Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master‟s Degree in Technology: Homoeopathy, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / Until recently, various attempts have been made to simplify the prescription
process in homoeopathic prescribing. The doctrine of signatures, miasmatic
theory, the homoeopathic repertory and more recently, kingdom analysis by
authors such as Sankaran (1994) and Scholten (1993) are some of the attempts
that have been made to understand the materia medica. With the materia medica
constantly expanding and considering that plants make up a significant
percentage of the materia medica (Kayne, 2006), it is evident that new systems
of homoeopathic prescribing are continually needed to help practitioners both
study the remedies and prescribe more accurately.
Aim
The Solanaceae plant family are an important and well utilised plant family in
homoeopathy (Vermeulen, 2004). Considering this, it was felt that a study
investigating the relationship of the natural history of the family to its general and
mental symptoms be conducted in order to apply a previously unexplored
research paradigm in order to create a greater understanding of Solanaceae
remedies utilised in homoeopathy. The study conducted was a non empirical
correlation study of the Solanaceae plant family‟s natural history and general and
mental symptoms manifested in Solanaceae remedies utilised in homoeopathy.
The aims of the study were to establish if commonalties existed between general
and mental symptoms of individual remedies belonging the Solanaceae family
and their natural histories, as well as to establish if collective commonalities and
correlations existed between the general and mental symptoms and the natural
history of the Solanaceae family as a whole.
Methodology
The homoeopathic remedies obtained from the Solanaceae family of plants for
the study were analysed in terms of rubric representation (size) using
homoeopathic software packages, Radar 10.4 (Archibel, 2009b) and
v
Encyclopedia Homoeopathica (Archibel, 2009a) a sample selection was chosen.
This selection was analysed in terms of general and mental rubrics. Qualitative
thematic analysis was used to establish commonalities in keyword concepts
between the respective natural histories of the studied family and their respective
general and mental symptoms. Keywords obtained from data tables which
included criteria such as habitat and distribution, plant description, active
principles (primary alkaloids), uses, physiological action if ingested, historical
significance, mythology and toxicology were subjected to thesaurus consultation
and tabulated in an attempt to identify synonyms relating to the general and
mental symptoms of individual remedies of the sample group in the study. This
facilitated in the grouping of similar themes. Once commonalities pertaining to
each individual species and remedy was further tabulated and discussed in
terms of keywords relating to their natural histories, a collective analysis of
common correlations between the plant family as a whole was performed.
Results
Common themes related to general and mental symptoms and to the natural
histories of species in the study included “aggression” found in Atropa
belladonna, “depression” found in Solanum dulcamara, “anxiety” found in Datura
stramonium, “confusion” found in Hyoscyamus niger, “burns” found in Capsicum
annuum, “ convulsions” found in Nicotiana tabacum , “ hallucinations” found in
Mandragora officinarum and “delirium” found in Solanum nigrum. Common
themes relating to general and mental symptoms and the natural history of the
Solanaceae plant family as a whole included convulsions, hallucinations,
confusion and anxiety. These themes were further compared to themes exhibited
in Solanaceae studies conducted by Mangialavori (2007) and Sankaran (2002).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:dut/oai:localhost:10321/664 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Long, Bryan Henry |
| Contributors | Botha, Izel |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 119 p |
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