# Crataegus Oxyacantha ## Remedy Classification - **Type:** Herbal Remedy - **Miasm:** Emotional Miasm - **Temperament:** Hot - **Aggravation Time:** Night ## Keynote Indications Source: Derived from the fresh berries, leaves, or flowers of Crataegus oxyacantha (synonym. Crataegus laevigata), a deciduous shrub or small tree in the Rosaceae family, native to Europe and. North America, prepared for homeopathic use through maceration, serial dilution, and succussion to. enhance therapeutic action and eliminate toxicity. Traditional Context : Historically employed in homeopathy for cardiovascular, psychological,. and systemic disorders , particularly those involving heart weakness, irregular pulse, and nervous. exhaustion. It is noted for symptoms such as palpitations, dyspnea, and anxiety, often aggravated by. exertion, heat, or emotional stress, and ameliorated by rest, fresh air, or quiet environments. Modern Context: Indicated for cardiovascular conditions (e.g., heart failure, hypertension,. arrhythmias), psychological symptoms (e.g., anxiety, irritability), respiratory symptoms (e.g.,. dyspnea, angina-like pain), systemic symptoms (e.g., fatigue, edema), gastrointestinal symptoms. (e.g., dyspepsia), and neurological symptoms (e.g., vertigo, insomnia). It suits patients with. chronic or subacute symptoms characterized by cardiac weakness, anxiety, shortness of breath ,. or general debility, typically exacerbated by exertion, heat, or emotional stress, and often seen in. elderly patients, those with cardiovascular disease, or individuals with stress-related exhaustion. The remedy is particularly relevant for those with a warm, sensitive constitution, often presenting. with physical symptoms like palpitations or edema alongside emotional traits like anxiety or. restlessness, commonly observed in patients with heart conditions, chronic fatigue, or anxiety. disorders. ## Modalities (Aggravations / Ameliorations) Worse from: Exertion, heat (weather, environments, drinks), emotional stress, warm stuffy. rooms, night, rich foods, lying down, mental exertion, contradiction, dietary indiscretions. (e.g., fatty foods, alcohol), standing (in edema cases). ## Symptoms by System ### Mind - Irritable, cross and melancholic. - Apprehensive, despondent. - Despair, feels weak and fragile. - Mental dullness. - Makes mistakes. - Confused feeling, followed by a feeling of quiet and calmness mentally. - Anxiety with palpitations. - Hurried feeling with rapid action of heat. - Very nervous and irritable, with pain in back of head and neck. - Irritable, cross and despondent. - Morose and sulky. - Ailments from grief. - Despair about recovery. - Irritability with heart disease. - Cross, ill-humor, peevish. - Sadness, depression. - Irritable, cross and melancholic. - Apprehensive, despondent. - Despair, feels weak and fragile. - Mental dullness. - Makes mistakes. - Confused feeling, followed by a feeling of quiet and calmness mentally. - Anxiety with palpitations. - Hurried feeling with rapid action of heat. - Very nervous and irritable, with pain in back of head and neck. - Irritable, cross and despondent. - Morose and sulky. - Ailments from grief. - Despair about recovery. - Irritability with heart disease. - Cross, ill-humor, peevish. - Sadness, depression. ### Vertigo - Faintness and collapse. - COMMENTS - Crat. - was introduced into medicine as a heart remedy by Dr. - Greene of Ennis, Ireland, and it has been used empirically with much success in cases of heart failure. - It has usually been given in drop doses of the tincture. - Dr. - Green had a reputati on for the cure of heart disease that caused patients to flock to him from all parts of the United Kingdom. - He cured the majority of them and amassed considerable wealth by means of his secret medicine. - Contrary to the code, he, though a physician in good standing, refused to reveal the remedy to his professional brethren. - After his death, his daughter, a Mrs. - Graham, revealed that the remedy her father had used so successfully was crataegus oxyacantha. - Halbert in Clinique, March, 1899, recorded the case of “Mr. - S., a young man sixteen years of age, had worked hard at manual labor since his twelfth year to sup port a widowed mother. - He had in fact, done a man's work before his physical maturity would permit it. - For some time he has shown signs of cardiac h ypertrophy and had been cautioned by physicians to take good care as to his heart. - “About a year ago during some gymnastic extreme in the nature of sport, he was sud denly admonished that something had ‘given way,' and for relief was obliged to take to his bed. - When I first saw him he was obliged to lie down, respiration was labored and irregular and the heart's action was greatly exaggerated and erratic. - “There was decided precordial bulging, the apex beat was considerably displaced, downward and to the le ft and the whole cardiac dullness was greatly extended, the impulse was heaving in character with considerable mitral systolic blowing and the corresponding diastolic intensification, there were also signs of considerable pulmonary engorgement