The homeopathic remedy, calendula is prepared from the plant Calendula officinalis. For preparing the remedy, finely chopped, fresh flowers and leaves are steeped in alcohol. The common name of calendula is pot marigold. This plant is native to southern Europe and now found throughout the world.
Calendula plant derives its name Calendula from the Latin term “kalendae” because pot marigolds blossom at the beginning of most of the months of the year. It means “little calendar”, “little clock” or possibly “little weather-glass”. The common name “marigold” refers to the Virgin Mary.
In Homeopathy, Calendula is available in form of tincture, pellets, and cream. Calendula is antiseptic and anti-inflammatory in action. It is used both internally and externally for treatments of wounds. It has remarkable healing properties. It prevents bacterial growth and stops bleeding. Mother tincture of Calendula is too strong and is applied only after dilution. It is diluted by adding water. One teaspoonful of tincture is added to quarter cup water mixed and applied. For using calendula as a mouthwash, one tablespoon of tincture is added to half a cup of warm water.
Calendula is among the most extensively used herbs that are especially applied externally and its extract is also used as a gargle to stop bleeding following a tooth extraction.
Calendula, cream, and lotion are applied topically for diaper rash, cuts, minor wounds, broken skin, burns, and scrapes due to their antiseptic and healing properties. The non-alcoholic calendula is used as an antiseptic in surgery and gynecology.
About plant
Native country: Poet’s marigold is native from Europe to Iran and North Africa.
General habit: Poet’s marigold is an annual to perennial, woody only at the base, with stems 20 to 50 cm high.
Leaves: Leaves are 7 to 14 x 1 to 4 cm, lance-shaped with narrowed bases, narrowly parallel-sided, or spoon-shaped, shortly tapering to the apex or blunt, glandular-hairy to sparsely spidery-cottony hairy, usually with a smooth edge to obscurely wavy-toothed.
Flowers: Flowers are 4 to 7 cm in diameter, yellow or orange.
Fruits/Seeds: Outer fruits are incurved (or rarely flat) narrowly beaked, 2 to 2. 5 cm.
The petals of the poet’s marigold also yield a dye for fabric or hair.
Large amounts are grown in Russia, and it has been nicknamed “Russian penicillin
The antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties of calendula have made it one of the longest established popular herbal remedies.
Parts used
- Fresh leaves and flowers are used to prepare the remedy.
- The flowers and leaves are harvested during the flowering season of the herb and chopped finely before they are kept in alcohol for a period of time.
Key symptoms
- Useful for open wounds those parts that will not heal.
- It promotes healthy granulations. Pain is excessive and out of proportion to the injury.
- The patient has a great tendency to take cold, especially in the rainy season. It is a great remedy for cancer.
- It is used in all cases of loss of soft parts where the union cannot be possible by means of adhesive plaster.
- Important remedy post-surgical operation, external wounds with or without loss of substance torn jagged edges looking wounds.
It is homeopathic antiseptic – it restores the vitality of an injured part, making it resistant to sepsis. It is suitable for all cases of an injury where the skin is broken.
1. Patient is extremely nervous and easily frightened. It is a very good remedy for any kind of scalp wound, where the wound is mixed with dust grease and open, having a great chance of infection.
2. Patient has dullness of the head, especially in the morning, as after a long illness. Headache, and feeling of heat in the forehead after a meal.
3. There is great dryness of eyes, as from smoke.
4. Good remedy when a patient has an adverse effect after surgery of eyes. It is important to remedy when injuries of the eyes are infected and have pus.
5. Good remedy for deafness, in damp surroundings along with eczematous conditions. He has a kind of deafness where distant sounds more clearly.
6. This patient has coryza in one nostril which is its characteristic symptom with green discharge.
7. It is an important remedy for bulimia. Infants feel hungry immediately after nursing. The patient has heartburn with horripilation (erection of hairs on the skin due to cold, fear, or excitement).
There is great distension of the stomach.
8. It is a very good remedy for females, where menses suppressed with a cough. The sensation of weight and fullness in the pelvis. There is stretching and dragging in the legs.
It is an important remedy for prolapse.
7. It is a very important remedy where the patient has a cough with green expectoration and hoarseness.
8. Patient has a fever with coldness with great sensitiveness to open air. The patient has to shudder in the back. Skin feels warm to the touch.
9. Patient has yellow skin. It prevents pus formation. A very important remedy for injuries which has clearly seen flesh. A good remedy for superficial burns.
10. It can be used to treat joint wounds where there is a loss of synovial fluid.
11. It can be used for bleeding in the gums after tooth extraction.
Symptoms are worse by
- Damp weather, Rainy season
- Cloudy weather
- By eating
Better
- Lying completely still
- By eating.
Calendula Cream/lotion/ointment
Calendula ointment has a soothing effect for sore or inflamed skin. Calendula creams have antiseptic, astringent, and pain-relieving properties. It promotes the healing of wounds.
It is applied to affected areas to treat burns, skin conditions, eczema, yeast infections, breast infections, skin irritations, and sunburns. It is also applied to the following skin conditions:
Varicose ulcers, postoperative wounds
Ruptured muscles or tendons
Torn perineal tissues following childbirth
Joint wounds where there is a loss of synovial fluid
Bleeding in the gums after a tooth extraction
Calendula should be applied one to three times on affected areas.
Calendula is used both externally and internally. It is available as a cream, lotion, and pellets.
As a lotion, the cream is applied locally for all wounds. Use calendula cerate for burns, sores, fissures, and abrasions. 3 pellets can be taken at one time and repeated 3 times a day. Calendula can be taken for one to fifteen days depending on condition.