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| Ruta |
Ruta Here did she drop a tear; here in this place
I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace;
Rue, even for ruth, shall shortly here be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.
[Shakespeare, Richard III]
Signs
Ruta graveolens. Rue. Bitterwort. Herb of Grace. N.O. Rutaceae.
CLASSIFICATION The Rutaceae – the Rue Family or Citrus Family – is distributed in warm and tropical regions of both hemispheres, with its centres of speciation in South Africa and Australia. There are 150 genera and some 900 species of shrubs and trees, and occasionally herbs, which have been divided into four subfamilies on characters of the carpels and structure of the fruit. Many of the species have oil glands in the leaves. Commercially, Citrus is the most important genus [lemon, orange, grapefruit, lime, tangerine etc.]. Citrus fruits are grown in the tropical and warm temperate ‘citrus belt’ which spans the whole globe, notably in the Mediterranean region, southern United States of America, Mexico, South Africa and Australia. Many species are sources of essential oils of use in perfumery and medicine [Ruta, Galipea, Toddalia, Diosma, Dictamnus, Ptelea, Boronia, Citrus]. The family is esp. rich in secondary metabolites of potential, if not actual, biodynamic activity. These include ethereal oils, a variety of alkaloids, amides, occasional cyanogenic compounds, several types of coumarins, flavonoids, aromatic acids, polyphenols and tannins, lignans, tetracyclic triterpenes, limonoids, a variety of terpenes as well as saponins. 1,2
GENUS The family owes its name to the rue [Ruta graveolens], a small, hardy, evergreen, aromatic shrub which for centuries has been grown in herb gardens as a medicinal plant. Like most other members of the family, the crushed leaves of rue produce a strong foetid aroma from oil glands which can be seen as small, translucent black dots on the leaves. The plant owes its specific name to this feature, graveolens meaning ‘strong-smelling’. Ruta is somewhat typical for the family and can be characterized as a genus of about 8 hardy shrubs, subshrubs and perennials, with strong-smelling, alternate, trifoliolate or compound, pinnate leaves without stipules and terminal inflorescences [corymbs or panicles] that are subtended by leafy bracts. The genus is primarily of the Mediterranean region and temperate Asia. The flowers are insect-pollinated, greenish-yellow in colour and composed of a four- or five-lobed persistent calyx, four or five overlapping, toothed or ciliate [having fine hairs or projections] petals, a thick basal disk of eight to ten glands or pits from which nectar is secreted and eight to ten stamens. 3
HOMOEOPATHY Twelve members of the Citrus family are included in homoeopathic materia medica. Of these, seven belong to the subfamily Rutoideae. This subfamily is divided into five tribes. The tribe Ruteae contains Ruta and Dictamnus; the South-African shrubs Diosma and Barosma are placed in the tribe Diosmeae; Pilocarpus [Jaborandi in homoeopathy] and Galipea [Angustura in homoeopathy] belong to the tribe Cusparieae, which comprises South-American shrubs and trees; and Zanthoxylum [Xanthoxylum in homoeopathy] is the sole representative of the tribe Zanthoxyleae. Of the four species employed from the subfamily Aurantioideae, three belong to the genus Citrus: C. aurantium [Aurantium in homoeopathy; Seville orange], C. decumana [C. paradisi; grapefruit], C. limon [lemon], and one to the genus Aegle: Aegle marmelos [Bael, Bengal quince]. A remedy made from the leaves of the bael tree is mentioned separately as Aegle-folia. [The astringent leaves are used in India to treat peptic ulcers.]. The subfamily Toddaloideae – comprising Old World tropical and temperate trees and shrubs – contributes one species: Ptelea.
