Veratrum Album: A Complete Homeopathic Remedy for Collapse, Vomiting & Diarrhea

• Common Name: White Hellebore
• Family: Melanthaceae
• Source: Tincture of fresh root
• Type: Vegetable remedy

Sphere of Action

Acts profoundly on the nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, and circulatory system. It affects muscles, stomach, intestines, and serous membranes, producing collapse, coldness, and cramps.

Temperament & Constitution

• Suitable for choleric, lean, nervous persons
• Often indicated in persons of desperate, manic behavior with extreme physical prostration
• Useful in choleraic constitutions or those prone to collapse with gastroenteric symptoms

Clinical Indications

• Cholera, cholera infantum, cholera morbus
• Collapse states: shock, hemorrhage, dehydration
• Diarrhea and vomiting with cramps and cold sweat
• Mania with religious delusions
• Neuralgia with coldness
• Menstrual colic with vomiting and diarrhea
• Cardiac failure with cold extremities and weak pulse

Mind Symptoms

• Religious mania, thinks they are doomed or damned
• Prays constantly; despairing but active mentally
• Loquacity with delirium, shrieking, biting, tearing
• Alternates between mania and collapse
• Restlessness with intense anxiety
• Desire to strip off clothes or naked insanity

General Physical Features

• Profound collapse, cold sweat, pale face, icy coldness, especially on the forehead
• Cramping pains, especially in calves and abdomen
• Projectile vomiting, followed by profuse watery diarrhea
• Pulse is weak, thready, imperceptible

Characteristic Symptoms

• Vomiting and diarrhea together, often profuse and exhausting
• Cold perspiration on forehead
• Thirst for cold water in large quantities
• Extreme cramps in limbs and abdomen
• Blue, pinched face with sunken eyes
• Voice weak or lost, hands and feet ice-cold
• Collapse with open mouth and dropped jaw

Modalities

Worse From	Better From
Cold, least motion, night	Warm drinks, rest
After fright, grief, or shock	Warmth, lying still
During menses or vomiting	Pressure and warmth

Keynotes

• Collapse with cold sweat, especially on forehead
• Profuse vomiting and rice-water stools
• Intense thirst, craves cold water
• Mania with religious or suicidal tendencies
• Violent cramps and spasms

Potency & Dosage

• Usually prescribed in 30C, 200C, or 1M depending on severity
• In acute conditions (like cholera): frequent repetition of low potency
• In mental cases: higher potencies sparingly repeated

Relationships

Compare With	Complementary/Related Remedies
Arsenicum alb, Camphora, Cuprum met, Carbo veg, Secale, China	Arsenicum album (for prostration), Camphor (coldness), Cuprum (cramps)

 

One-Line Summary

Veratrum Album is a powerful remedy for collapse states with cold sweat, cramps, violent vomiting and diarrhea, and maniacal mental states.