Know Your Remedies: Camphora Officinale (Camph.)
Remedy Source
Camphora Officinale (Camph.) is a homeopathic remedy prepared from the gum of the Laurus camphora (Cinnamomum camphora) tree.
What Is Camphora Officinale (Camph.) Used For?
Camphora is an important remedy for sensations of coldness – in general or in spots – and types of collapse as may occur in sunstroke, fainting, dysentery or cholera for which it is still used with success in some countries today.
The person needing Camphora will shiver with coldness but not want to be covered or warmed. They may also complain of painful coldness or localised cold spots.
Should collapse occur, the pulse will be weak and barely perceptible, and they will feel cold. Types of cramps and convulsions also fall within the Camphora picture.
Solid camphor, often sold in small blocks or balls, also has many uses. It is a well-known moth and cockroach deterrent and is regularly used in balms and liniments to relieve pain or itchy skin.
It is also considered an ‘antidote’ of many homeopathic remedies, especially plant-based ones, and for this reason, solid Camphor should not be used with them.
Camphora Officinale (Camph.) Symptoms
Mental-Emotional
- Easily offended.
- Anxiety at night, especially when alone.
Chest
- Suffocative attacks – asthma or bronchitis.
- Pneumonia or bronchitis with collapse.
Gastrointestinal
- Cholera and dysentery-like symptoms.
Skin
- Rashes from exposure to sunlight.
- Localised cold spots.
- Coldness with blue discolouration.
- Raynaud syndrome.
Musculoskeletal
- Cramps.
- Weakness.
Where Do I Find Camphora?
Camphora Officinalis (Camph.) is available from our online store as a single remedy in either pills or liquid, and as part of the following Complexes (combination remedies): Mastitis; Tonsillitis.
Important
While above self-limiting or acute complaints are suitable for home treatment also contact your healthcare provider during emergency situations or if symptoms worsen or fail to improve. Chronic or persistent complaints, which may or may not be mentioned above, require a different treatment and dosage protocol so are best managed by a qualified homeopath for good results.
Dosage Instructions (suitable for babies to adults)
For the home treatment of acute and self-limiting complaints take one pill or five drops of the remedy every 1 minute to 4 hours (1 minute for intense or emergency symptoms (plus seek emergency help), 4 hours for milder ones). Once an improvement is noticed, stop dosing and repeat the remedy only if symptoms return. If there is no improvement at all by three doses, choose a different remedy or seek professional guidance.
Note: Chronic symptoms or complaints require a course of professional treatment by a qualified homeopath to manage the changes in potencies and remedies that may be required.
More Information
Guidelines on which potency to use
From Past Masters
Homeopathy is a 200-year system of medicine. Early medical homeopaths recorded initial provings, remedy relationships, and their early experiences with each remedy in great detail.
These writings were then shared with others to advance homeopathic practice.
Today, these same writings give a fascinating insight into the symptoms and clinical conditions for which homeopathy was used.
The following extract, with minor editing, is one example.
Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics by E. B. NASH M.D.
Camphora Officinale (Camph.) – Keynotes
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Great coldness of the external surface, with sudden and complete prostration of the vital force; collapse.
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The patient objects to being covered, notwithstanding the objective coldness; throws off all the covering.
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Pains disappear when thinking of them; exceedingly sensitive to cold air.
Camphora Officinale (Camph.) – General Notes
The great characteristic around which the whole action of Camphor seems to revolve is: “Great coldness of the external surface, with sudden and complete prostration of the vital forces.”
It is no wonder Hahnemann headed his trio (Camphor, Cuprum and Hellebore) of cholera remedies with Camphor.
If we were to sum up the same condition in one word it would be collapse.
No remedy comes nearer to Camphor than the last of the trio, viz., Veratrum album, but Camphor has the collapse with painless stool or even no stool at all, while Veratrum has the collapse seemingly as a consequence of the very profuse evacuations of stomach and bowels.
Both have great external coldness, but Veratrum has a very marked appearance of cold sweat upon the hippocratic face, especially forehead.
Cuprum leads the trio, when the cramp in stomach and extremities is the most prominent symptom.
These remedies are indicated when these characteristic symptoms appear, not only in cholera, but in any disease.
There is one peculiarity in the coldness of Camphor, viz., the patient will not be covered, or objects to it, no matter how objectively cold he is.
Secale coldness or collapse is exactly like this, and even in gangrena senilis it proves a great remedy on the same indications.
The signal success of Dr. Rubini, of Naples, in treating five hundred and ninety-two cases of cholera with Camphor verified the prediction of Hahnemann beyond question.
Collapse with cold surface and aversion to heat may come on in retrocedent exanthema, or in the later stage of so-called cholera infantum, in pneumonia, or capillary bronchitis, from exposure to intense cold or traumatic shock.
Indeed it does not matter from what cause except death, Camphor is the first remedy to be thought of, and according to susceptibility or strength of the patient the dose must be varied from tincture to highest potency.