SPECIES Ruta graveolens is a subshrub of 60-90 cm high. The lower part of the stem is woody. It has green or blue-green, compoundly-pinnate leaves and greenish-yellow flowers. Each flower has a square of four concave yellow petals with wrinkled margins and with eight stamens. The central flower of the corymb has five concave yellow petals [and ten stamens] and often is placed lower on the flowering stalk than the four-petaled flowers. The first flower that opens has usually five petals [ten stamens], the others four only [eight stamens]. The plant thrives in warm, well-drained soils, particularly where lime is present. The bruised leaves have an orange-like fragrance. Rue releases its scent in a remarkable way. The essential oil is contained in a cavity immediately beneath the surface of the leaf, above which is a thin layer of cells pierced by a cavity in the middle. The cells swell up and bend inwards, pressing on the essential oil beneath, which is driven to the surface of the leaf and there released. Rue is a poor companion plant for many other species, growing badly with sage, cabbage and sweet basil. It is a good companion for roses and raspberries. Mrs Grieve states that this plant is less liable to be injured by frost in winter when grown in a poor, dry, rubbishy soil than in good soil. Ruta graveolens is one of the few plants to figure in heraldry. “In Saxony rue has given its name to an Order. A chaplet of rue, borne bendwise on bars of the Coat Armour of the Dukedom of Saxony, was granted by Frederick Barbarossa to the first Duke of Saxony, in 1181. In 1902 the King of Saxony conferred the Order of the Rautenkrone [Crown of Rue] on our present King, then Prince of Wales. Since the latter half of the 17th century, sprigs of rue have been interlaced in the Collar of our Order of the Thistle.”4
CONSTITUENTS The chemistry of the genus has been extensively investigated. In general, the genus contains quinoline alkaloids, essential oils, coumarins, and limonoids. [Quinoline alkaloids include quinine and other alkaloids from cinchona bark, and also the alkaloids found in Angustura Bitters. Angustura belongs to the Rutaceae.] Over 110 chemicals have been found in Ruta graveolens, four of which are listed with either abortifacient or antifertility activity. Duke lists the quinoline alkaloids arborinine, graveolinine and skimmianine as abortion-producing and chalepensin as having antifertility activity. In addition, the plant contains 0.5% volatile oil [including 50-90% 2-undecanone], flavonoids [including rutin], and furocoumarins [including bergapten]. Rutin is a flavonoid; citrus fruits, buckwheat, and all white and yellow flowers contain significantly high levels of flavonoids. Present in many plants, rutin supports and strengthens the inner lining of blood vessels, inhibits internal bleedings, reduces blood pressure and increases blood circulation to the hands and feet. Rutin can help to prevent radiation damage. Bergapten is found in a wide variety of plants, but seems to be particularly present in Rutaceae and Umbelliferae. It was first isolated from bergamot oil, derived from Citrus bergamia, a dwarf variety of C. aurantium. Bergapten [oil of bergamot] is used to promote tanning in many modern suntan lotions. As a prime photosensitizer, this substance may produce increased pigmentation [brown spots] in skin areas exposed to sunlight [berloque dermatitis]. The photosensitizing properties of bergapten have been utilized therapeutically in the photochemotherapy of psoriasis. Taken internally, rue also can provoke photodermatitis; peels of bitter orange, lemon, and lime have similar effects. Of the 600 known natural coumarins, some 200 are present in members of the Rutaceae, notably in the genera Zanthoxylum, Ruta, Dictamnus, Citrus, Aegle, and Eriostemon. The close chemical relationship between furocoumarin and aesculin may explain the similarity between Ruta and Aesculus regarding the rectal prolapse symptoms. Rue leaves are used to flavour Italian grape spirit [grappa] and were an ingredient of sack [mead].
TOXICOLOGY Ruta is toxic. Ingestion causes stomach pain, vomiting, exhaustion, confusion, and convulsions; large amounts may be fatal. The plant is irritant and vesicant, esp. in the heat of the summer; handling of the flowers and fruit has produced erythema, burning, itching, and vesication. Much of this activity, however, is dissipated by drying.