and some pain in the chest region. - “The patient was put into a warm bath for twenty minutes and then carefully returned to bed. - Aconite 3x was administered every half-hour and continued hourly for a day or two afterward until he was somewhat relieved. - “Crataegus, five-drop doses of the tincture, was then administered five times daily for a long time. - The effects of this remedy were most remarkable, the cardiac irritation gradually lessened, the area of dullness decreased and the rhythm improved, at the same time all the general symptoms improved rapidly. - “He has now been using the remedy for several months and the result is most satisfactory. - I have every reason to expect a cure of the extreme symptoms and believe the heart will be reduced to a safe hypertrophy, wi ll virtually be a cure.” A girl of twelve had a sudden collapse in Crataegus oxyacantha the third week of typhoid. - Crat. - five drops, every two hours was given on the indications ofagreatpallor with irregular breathing, cold limbs, pulse 120, very weak and irregular. - Strychnia, Dig. - and Cact. - had failed to give more than temporary relief. - Under Crat. - she rallied at once. - T. - C. - Duncan gave complete relief in a case of angina pectoris, the pain being above and to the left of the stomach. - Strong pulse and forci ble indications of hypertrophy were found. - A very tender spot on the left side of the spine. - Crat. - removed at the same time “a hurried feeling” and the anxious expression on her face. - Dr. - Duncan produced a “hurried feeling” in himself when proving Crat., w hich he attributed to the rapid action of the stimulated heart. - Anshutz reported that Dr. - Jennings procured for himself some of the remedy and his experience with it explains Dr. - Green's national reputation. - Dr. - Jennings wrote of the case of a Mr. - B., ag ed seventy-three years. - “I found him gasping for breath when I entered the room with a pulse-rate of 15 8 and very feeble, great edema of lower limbs and abdomen. - “A more desperate case could hardly be found. - I gave him fifteen drops of Cratae gus in half a wineglass of water. - In fifteen minutes the pulse beat was 126 and stronger and breathing was not so labored. - In twenty - five minutes pulse beat 110 and the force was still increasing, breathing much easier. - “He now got ten drops in same quantity of water and in one hour from the time I entered the house he was, for the first time in ten days, able to lie horizontally. - I made an examination of the heart and found mi tral regurgitation from valvular deficiency with great enlargement.” For the edema, he pres cribed Hydrargyrum cum creta, Squill and Digitalis. - “He received ten drops four times a day of the Crataegus and was permitted to use some light beer to which he had become accustomed at meal time. - He made a rapid and apparently full recovery until in three months, he felt as well as any man of his age in Chicago. - “He occasionally, particularly in the change of weather takes some of the Cratae gus which, he says, quickly stops shortness of breath or pain in the heart. - His father and 'a brother died of heart disease.” In another case, a woman “was suffering from a compensatory enlargement of the heart from mitral insufficiency,” was taken with dyspnea when Dr. - Jennings was called and was nearly dead. - Under Crataegus, and some other indicated remedies, she made an excellent recovery. - “In a letter from her, three months afterward, she said she was feeling well, but that she would not feel fully secure without some of the Crataegus.” “The forty other cases ran courses somewhat similar...all having been apparently cured. - Yet I am not satisfied beyond a doubt, that any of those patients were completely cured except those whose troubles of the heart were functional. - And it is possible and even probable that in weather of a heavy atmosphere or when it is surcharged with electricity or if the patient be subjected • to great excitement or sudden or violent commotion or exercise he may suffer again therewith. - “Cardiac impulse after a few days' use of the Crataegus is greatly strengthened and yields that low soft tone so characteristic of the first sound, as shown by the cardiograph. - The entire central nervous system seems to be influenced favorably by its use, the appetite increases and assimilation and nutrition improve. - “Also a sense of quietude and well-being rests on the patient and he who before its use was çross, melancholic and irritable after a few days of its use shows marked signs of improvement in his mental state. - “I doubt if it is indicated in fatty enlargement. - The dose which I have found to be the most available is from ten to fifteen drops after meals or food. - If taken before it may in very susceptible patients, cause nausea. - I find also that after its use for a month it may be well to discontinue for a week or two, when it should be renewed for another month or so. - “Usually three months seem to be the proper time for actual treatment and after that only at such times as a warning pain of the heart or dyspnea may point