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| Sabina |
Sabin.
To produce music is also in a sense to produce children.
[Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche]
Signs
Juniperus sabina. Juniperus lusitanica Miller.
Savin Juniper. N.O. Cupressaceae.
CLASSIFICATION The order of the Coniferales is divided into five families of coniferous trees and shrubs: the Pinaceae [including firs, spruces, pines, cedars, and larches]; the Podocarpaceae [plum pines]; the Araucariaceae [including araucarias and kauris]; the Taxodiaceae [including redwoods]; and the Cupressaceae [including cypresses and junipers]. The latter family contains 18 genera and some 135 species, of which 7 species – belonging to 3 genera – are employed in homoeopathy. These genera are Cupressus [2 species], Thuja [2 species], and Juniperus [3 species]. The Cupressaceae have the largest number of extant species of conifers. Both Cupressaceae and Taxodiaceae first appeared in the Mesozoic, which began 245 million years ago and lasted until 65 million years ago. The first species of Cupressaceae appeared in the late Triassic [245-215 million years ago].
FAMILY “The heartwood of many species of Cupressaceae is resistant to termite damage and fungal decay, and therefore it is widely used in contact with soil [e.g., for fenceposts]. Frank Lloyd Wright preferred Taxodium as a siding for wooden residences, while Sequoia is preferred for lawn furniture throughout the vast suburbs of California. The premier coffin wood of China, Cunninghamia lanceolata, is another member of the family, and Chamaecyparis wood is in similar demand in Japan. Many genera are incorrectly called cedars because their heartwood is as aromatic as that of the true cedars, Cedrus [Pinaceae]. Wooden pencils are made from incense-cedar [Calocedrus decurrens] and eastern red cedar [Juniperus virginiana], which is also used for lining ‘cedar’ chests. Wood from species of red cedar [Thuja] is used for roofing shingles and for house siding. Many Cupressaceae are treated with very high regard by traditional societies. In Japan, Cryptomeria japonica is the national tree, and of the ‘five sacred trees of Kiso’, four are in this family [Chamaecyparis obtusa, Ch. pisifera, Thuja standishii, Thujopsis dolabrata]. Thuja plicata is highly revered among the tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America, who made their houses, canoes, baskets, boxes and even clothing from its bark, wood and roots, while Sequoia and Sequoiadendron have inspired a deep sense of reverence among people from western cultures ever since their discovery. The Cupressaceae are also the most important conifer family in modern horticulture. Several species of Chamaecyparis, Cupressus and Juniperus are of major importance in horticultural trade, accounting for about 99.9% of all conifers sold for garden planting in Britain; many thousands of cultivars have been named. Pollination usually occurs in late winter or spring but may occur anytime from late summer to early winter for some species of Juniperus. Seed maturation occurs in late summer or autumn. Many species of Actinostrobus, Callitris, Cupressus, Neocallitropsis, Sequoiadendron and Widdringtonia have serotinous cones that remain closed for many years, some opening only after exposure to fire”1
GENUS Distributed from north temperate regions [chiefly] to tropical African mountains and the West Indies, Juniperus is a genus of about 50 species of evergreen coniferous shrubs and trees with awl-shaped juvenile leaves and scale-like adult leaves. Some species keep juvenile leaves through their whole lifespan. In J. sabina juvenile leaves are produced early in life and often also later on shaded roots. The scales of the fruiting cones become fleshy and form a berry-like fruit, red-brown, blue or blue-black in colour [as if sprinkled with bluish powder]. The Cupressaceae seeds are produced on the surface of scales of a woody or fleshy cone, often so tightly fit together that it resembles a berry, as in the familiar garden junipers. The structure is often not apparent until after the cone has dried sufficiently that it begins to separate. Some species are a source of timber and some are cultivated as ornamentals or as a source of flavouring [e.g. gin, root beer, ice cream, and in smoking of hams] and fragrances [cedarwood oil, used to scent soaps, room sprays, disinfectants, etc.]. Junipers are generally dioecious [female and male reproductive organs on separate plants], which is an exception to the typical monoecism [female and male reproductive organs on the same plant] of the Cupressaceae. Many juniper species are weedy, covering quickly much ground by spreading horizontally; others, such as Juniperus virginiana, grow to a height of 30 m. Weedy junipers have invaded abandoned fields and overgrazed rangelands in many parts of the United States. Occurring in almost continuous stands for hundreds of miles, they altogether occupy millions of acres. In many semiarid regions [termed juniper savannahs], such as through much of the western USA, northern Mexico and central and southwest Asia, Juniperus provides the dominant forest cover on large sections of the landscape. Junipers grow particularly well on calcareous soils. Juniper wood and/or foliage are often burned for incense in Buddhist temples. Some taxonomists recognize Sabina as a separate genus, containing about 40 species.
