Know Your Remedies: Coccus Cacti (Coc-c.)

By Frank Vincentz – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

Common Names: Cochineal (N. O. Hemiptera).

General Information

Coccus Cacti (Coc-c) is a remedy for types of cough, including whooping cough, that are accompanied by thick or stringy discharges from mucous membranes. Coughs and other symptoms worsen in Winter, cold weather and open air, and paradoxically, in warm rooms.

Throat

  • Rawness, scraping, or tickling that worsens on getting warm in bed.
  • Sensation of a crumb which triggers cough.
  • Thick, sticky and difficult to expectorate mucus.

Cough

  • Cough from irritation or tickling in the throat or chest.
  • Cough from brushing teeth or rinsing mouth.
  • Cough improves with cold drinks or cold air.
  • Paroxysms of cough.
  • Cough with retching, vomiting or choking.
  • Racking cough that ends in vomiting of clear ropy mucus.
  • Cough with thick or ropy mucus hanging in strings from the mouth.
  • Types of pertussis (whooping cough).

Ear

  • Impaired hearing from thickened mucus.

Urogenital

  • Renal colic with shooting, stabbing pains from kidneys to bladder.

Where do I find it?

Coccus Cacti (Coc-c.) is available from our online store as a single remedy in either pills or liquid, and as part of the following Complex (combination remedy): Cough (Loose).

Home Treatment Guidelines

Acute, Self-Limiting Conditions

Conditions like colds or minor injuries, which are short-term and typically improve on their own, can be managed at home with homeopathy. However, in emergencies or if symptoms worsen, contact your healthcare provider.

Chronic Conditions

These home treatment instructions do not apply for ongoing issues, whether mentioned above or not, like persistent allergies or chronic pain. You should consult a qualified homeopath for a personalized treatment plan to achieve the best results with homeopathy for chronic conditions.

How to Take the Remedy for Acute Conditions

  • Take one pill or five drops of the remedy. The frequency depends on symptom severity. As examples:
    • For life-threatening symptoms, take every 1 minute and seek emergency help immediately.
    • For mild symptoms, take every 4 hours.
  • Stop taking the remedy once you feel better. Resume if symptoms return.
  • If no improvement after four doses, choose a different remedy or consult a professional homeopath.
  • For more details on dosing, refer to: How Often to Dose with a 30C Homeopathic remedy.
  • For information on the different potencies, read: Guidelines on which potency to use

Additional Notes From Past Masters

Homeopathy is a 200-year-old system of medicine.

Early homeopaths recorded detailed notes on how remedies worked, including initial tests, remedy relationships, and their experiences. These writings were shared to improve homeopathic practice and now offer fascinating insights into past uses of homeopathy.

Here’s an example, edited and modernised for clarity, from Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics (1898) by E. B. NASH M.D.:

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics by E. B. NASH M.D.

Coccus Cacti

We are dealing with small fry of the insect order, Coccus cacti, a small bug or insect which infests the plants of the cactus species of Mexico and Central America. It has made its best record in curing affections of the respiratory organs.

Whooping cough with expectoration of much tough, ropy white mucus. This mucus comes in large quantities and is often accompanied with gagging and vomiting, which seems to expel the mucus from the stomach.

With this remedy the aggravations generally come on in the after part of the night or in the morning when the child awakens. The paroxysms are not confined to this time, but the worst one comes then.

The paroxysm ends in vomiting of clear ropy mucus in large quantities, hanging in long strings from the mouth. For such a cough Coccus cacti is excellent.

Sometimes a bronchial catarrh remains after whooping cough, which has this kind of expectoration. Here this remedy will sometimes clear up the whole case.