out.” Dr. - T. - C. - Duncan contributed the case of Mrs. - A., a printer, who “came to me co mplaining of some pain in the side as if it would take her life. - She did not have it all the time, only at times, usually the last of the week, when tired. - “I prescribed Bryonia, then Belladonna without prompt relief. - One Saturday she came with a severe at tack, locating the pain with her right hand above and to the left of the stomach. - The pulse was strong and forcible. - “On careful examination I found the heart beat below normal indicating hypertrophy. - I examined the spine and to the left of the vertebra ab out two inches I found a very tender spot (spinal hyperemia). - She told me that when a girl she had several attacks and that her own family physician gave her a remedy that relieved her at once. - “She had tried several physicians, among them an allopath, who gave hypodermic injections of morphine without relief. - Hot applications sometimes relieved. - I now recognized that I had a case of angina pec toris and that her early attacks were due, I thought to carrying her heavy brother. - Now the attacks come when she becomes tired holding her composing stick, at the same time she became very much flurried, so much so that she had stop work because she was confused. - “I now gave her a prescription for Cactus, but told her I would like to try first a new remedy, giving he r Crataegus, saturating some disks with tincture. - I directed her to take two disks every hour until relieved and then less often. - If not relieved to take the Cactus. - “She returned in a week reporting that she was relieved after the first dose of Crataegus. - More, that hurried, flurried feeling had not troubled her this week. - Her face has a parch ment skin and the expression of anxiety so significant of heart disease was certainly relieved. - I have not seen her since.” The proving of this remedy produced a flurried feeling due, to the rapid action of the stimulated heart. - A nervous female medical student who also proved it had “an unusual rush of blood to the head with confused feel ing,” followed later by “a feeling of quiet and calmness mentally.” ### Head - Very nervous and irritable with pain in back of head and neck. - Very nervous and irritable with pain in back of head and neck. ### Eyes - Conjunctival irritation, with nasal discharge. ### Chest - Dyspnea or shortness of breath, with a sensation of suffocation or oppression,. - resembling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart failure, worse with. - exertion, heat, or lying down. - Angina-like pain, with radiating discomfort to the arms or neck, resembling ischemic. - heart disease, aggravated by warm environments, emotional stress, or night. - Cough, dry or hacking, with throat irritation, resembling post-viral cough, worse with. - heat or exertion. - Tendency to respiratory hypersensitivity, with aggravation from warm, stuffy. - environments or systemic debility. - Systemic:. - Chronic fatigue or weakness, with a sensation of prostration, resembling chronic. - fatigue syndrome or post-viral exhaustion, worse after exertion, heat, or emotional. - stress. - Edema, particularly in the extremities, with puffiness or heaviness, resembling heart. - failure or venous insufficiency, aggravated by heat, standing, or night. - Crataegus oxyacantha (Hawthorn) 758. - Heat intolerance, with aggravation in warm, stuffy conditions and a desire for fresh. - air or rest. - Tendency to systemic hypersensitivity, with aggravation in cardiovascular or. - debilitative states. - Gastrointestinal:. - Dyspepsia or indigestion, with bloating, sour eructations, or discomfort, resembling. - functional dyspepsia, worse with rich foods, heat, or emotional stress. - Nausea or aversion to food, with a heavy or sinking sensation, resembling. - gastroparesis, aggravated by warm drinks, exertion, or stress. - Abdominal fullness or sluggish digestion, with a tendency to discomfort, worse with. - dietary indiscretions or fatigue. - Tendency to digestive hypersensitivity, with aggravation from emotional or physical. - strain. - Neurological:. - Vertigo or dizziness, with a sensation of spinning or unsteadiness, resembling. - vestibular dysfunction, worse with heat, exertion, or turning the head. - Insomnia or restless sleep, with frequent waking or anxiety, resembling primary. - insomnia, aggravated by emotional stress, heat, or night. - Headaches, constrictive or heavy, resembling tension-type headaches, worse with. - mental exertion or warm environments. - Tendency to neurological hypersensitivity, with aggravation from heat or. - cardiovascular stress. - Palpitations or irregular heartbeat, with a sensation of fluttering or skipping beats,. - resembling arrhythmias or heart failure, worse with exertion, heat, or emotional. - stress. - Chest pain or tightness, with a heavy or constrictive feeling, resembling angina. - pectoris, aggravated by warm environments, exertion, or night. - Hypertension or weak pulse, with a sensation of faintness, resembling essential. - hypertension or orthostatic hypotension, worse with emotional stress or