SABINA The savin juniper is an evergreen, spreading shrub. It may grow up to 1-2 m high in North America [and much taller in Mediterranean countries], but usually will spread horizontally rather than form a stem. Its branches are slender, round and tough, with the bark of the young branches pale-green, of the trunk rough. The leaves are very small, ovate, convex, dark-green, densely imbricated, erect, decurrent, and opposite. Flowers dioecious. The fruit is a deep-purple, almost black, ovoid berry, about the size of a whortleberry, and smaller than that of Juniperus communis. The species is indigenous to middle and southern Europe, Siberia, and in the northern United States, in rocky situations. 2
CONSTITUENTS Sabinene; sabinylacetate; sabinol; monoterpenes; resins; pinipicrin; podophyllotoxin; calcium salts. The entire plant is toxic and potentially lethal, as its German name ‘Kindsmord’ [‘child-murder’] exemplifies. Juniperus sabina, as well as J. sabina var. tamariscifolia, yields the lignan podophyllotoxin, a toxic compound also occurring in Podophyllum peltatum. Monoterpenes have antiseptic, antiparasitic, carminative, and anthelmintic properties; some repel insects, e.g. citronellal.
TOXICOLOGY In small doses, ingestion causes water loss and starts menstruation; in large doses, it causes gastroenteritis with haemorrhages, vomiting, haematuria, polyuria, oliguria or anuria, bloody diarrhoea, muscle cramps, and convulsions. Death from respiratory arrest occurs from 10 hours to several days later. Ruminants are particularly sensitive to the plant, but horses can eat with impunity relatively large amounts of the tops and leaves over a long period of time. Savin oil, obtained by steam distillation of the plant material, is a violent irritant both internally and externally. Applied to the skin, it can produce erythema and blistering.
MEDICINE Sabina is an ancient abortifacient. [Used for the same purpose, Juniperus communis was commonly known as ‘bastard-killer’ in Somerset, England.] Oil made from the shrub is used to counteract overdose of cardiac medications like digitalis. “Savin is emmenagogue, diuretic, diaphoretic, and anthelmintic. In large doses it will produce gastroenteritis. Care must be taken in its administration, as it has, in several instances, produced fatal results. It should never be given when there is any general or local inflammation present, and it should never be used during pregnancy, on account of its tendency to cause abortion, and yet, notwithstanding this effect, it is reputed efficient in checking the tendency to abort, and to be beneficial in menorrhagia, when carefully exhibited in small doses. It is also serviceable in atonic leucorrhoea, amenorrhoea, with torpor, irritative urethral diseases, and vesical catarrh, in all cases being contraindicated by an excited circulation. The oil [Oleum Sabinae], given 2 or 3 times a day, in doses of from 10 or 15 drops on sugar, will, in most cases, cause abortion, but it is apt to violently affect the stomach and bowels at the same time, bringing life into extreme danger. Oil of savine is a powerful irritant to the mucous tissues, and powerfully deranges the nervous system. It may induce gastro-intestinal inflammation, vesical tenesmus and strangury, congestion of the pelvic organs, fever, mental excitation and intoxication, coma, and death. Oil of savine is an emmenagogue, and is seldom used for any other purpose, save as a liniment to the lumbar and sacral regions, and internally in amenorrhoea from torpor of the reproductive organs, in which it is sometimes very efficient. It also acts as a stimulant and abortifacient. Ten drops of the oil on sugar, repeated 3 times a day, will, it is stated, positively produce abortion in from 1 to 3 weeks; but, as with all other agents of this kind, is apt to be followed by very serious consequences. It has been used for the relief of uterine leucorrhoea, uterine haemorrhage, dysmenorrhoea, and sterility. It is reputed to cure condylomata. The dose of oil, ordinarily, is from 2 to 10 drops.”3 Culpeper recommended savine juniper as an external remedy for certain skin disorders, “as it may be safely used outwardly, for inwardly it cannot be taken without manifest danger.” “It is under the dominion of Mars,” writes Culpeper, “being hot and dry in the third degree, and being of exceeding clean parts, is of a very digesting quality. If you dry the herb into powder, and mix it with honey, it is an excellent remedy to cleanse old filthy ulcers and fistulas; but it hinders them from healing. The same is excellently good to break carbuncles and plague-sores; also helps the king’s evil [scrofula, or tuberculosis of the glands of the neck, supposed to be healed by the touch of the monarch], being applied to the place. Being spread over a piece of leather, and applied to the navel, kills the worms in the belly, helps scabs and itch, running sores, cankers, tetters, and ringworms; and being applied to the place, may haply cure venereal sores.”4
