Arctium Lappa (Burdock)

JOHN FEARN, M. D., OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

There are several species of arctium, but it is the lappa major or arctium lappa upon which I have learned to rely. It grows plentifully by the wayside both in Europe and America. It can be used freely in decoction also in specific medicine, the dose of the specific medicine will be from ten to sixty drops.

Specific Indications: Feeble cutaneous circulation, attended with scaly, dry eruptions of the skin. The skin is not well nourished—urinary irritation.

Therapy: Much that has been said about rumex can be said of this remedy as an alterative, but in my opinion this, though a valuable remedy, is not to be compared with rumex either as a tonic or an alterative.

It has a very soothing effect on mucous surfaces, in the respiratory, digestive and urinary tract, It is a true renal depurent, and where we desire to increase the solid contents of the urine, there are few better remedies than infusions decoctions or tinctures made from the seeds and roots of arctium. And it can be taken freely and in chronic cases it should be taken for a long time. The diseases in which it was valued by the early botanists, and for which it is just as good today, are diseases attended by chronicity, as rheumatism, muscular or articular, chronic erysipelas, milk crust, eczema, psoriasis, and scaly skin diseases, boils and styes on the eyelids, dropsy, etc. If you will examine the urine of these patients—before taking this remedy, and then after a good course of the remedy, you will be astonished at the difference. And you will at once see how Burdock cures these diseases.

Ellingwood gives the key to its success when he says it relieves irritation of the urinary apparatus, promoting a free flow of the urine containing urea, uric acid, and a full quantity of excrete solids.

My early experience with this remedy was with a decoction, which was very successful.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.