Jaborandi (Pilocarpus) Homeopathic Remedy

Homeopathic medicine Jaborandi (Pilocarpus microphyllus) is prepared from the leaves of the plant, Pilocarpus. Pilocarpus is a powerful glandular stimulant and the most efficient diaphoretic. Its most important effects are diaphoresis, salivation, and myosis. After taking medicine, the face, ears, and neck become deeply flushed, and drops of perspiration break out all over the body whilst at the same time the mouth waters and saliva pour out in an almost continuous stream. Other secretions, lachrymal, nasal bronchial and intestinal also but in less degree. The sweat and saliva produced by a single dose are often enormous in quantity, not infrequently half a pint. It is a valuable remedy in limiting the duration of mumps.

Jaborandi word is taken from Tupi-Guarani language ya-more-endi, meaning “what causes slobbering”. It is a tree that attains a height of more than twenty feet. This plant is native to Brazil. It blossoms in September, have a large and violet color. This plant is used by South American Indians as an antidote to the bite of serpents of the Trigonecephalus group. The tincture is prepared from flowers. It contains an alkaloid Jaborandine or Pilocarpine. It was used as a diaphoretic in ancient times. It contains alkaloids mainly pilocarpine and volatile oil 0.5% mainly limonene and undecanoate.

Pilocarpine is used in the treatment of glaucoma, as it lowers the pressure within the eye of a person. Pilocarpine is derived from the leaves of Pilocarpus Microphyllus. It belongs to the genus Pilocarpus.

When crude form, if used incorrectly, pilocarpine eye drops can lead to poisoning through leakage into the nose or mouth. The lethal dose is about 60 mg of pilocarpine.  It should not be used during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

Preparation of remedy– The dried leaf is taken along with ethanol.

About Pilocarpus microphyllus (Jaborandi)

Jaborandi grows as a shrub and is found in an Amazonian rain forest. It is a shrub that grows in the north-eastern part of Brazil to heights of five to twenty feet. Its trunk diameter is one to three inches. It has leathery and numerous flowers.

The common name of Pilocarpus microphyllus

• Indian Hemp
• Arruda Brava
• Arruda do Mato
• Jamugurandi
• Jurandi
• Pernambuco

History

Explorers to Brazil in the 16th century discovered that Indigenous tribes used the plant. It was used for mouth ulcers, colds, and flu. Samples are then taken to Peru where it was found that it has the property to promote sweating and salivation. Pilocarpus species are found in South America mainly in the forests of northern Brazilian states. It was first introduced to eastern medicine in 1873 when Symphronio Coutinho, a Brazilian doctor took the leaf sample to France. He routinely used Jaborandi leaves in his practice as a diaphoretic and sialagogue. Its value in ophthalmology was a secondary discovery. Interest in the Jaborandi plant by French physicians was piqued due to its use among Brazilian Indians to promote profuse sweating and salivation. Because of its commercial value, this species was exploited without control and by the 1990s it was considered an endangered species in Brazil.1 During the dry season collectors go into the forest and strip the leaves from branches by hand. Excessive and frequent collection of leaves from the same plant does not allow a full development of new leaves leading to high plant mortality and reduction in the size of new leaves. Jaborandi, the only known source of pilocarpine, is on the verge of extinction due to human impact.

Pilocarpine is used to reduce intraocular pressure. It is useful in the treatment of glaucoma. It is useful in the treatment of xerostomia when there is decrease saliva production. Pilocarpine is derived from the Jaborandi plant. It is the only source of pilocarpine in the world. Pilocarpine hydrochloride is a direct-acting cholinergic parasympathetic agent. It acts on exocrine glands like salivary, sweat, lachrymal, and respiratory mucous glands and increases its secretion.

Indications of Jaborandi (Pilocarpus)

• Alopecia
• Cataract
• Ciliary spasm
• Convergent strabismus
• Detachment of retina
• Diarrhea
• Drug-induced xerostomia
• Dysmenorrhoea
• Eye complaints
• Galactorrhoea
• Glaucoma
• Headache
• Hypermetropia
• Pneumonia in high altitudes can be cured by the use of jaborandi
• Radiation-induced xerostomia
• Severe leucorrhoea
• Sjogren’s syndrome
• Xerostomia associated with chronic graft versus host disease

Traditional uses of Jaborandi

• Anaesthetic for mucous membrane
• Asthenopia (where eyes are easily tired from the slightest use)
• Convulsions
• Epilepsy
• Fever
• Gonorrhea
• Influenza
• Ischuria
• Kidney disease
• Neurosis
• Pneumonia
• Psoriasis
• Tinnitus (ringing in ears)

In Mexican traditional medicine, it is used to treat rheumatism, pleurisy, and dropsy. It is also said to have a history of use as an emetic in Brazil.

Jaborandi (Pilocarpus) Suited to Patients

Jaborandi is suitable for a person who has anxiety. The patient is cheerful which alternates with the dullness of mind. A person has delirium at night. He has delirium to murder his family with a hatchet. It cures restlessness with the evening. A person wants to be silent.

It is given when a patient has a dim vision with twitching of lids. It cures pain in the eyeballs. It is a very useful remedy when a patient has for many months could not read more than five minutes without the eyes tiring. He has nausea on looking at moving objects. It is given when a patient has everything black before eyes on stooping.