SABINES It has been suggested that the specific name Sabina and the use of the plant as an abortifacient are linked with the Rape of the Sabine Women, who “were captured by the Romans to plant their seed into them, and to bring them sons; Sabina aborts these children that they resent having.”5 This legend is connected with the foundation of Rome by Romulus. “The city flourished. People flocked to live there, many of them outlaws and fugitives to whom Romulus willingly gave sanctuary, since they made Rome the stronger. Unfortunately the Romans were both feared and scorned by their neighbours and were refused marriage with the local women. Romulus overcame this problem by holding a great festival and inviting the families of the local tribes, including the Sabines. They came, but in the midst of the festivities the Romans drove off the men and carried away their daughters [the ‘Rape of the Sabine Women’]. At first the girls were terrified, but Romulus reassured them and their captors wooed them with words of love, so they soon accepted their new situation. Their fathers and brothers, meanwhile, rallied to win them back by force. Various small raids against Rome were unsuccessful, but finally the Sabines attacked in force under their king, Titus Tatius. They took the Roman citadel through the treachery of the commander’s daughter, Tarpeia, and battle ensued between Sabines and Romans. At this the Sabine Women ran out into the thick of the fighting, begging their husbands and fathers not to kill each other. So Romans and Sabines made peace, agreeing to merge in a single federation.”6 This is the male version of the story. A more feministic version has it that Italy, before the founding of Rome, was ruled by the Sabine matriarchate. “According to legend, the followers of Romulus were all men, having no right to own land under the old matriarchal law, forced to marry Sabine property-owning women to acquire community standing and the sanguis ac genus, blood of the race, which was transmitted only on the female line. Some said Romulus’s men were criminals and outlaws who could not participate in the sacred succession of clans. They had to abduct Sabine women, to establish curiae [clans]; but each clan continued to carry the name of its original ancestress. Roman writers claimed Romulus named the clans in honour of the Sabine women; but in fact the Latin clans had been named after their women for as long as anyone could remember. Romulus himself was a patriarchal invention based on an ancient feminine clan name: the Etruscan genus Romulia, the real founders of Rome.”7 In memory of the peace between the Romans and the Sabines a festival, the Matronalia, was instituted on March 1. The festival was in honour of Juno Lucina, the Goddess of Celestial Light. At this festival wives used to receive presents from their husbands, and at a later time girls from their lovers; mistresses also were accustomed to feast their female slaves. Hence we find the festival called the Saturnalia of women.
PROVINGS •• [1] Stapf [collection of provings] – 10 provers; method: tincture prepared from the leaves; manner [dosage, repetition, etc.] not stated.
[1] Earle [ed.], Gymnosperm Database; website geocities. com/ [2-3] King’s American Dispensatory. [4] Culpeper’s Complete Herbal. [5] Van der Zee, Miasms in labour. [6] March, Dictionary of Classical Mythology. [7] Walker, The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.
Affinity
FEMALE PELVIC ORGANS [UTERUS; rectum; nerves]. Fibrous and serous tissues [small joints; heels]. * Left side. Right side.
Modalities
Worse: Nightly. HEAT [bed; room; exercise]. Pregnancy. Climacteric. Foggy weather. Least motion. After parturition. Music. Taking a deep breath.
Better: Cold. Cool open air. Exhaling.
Main symptoms
M Sensitive to music.
[= sadness; “music goes through bone and marrow, causes weeping and nervousness.”]
Sensitive to slightest noise.
M Sense of duty and responsibility; the family, esp. children are of major importance.*
Willingness to help.
Perseverance.
Fear of narrow places; fear of heights.
Irritability.
[Clinical symptoms observed in four Sabina cases.]1
G Disposition to rheumatic affections and haemorrhages.
G Habitual tendency to ABORTION at the THIRD MONTH.
[due to atony of uterus].
• “To prevent abortion one of the first medicines to consider.” [Kent]
G Ailments after abortion.
[menorrhagia; inflammation of ovaries, uterus; leucorrhoea]
G Craving for SOUR, JUICY and refreshing things.
G WARM.
> Open air.
Wants windows and doors open.