fatigue. - Tendency to cardiovascular hypersensitivity, with aggravation from physical or. - emotional strain. - Psychological:. - Anxiety or nervousness, with anticipatory fear or restlessness, resembling. - generalized anxiety disorder, worse with heat, exertion, or night. - Irritability or impatience, with sensitivity to contradiction, resembling adjustment. - disorder, aggravated by physical discomfort, fatigue, or emotional stress. - Depression or despondency, with emotional withdrawal or hopelessness, resembling. - persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia), worse with isolation or chronic illness. - Tendency to emotional sensitivity, with aggravation during cardiovascular or. - systemic flare-ups. - Respiratory:. - Dyspnea or shortness of breath, with a sensation of suffocation or oppression,. - resembling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart failure, worse with. - exertion, heat, or lying down. - Angina-like pain, with radiating discomfort to the arms or neck, resembling ischemic. - heart disease, aggravated by warm environments, emotional stress, or night. - Cough, dry or hacking, with throat irritation, resembling post-viral cough, worse with. - heat or exertion. - Tendency to respiratory hypersensitivity, with aggravation from warm, stuffy. - environments or systemic debility. - Systemic:. - Chronic fatigue or weakness, with a sensation of prostration, resembling chronic. - fatigue syndrome or post-viral exhaustion, worse after exertion, heat, or emotional. - stress. - Edema, particularly in the extremities, with puffiness or heaviness, resembling heart. - failure or venous insufficiency, aggravated by heat, standing, or night. - Crataegus oxyacantha (Hawthorn) 758. - Heat intolerance, with aggravation in warm, stuffy conditions and a desire for fresh. - air or rest. - Tendency to systemic hypersensitivity, with aggravation in cardiovascular or. - debilitative states. - Gastrointestinal:. - Dyspepsia or indigestion, with bloating, sour eructations, or discomfort, resembling. - functional dyspepsia, worse with rich foods, heat, or emotional stress. - Nausea or aversion to food, with a heavy or sinking sensation, resembling. - gastroparesis, aggravated by warm drinks, exertion, or stress. - Abdominal fullness or sluggish digestion, with a tendency to discomfort, worse with. - dietary indiscretions or fatigue. - Tendency to digestive hypersensitivity, with aggravation from emotional or physical. - strain. - Neurological:. - Vertigo or dizziness, with a sensation of spinning or unsteadiness, resembling. - vestibular dysfunction, worse with heat, exertion, or turning the head. - Insomnia or restless sleep, with frequent waking or anxiety, resembling primary. - insomnia, aggravated by emotional stress, heat, or night. - Headaches, constrictive or heavy, resembling tension-type headaches, worse with. - mental exertion or warm environments. - Tendency to neurological hypersensitivity, with aggravation from heat or. - cardiovascular stress. ### Stomach & Abdomen - Nausea. - Dyspepsia and nervous prostration with heart failure. - Temperature - Cutaneous chilliness. - Blueness of fingers and toes, all aggravated by exertion or excitement. - Chilliness in heart disease. ### Extremities - Limbs cold and edematous. - Coldness of fingers. - Blueness of limbs. - Swelling of lower limbs. - Swelling of feet. ### Skin - Chronic fatigue or weakness, with a sensation of prostration, resembling chronic. - fatigue syndrome or post-viral exhaustion, worse after exertion, heat, or emotional. - stress. - Edema, particularly in the extremities, with puffiness or heaviness, resembling heart. - failure or venous insufficiency, aggravated by heat, standing, or night. - Crataegus oxyacantha (Hawthorn) 758. - Heat intolerance, with aggravation in warm, stuffy conditions and a desire for fresh. - air or rest. - Tendency to systemic hypersensitivity, with aggravation in cardiovascular or. - debilitative states. - Gastrointestinal:. - Dyspepsia or indigestion, with bloating, sour eructations, or discomfort, resembling. - functional dyspepsia, worse with rich foods, heat, or emotional stress. - Nausea or aversion to food, with a heavy or sinking sensation, resembling. - gastroparesis, aggravated by warm drinks, exertion, or stress. - Abdominal fullness or sluggish digestion, with a tendency to discomfort, worse with. - dietary indiscretions or fatigue. - Tendency to digestive hypersensitivity, with aggravation from emotional or physical. - strain. - Neurological:. - Vertigo or dizziness, with a sensation of spinning or unsteadiness, resembling. - vestibular dysfunction, worse with heat, exertion, or turning the head. - Insomnia or restless sleep, with frequent waking or anxiety, resembling primary. - insomnia, aggravated by emotional stress, heat, or night. - Headaches, constrictive or heavy, resembling tension-type headaches, worse with. - mental exertion or warm environments. - Tendency to neurological hypersensitivity, with aggravation from heat or. - cardiovascular stress. ### Sleep - Insomnia of heart patients. - Sleeplessness in aortic disease.