MEDICINE The ancient Greeks and Romans held the plant in high esteem. Rue was alleged to be the antidote which Mercury gave to Ulysses to counteract the drugged drink offered by Circe, the enchantress. Its effectiveness in various diseases, according to Mrs Grieve, inspired the Greeks to name it Ruta after the word reuo, to set free. One of its uses in Greek and Roman medicine was an abortifacient and emmenagogue. The Romans introduced the plant into England for its medicinal value. “Hippocrates specially commended it, and it constituted a chief ingredient of the famous antidote to poison used by Mithridates. The Greeks regarded it as an anti-magical herb, because it served to remedy the nervous indigestion they suffered when eating before strangers, which they attributed to witchcraft. Piperno, a Neapolitan physician, in 1625, commended rue as a specific against epilepsy and vertigo, and for the former malady, at one time, some of this herb used to be suspended round the neck of the sufferer. Pliny reported rue to be of such effect for the preservation of sight that the painters of his time used to devour a great quantity of it, and the herb is still eaten by the Italians in their salads. It was supposed to make the sight both sharp and clear, esp. when the vision had become dim through over-exertion of the eyes. It was with ‘Euphrasy and Rue’ that Adam’s sight was purged by Milton’s Angel.”5 The use for eye problems is well founded, as an infusion used as an eyewash brings quick relief to strained and tired eyes, and reputedly improves the eyesight. The latter use led to the belief that rue could bestow second sight. Culpeper considered [garden] rue to be an herb of the Sun and under the dominion of Leo. “It provokes urine and women’s courses, being taken either in meat or drink. The seed thereof taken in wine is an antidote against all dangerous medicines or deadly poisons. … It causes all venomous things to become harmless. Being often taken in meat and drink it abates venery. … Being boiled or infused in oil, it is good to help the wind colic, the hardness and windiness of the mother, and frees women from the strangling or suffocation thereof, if the share and the parts thereabouts be anointed therewith. It kills and drives forth the worms of the belly, if it is drank after it is boiled in wine to the half, with a little honey; it helps the gout or pains in the joints, hands, feet or knees, applied thereunto; and with figs it helps the dropsy, being bathed therewith. Being bruised and put into the nostrils, it stays the bleeding thereof.”6 In herbal medicine rue is seen as a ‘warming herb’ that stimulates the uterus, relaxes spasms, improves digestion, increases perspiration, and strengthens capillaries. Internally it is used for menstrual problems, colic, epilepsy, and rheumatic pains; externally for sore eyes, earache, skin diseases, neuralgia, and rheumatism.
FOLKLORE Rue has been valued for centuries as a bitter herb. The finely-chopped leaves were eaten in salads as a digestive aid. In the Middle Ages it was believed that carrying sprigs of rue would ward off plague. The plant was credited with anti-magical powers [esp. against evil brought to a village by strangers] and allegedly cured countless ills. Due to its strong scent, rue had always been considered a powerful repellent of all kinds of vermin. Early American colonial recipes for the herbal vinegars that were used to disinfect sickrooms and ward off germs, contain rue, and the herb was hung in wardrobes and placed in linen chests. “It was the custom for judges sitting at assizes,” writes Mrs Grieve, “to have sprigs of rue placed on the bench of the dock against the pestilential infection brought into court from gaol by the prisoner, and the bouquet still presented in some districts to judges at the assizes was originally a bunch of aromatic herbs, given to them for the purpose of warding off gaol-fever.” It was called the herb of grace or repentance because holy water used to be sprinkled at the ceremony preceding the Sunday celebration of High Mass using brushes made of rue. “We may call it a herb of grace o’ Sundays; O, you must wear your rue with a difference,” says Ophelia to Queen Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In flower language the plant stands for repentance, contrition and grief. The English name rue is derived from its earlier English name, ruth, which meant incant, sorrow, and repentance. There is also a curious relationship with thieves. Rue is one of the ingredients of the Vinegar of the Four Thieves [a protective beverage drunk by a small band of men who stole from corpses during the Great Plague], and according to an old English tradition the plant grows best when it has been stolen from another garden. Several other beliefs are associated with the plant. For instance, weasels are said to eat the herb before attacking a snake, and shot boiled in rue ensures a direct hit each time. As a symbol of repentance and sorrow, but also of pity and mercy, rue could be used to help or harm, bless or curse. It is the traditional herb of brides in Lithuania. An example of its use as a curse is the following story told in Herefordshire, England: “It is only a few years since a young girl went to Cusop [Herefordshire], to the wedding of a young man who had jilted her; waiting in the church porch till the bridegroom came out, she threw a handful of rue at him, saying ‘May you rue this day as long as you live!’ … the curse would come true, because the rue was taken direct from the plant to the churchyard, and thrown ‘between holy and unholy ground’ … if there was any difficulty in obtaining it [rue] for this spiteful purpose, rue-fern [i.e. wall rue], the leaves of which resemble it, might be used; it must be found growing on the churchyard wall, and be gathered directly from thence.”7
PROVINGS •• [1] Hahnemann – 9 provers; method: unknown.