The patient has constant pain in their eyes even upon using for distance. It is a very good remedy when a patient sees everything hazy. He could read moderate-sized type at one foot. He could not read the same thing from a distance of two feet. It looks indistinct.

It cures when a patient feels the swimming of distant objects with clouds before vision.

It is given when a patient has blue rings before eyes at times, especially on looking in the distance.

It is given when a patient complains that after constantly doing fine work images retained for several minutes. The patient’s vision is impaired and finally unable to use their eyes at all for work.

It cures sharp pains in the eyes which shooting back into the head. It cures headache which is generally dull in nature. Light is very painful. It is a very good remedy for eye complaints. The patient’s eye sight is very weak, he could not use them even a few minutes without pain in them. Along with this patient has nausea. He experiences pain and nausea when looking steadily at a distance. He has much vertigo as if his head was too light.

It is a very good remedy when a patient has a headache upon using the eyes.

It is given for coryza with fever. The patient has a free flow of saliva with discharge from nostrils. It cures headache with coryza with soreness in nostrils and bones. The patient has dullness which alternates with hilarity without any cause.

It is a very good remedy for mumps with inflammation of testicles. Testicles are swollen twice natural size and are very painful.

It is given when a patient has a headache every day about noon. Headache is so severe so that patient has difficulty in breathing with pressure in the chest. The patient is very anxious and palpitation in the heart. It cures an empty feeling in my head. Headache is radiating time. It starts at noon, has no relation with appetite. The patient feels uneasy. Pain in the back of the head radiates to the forehead and then reaches to the top of the head at 7:30 p.m.

It is a very good remedy for exophthalmic goiter as it acts on the thyroid gland.

Graves’ disease, also called toxic diffuse goiter or exophthalmic goiter, an endocrine disorder that is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism (excess secretion of thyroid hormone) and thyrotoxicosis (effects of excess thyroid hormone action in tissue).

Symptoms of exophthalmic goiter

• Increased action of the heart
• Pulsation in the arteries
• Tremors
• Nervousness
• Heat and sweating
• Bronchial irritation

It is a very good remedy to cure greying of hair.

It is given when a patient has a loss of appetite with a bitter taste in the mouth. A patient has an intense thirst.

It is given when a patient has nausea and retching often attended with hiccough and sometimes it ends in vomiting.

It cures an empty feeling in the abdomen. Distress in the stomach which is worse by eating.

It is given when a patient has thin, watery, copious diarrhea with slight nausea. A patient has yellow, watery, painless, and gushing diarrhea.

It is given when a patient has dark urine which can be scanty or profuse. It is a very good remedy for Diabetes insidious, Renal dropsy.

It is a very good remedy when women experiences flushing in menopause.

It is given in edema with swelling of the face, hands, and feet. It is a very good remedy for convulsions during childbirth, with symptoms like suffocation and loss of consciousness. She is unable to swallow saliva.

It is a very good remedy for the deficient secretion of milk (Galactorrhoea).

It is a very good remedy when a patient has humid asthma with profuse expectoration. It cures stitching pain in the chest.

It can be taken when the heart’s action is irregular, intermittent, and increased.

It cures cardiac dropsy, with a rapid pulse and visible throbbing of arteries.

It can be given when a patient has heavy sleep.

It is given when a patient has much sweating and salivation. It checks profuse secretion from glands in the body. Perspiration starts on the forehead and face and then spread all over the body. Perspiration is seen more on the trunk. The patient feels very weak after sweating.

Perspiration is seen when a patient is recovering from any disease. It is also seen after Tuberculosis.

Perspiration is seen at night.

Sweat is seen on the left side of the body.

It is given when a patient has redness of the face, ears, neck, and body. The patient has the heat of the face and throbbing of arteries.

It is given to a patient who has difficulty with speech and indistinct. It is very difficult to understand the language of the patient. It cures profuse sweat with dry skin. Saliva flows upon the pillow during sleep.

It is given when a patient has dryness of the throat mainly in the back of the throat. A patient has dry and inflamed feeling seen in the forenoon with swelling of tonsils and stiffness of jaws.

It is given when a patient has stool at 7.am. and again at 7 p.m, with difficulty in passing large stool.

It is given when a patient has sudden severe pain during urination.

It cures pain in the heart region with palpitation and irregularity and weakness of the heart.

It is given when the patient fell asleep while sitting reading. He could not sleep due to restlessness with pressure on his chest and hurried.

It is given when a patient has viscid saliva like a white egg. It also cures dryness of the mouth.

It is given when a patient has edema of the lungs (hydrothorax).

Dosage of Jaborandi (Pilocarpus)

 Q, 2x, 2 drops, 4 times a day for 10 days.

For hair complaints: Apply externally on the scalp mixed with oil.

Availability

• SBL Homeopathy Jaborandi Hair Oil.
• Dr.Reckeweg Jaborandi Q, Homeopathic Mother Tincture.
• Jaborandi mother tincture in Dr. Wilmar Schwabe.

Contraindicated in heart failure, uremia occurring after childbirth, and disease-related to old conditions.