Know Your Remedies: Sulphuricum Acidum (Sul-ac.)

Common Names: Sulphuric acid; H2SO4.

General Information

Sulphuric acid is one of the constituents of combustion engine exhausts (cars, planes, diesels, etc) which may explain why so many who need it in potency are also sensitive to smoke, smog, and odours. Other common symptoms include sourness of discharges such as perspiration, eructations (burps), reflux, vomit, and breath, hot flushes during menopause, and tendency to bruises or haemorrhage. The person needing Sul-ac. may also be chilly, complain of internal trembling, and be weak with perspiration. Pains appear gradually but disappear rapidly.

Mental-Emotional

  • Hurried – walk quickly and eat rapidly.
  • Confusion and awkwardness from hurry.
  • Nervous and anxious to get things done.
  • Dissatisfied and irritable.

Skin

  • Easy bruising – from the least bump.
  • Useful for bruising when Arnica doesn’t relieve.

Gastrointestinal

  • Painful ulcers that often appear at regular intervals.
  • Heartburn and gastritis (inflammation of the stomach).
  • Craving for brandy.
  • Dislike of water unless alcohol (especially brandy) is added.

Where do I find it?

Sulphuricum Acidum (Sul-ac.) is available from our online store as a single remedy in either pills or liquid, and as part of the following Complexes (combination remedies): Bruises; Heartburn & Reflux; Hot Flushes (Flashes). 

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.

Suphuricum acidum (Sul-ac.)

Extreme weakness, with sense of internal trembling, which is not observable to others.

Hæmorrhages from every outlet of the body, with ecchymosed spots under the skin.

Child smells sour all over despite the actual cleanliness. Sour, acid vomiting.

Adapted to the light-haired old people, especially women; flushes of heat in climacteric years.

Aphthæ, of mouth, gums, or entire buccal cavity, gums bleed readily; ulcers painful; offensive breath. Bad effects from mechanical injuries, with bruises, chafing and livid skin; prostration.

Sensation as if the brain was loose in forehead and falling from side to side (Bell., Bry., Rhus, Spig.). Often very useful in the stomach troubles of old whiskey topers.

* * * * *

Sulphuric acid is another remedy of value in aphthous affections of the mouth. It is particularly efficacious in greatly debilitated subjects, and in children with marasmus with this kind of mouth. There is often present sour stomach (Iris versicol. and Robinia, sour eructations and vomiting) with sour, vomiting, and the child smells sour all over despite the greatest care in regard to cleanliness (Rheum, Hepar and Magnesia).

One of the strongest characteristics, perhaps the strongest, in weakened subjects in which this is the appropriate remedy, is a sense of internal trembling. This is a subjective symptom, for, notwithstanding this positive sensation, to a degree that is very distressing, there is no visible trembling.

This symptom is frequently found in old topers (see Ranunculus bulb.), who are broken down or almost wrecked in health by strong drink. The symptom, however, is not confined to such subjects, but is often found in other cases when the debility is traceable to other causes; when markedly present from whatever cause Sulphuric acid should never be forgotten.

We have already spoken of the value of this remedy in purpura hæmorrhagica. Like Crotalus, it has hæmorrhages from every outlet of the body (Acetic acid, Thlaspi), and the blood also settles in ecchymosed spots under the skin. This last symptom would indicate that Sulphuric acid might be useful in black and blue spots in the skin, as the result of bruising, and practice corroborates it, and it follows well after Arnica.

Ledum palustre is also one of our best remedies for ecchymosis from bruises, “black eye,” for instance; this is, of course, for bruises under the skin; While Ruta is just as efficacious for bruises of the periosteum.

There is enough of the Sulphur element so that it may succeed in “flushes” of heat, after Sulphur has failed at the climacteric.