< WARM ROOM. < WARM BED. Allergy for the sun. 1 G Profuse perspiration.1 G < Motion. G < Touch. G Pains appear SUDDENLY. G Venous congestion. • “Sense of FULLNESS in all the veins of the body, a sense of distension, fullness, with pulsation all over, associated with repeated haemorrhages from the mucous membranes.” [Kent] FLUSHES of HEAT in the face, with icy cold hands and feet. G CONDYLOMATA. About the anus, about the vulva and about the male genitals. SOFT and insensitive cauliflower growths [= acute gonorrhoea]. To be distinguished from the much smaller and more sensitive warts of Thuja [= chronic gonorrhoeal complaints]. Sabina suits more the ACUTE gonorrhoea, and Thuj. more the CHRONIC. P Sensation of something ALIVE in abdomen. P Uterine haemorrhages. BRIGHT RED blood mixed with big DARK CLOTS. P Uterine HAEMORRHAGES. c From FIBROIDS. c After abortion, delivery. c Profuse menses. c Climacteric metrorrhagia. P METRORRHAGIA. < Motion, yet LESS when walking. And Increased sexual desire. [Also increased libido during menses.] P Bleeding between periods. P Dysmenorrhoea, threatening abortion or metrorrhagia. And Severe labour-like pains from lumbo-sacral region extending to pubis or reverse. Or from small of back down the thighs. Or pain shooting up vagina. • “Aching in the sacrum as if broken, as if the bones would separate.” [Kent] > Lying on back with limbs extended.
[1] Marguerite Pelt, Juniperus sabina: Four cases; HL 3/99.
* This is the conclusion drawn from four Sabina cases. “The shoots of the Juniperus sabina contain kalium. And like in many homoeopathic remedies made out of trees, the properties of the kalium element are prominent in Sabina. These patients have a strong sense of duty, they live for their family, they are optimistic and persevering to the point of being rigid and fastidious and they can be irritated when things do not go the way they want them to. On the physical level the Kalium weakness is also present; the joints and the stomach are target organs.” These are valuable observations; to attribute, however, the symptoms of duty and family to the alleged high potassium content of the shoots of J. sabina is wishful thinking. Firstly, instead of from the shoots, the remedy Sabina is prepared from the young tops of the leaves, and, secondly, potassium is required [and contained] in large amounts by almost all plants. It is a macronutrient and essential for plant growth. The element will be found in the largest amounts, proportionately, in young shoots or tops. Potassium deficiency symptoms first appear in older leaves; this is because the potassium is mobilized from the older leaves and exported to the younger, more rapidly developing leaves. Taking chemicals or elements occurring in a plant as the basis for an explanation of certain symptoms in that plant makes sense only when these elements are either unique or present in amounts far above average. Plants with remarkably high levels of potassium include lettuce, endive, radish, oats, and dandelion, but not junipers.
Rubrics
Mind
Confusion, as to his identity, sense of duality [1]. Aversion to jesting [1]. Being magnetized > [1]. Music < [2]. Sensitive, to music [1], to the slightest noise [2]. Weeping from music [1], from vexation [1]. Head Heaviness of occiput, descending over whole of back to sacrum [1H]. Pain, from touch on vertex [1/1]; pressing, from pressure on vertex [1H]. Hearing Acute, to piano music [1; Phos.; Sulph.]. Nose Epistaxis, during profuse menses [1], suppressed menses [2]. Face Eruptions, acne, during pregnancy [1]; comedones, on nose [1]. Teeth Pain, at night when lying [1H], > rising from bed [1], wakes from pain [1H]; as if tooth would be forced out [1H].
Stomach
Sensation of flatulent distension of stomach region, when sitting bent [1H], extending to left side of abdomen [1H], > sitting erect [1H].
Male
Violent and lasting erections from slight excitement [1H], yet aversion to coition [1H].
Chest
Tingling, tickling in nipples with voluptuous feeling [1H].
Back
Heaviness of nape of neck, descending over whole of back to sacrum [1H]. Pain, as if broken, cervical region [1], sacrum [1];
Limbs
Contraction, thigh muscles, as if too short [1H], cannot crouch or squat [1H]. Pain, joints, wandering, > cold applications [1/1], < warmth of bed [2]. DREAMS: Of people falling down dead from a height [1H]. Full of invention [1]. * Repertory additions [Hughes]. Food Aversion: [1]: Bread [*]; butter [*]; sweets [*]. Desire: [2]: Juicy things; lemonade; refreshing things; sour. [1]: Bread [*]; coffee; coffee beans; fruit [*]; milk; spicy [*]; sweets [*]. Worse: [1]: Milk; tobacco. * Rep. additions: Marguerite Pelt, Juniperus sabina: Four cases; HL 3/99.