vomits food, bile, blood, mucus. Stomach feels relaxed as if hanging down. Hiccough.
Abdomen – Amebic dysentery with tenesmus; while straining pain so great that it nauseates; little thirst. Cutting, clutching; worse, around the navel. Body rigid; stretched out stiff.
Stools – Pitch-like green as grass, like frothy molasses, with griping at the navel. Dysenteric, slimy.
Female – Uterine hæmorrhage, profuse, bright, gushing, with nausea. Vomiting during pregnancy. Pain from navel to the uterus. Menses too early and too profuse.
Respiratory – Dyspnœa; constant constriction in chest. Asthma. Yearly attacks of difficult shortness of breathing. Continued sneezing; coryza; a wheezing cough. A cough incessant and violent, with every breath. Chest seems full of phlegm but does not yield to coughing. Bubbling rales. A suffocative cough; the child becomes stiff, and blue in the face. Whooping-cough, with a nosebleed, and from the mouth. Bleeding from lungs, with nausea; feeling of constriction; rattling cough. Croup. Hæmoptysis from slightest exertion (Millef). Hoarseness, especially at end of a cold. Complete aphonia.
Fever – Intermittent fever, irregular cases, after Quinine. Slightest chill with much heat, nausea, vomiting, and dyspnœa. Relapses from improper diet.
Sleep – With eyes half open. Shocks in all limbs on going to sleep (Ign).
Extremities – Body stretched stiff, followed by spasmodic jerking of arms towards each other.
Skin – Pale, lax. Blue around eyes. Military rash.

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Uses/ Indications of Pokeberry

Angina pectoris
Asthma
Bone, diseases, tumors
Constipation
Cough
Diarrhea
Dysentery
Glands enlarged Gleet, Glossitis, Gonorrhea.
Gout
Granular conjunctivitis
Hemorrhoids
Headache
Influenza
Laryngismus
Leucorrhoea
Lumbago
Neuralgia
Parotitis
Rheumatism
Syphilis
Toothache
Tumors
Ulcers
Warts.

Dosage of Pokeberry

Adults – 4 drops into a tsp. of water 3 times a day. Children: 1/2 dose. Repeat at greater intervals as condition subsides. Or as directed bya lic. practitioner.