•• [2] Schelling – self-experimentations, 1856 and 1857; method: 2 doses of 7th dil., and 5 doses of 4th dil.
[1] Evans Schultes and Raffauf, The Healing Forest. [2-3] Heywood, Flowering Plants of the World. [4-5] Grieve, A Modern Herbal. [6] Culpeper’s Complete Herbal. [7] Vickery, Dictionary of Plant-lore.
Affinity
Fibrous tissues [EYES; flexor tendons; joints; wrists and ankles; back, lumbar region]. Cartilage. Periosteum. Uterus. Skin. * Right side.
Modalities
Worse: Overexertion [EYESTRAIN; injury; sprains]. COLD [air; wind; damp; wet]. LYING. SITTING. Pressure on an edge. Stooping. Straining at stool.
Better: Lying on back [backache]. Warmth. Motion. Daytime.
Main symptoms
M Dissatisfaction with himself and others.
Imagined he was always being deceived.
• “A 13 year old girl was brought in by her mother for chronic pinworm infections. … She [also] suffered from tendinitis of her right foot. … When asked what was most difficult for her, Tanya replied ‘Not being able to count on people. They haven’t been there for me. … She mentioned that what was most difficult for her before the remedy was feeling she could not count on others. This was one of the symptoms cured by the remedy.”1
• “[A 40-year old marine engineer came with the complaint of severe disabling backache not responding to painkillers.] … I love my work because I love being at sea. Ashore the corruption is too much for me to handle. You have to be so alert. People in government offices want bribes all the time. You constantly have to keep a check on everyone for every little thing you want to get done. They are all so dishonest while at sea it’s an honest family working together. I do not mind paying more but it is this hiding that I cannot tolerate. Why can’t people ask for money directly? It drives me crazy when they hint at such matters indirectly. I have been at sea for eight to ten months at a stretch. … The curious, active, generous personality and the love for the sea are merely positive reactions – efforts made by the consciousness to avoid a constant underlying threat of being misled or being told the wrong thing. A feeling so strong it drives him away from his family, away from land and away from civilization at the mercy of the sea. This most predominant and troublesome feature was the first thing we looked for, in the repertory, as the delusion he was always being deceived.”2
M STARTING from sleep from slightest TOUCH.
• “After a meal extreme sleepiness; he fell asleep while reading, a sleep with semi-consciousness; at the slightest touch he woke up with a cry of the greatest terror.” [Hahnemann]
G Weakness when sitting, or after walking.
• “He feels exhausted and lazy only when sitting; but he does not feel this after walking a short while.”
• “After every short walk he is very exhausted; his limbs feel bruised; the sacrum and loins are painful, but he only feels his sufferings when he comes to sit down; if he stands up and walks about he feels better.” [Hahnemann]
G Violent, unquenchable thirst for ice-cold water. [Kent]
G < COLD, damp weather. < Becoming COLD. G < LYING. < Lying on painful side. > During the day.
G AVERSION to motion.
Yet relieved by it.
G Bruised, sore, aching and restless.
G Lameness after sprains.
[esp. of wrists and ankles]
G Sensitive NODULES on periosteum and tendons after INJURY.
• “Bruises go away slowly and leave a hardened spot; thickening of periosteum; a knotty, nodular condition, it remains sore.” [Kent]
• “Ruta is similar to Rhus Tox. for some types of rheumatism, for backache and sciatica. It is worse from cold, worse in wet weather, relieved by motion. It is an exaggerated Rhus Tox., to be used when lumps and nodules persist in the periosteum, when there is slow repair, when there are hardened masses in tendons with contractions of the flexor muscles, and bruises are followed by indurations.” [Shepherd]
P EYE STRAIN, followed by headache.
Eyes burn like balls of fire.
Caused by fine work.
P Disturbances of accommodation.
• “Dimness before the eyes as if shadows hovered before him.”
• “Dimness of surrounding objects, as if from having looked too long at an object that was fatiguing to the eyes.” [Hahnemann]
P Urging to stool, but results only in rectum prolapsing.
< After delivery; stooping; squatting. Constipation [impaction] following mechanical injuries. • “Ruta has a curious action on the rectum. As one prover puts it, ‘There was a sensation of nausea located in the rectum.’ This indication has been made use of for curing prolapse of the rectum, and even for cancer of the rectum it has been found of value. I can recall several cases of rectal prolapse in young children who quickly responded to nightly doses of Ruta 30, given for a week or two weeks, after their mothers had spent much time and energy for weeks in putting the offending prolapsed organ back with hot water compresses. In one case I remember, the child’s name was down on the admission list to go into hospital for an operation, but before the summons came, the rectum had decided to return to its normal quarters, stimulated by repeated doses of Ruta. A much worse case was that of an old gentleman who had had two operations already on the rectum, without making any impression on the prolapse. The prolapse was worse on stooping; worse when crouching and at any time when attempting to go to stool. It was suggested as a last resort to remove the rectum, after making an artificial anus higher up. Then somebody told him about our medical treatment for prolapse. Ruta 12 night and morning did for him in three weeks what orthodox treatment could not achieve in the same number of years, and he escaped further surgical mutilation.” [Shepherd] P Weak bruised feeling in small of back. Legs give out on rising from a chair. Makes several efforts on rising from a seat, totters. Backache > LYING ON THE BACK.
P Nodes in palms.
• “Fibrous growths on the tendons from overuse of the hands, or other parts.”
[1] Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman, Insights Into a Common Remedy; HL 2/95. [2] S. Joshi and B. Joshi, Is everyone telling me the truth? A case of Ruta graveolens; HL 1/01.
Rubrics
Mind
Anxiety, from doubt about success [1; Aloe; Lac-c.]. Confusion, after abortion [1/1]. Disposition to contradict [1]. Actions are contradictory to intentions [1]. Delusions, he had committed a crime [1], being deceived [1; Bamb-a.; Dros.], someone is behind him [1], he has done wrong [1]. Easily frightened from touch [1; Kali-c.]. Starting from sleep from slightest touch [2/1]. Suspicious towards his best friends [1; Androc.].
Head
Pain, from looking fixedly at anything [2]. Swollen feeling in forehead [1].
Eye
Pain, burning, at night, like balls of fire [3], from exertion of vision [3].
Vision
Colours before the eyes, green halo around light [1]. Dim, from exertion in fine work [3], sideways [1]. Weak, in morning, as if the eyes were strained [1].
Nose
Pain, pressing, root of nose, followed by epistaxis [1].
Stomach
Tension, > milk [3/1].
Female
Menses, copious, at night [1]. Metrorrhagia from concussions [1].
Limbs
Numbness, hands, on exercise [1/1]. Pain, sensation as if broken, wrists [2]; sore, bruised, in the limb on which he lies [3]; sore, bruised, thighs, on stretching out [3]; as if sprained, joints [2].
Generals
Weakness, after abortion [1/1], > walking [2].
Food
Aversion: [2]: Food, sudden while eating. [1]: Food, after eating a little; meat; vegetables.
Desire: [1]: Cold drinks; cold food; juicy things.
Worse: [3]: Raw food. [2]: Tobacco. [1]: Bread; fat; fruit; grapes; meat; wine.
Better: [1]: Milk.