Materia Medica Tip – 36
Today’s materia medica tip revolves around the eye symptoms of two important remedies, namely, Physostigma and Ruta. Whereas many of us use Physostigma and Ruta for various eye complaints (including some non-verifed claims of refractory errors corrections), we might not be exploring the in-depth use of these remedies.
The classical symptoms of Physostima are described in its use in Night-blindness. Now the concept says that night blindness is due to Vitamin A deficiency. Is Physostigma going to cure Vitamin A deficiency? No. But it is surely going to alleviate the symptoms of night blindness and help recover from this condition along with necessary vitamin correction. There is photophobia, contraction of pupils (compare Belladonna); twitching of ocular muscles which at time is the main symptom for the use of Physostigma.
Both Physostigma and Ruta are used for poor accommodation symptom of the eye. The Physostigma has paresis of accommodation with astigmatism especially after post diptheria whereas Ruta has disturbances of accommodation especially after overuse of eye muscles (too much reading, sewing, screen usage etc).
In Physostigma, there is a spasm of the ciliary muscles, with irritability after using eyes which is comparable to Ruta. Ruta too has pain and heaviness in eyes after prolonged use of muscles. The differntiating point can be the intensity. Ruta has intense symptoms such as strain followed by headache, red eyes; from sewing or reading fine print (Nat mur; Arg nit), weary pain while reading, pressure deep in orbits, tarsal cartilage feels bruised (Asthenopia), etc.
Physostigma and Ruta both are used in clinical practice for Increasing myopia, but I have never seen any patient being cured of “Myopia” or “Hypermetropia”. Certainly, these remedies are used but only to control the increasing refractory error. This usually happens when there is associated with ciliary muscle weakness. If the symptom is appended with a headache the preferred remedy is Ruta, otherwise, it may be Physostigma.
If there is a pressure of over eyebrows (compare Gelsemium) it points towards Ruta whereas if there is an inability to fully close the eyelids (Lagopthalmus) it points towards Physostigma.
Physostigma is also a very applicable remedy for floaters (Muscæ volitantes) which are usually associated with flashes of light, and astigmatism. In many cases, the floater issue can be tackled very easily by using this remedy in moderate doses.
Both remedies are of plant origin, therefore, majority of the time they are prescribed in repeated doses, but one must be aware regarding non-juidicial use of these.
Your valuable feedback and reviews are welcome.
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Dr. Saurav Arora is an internationally acclaimed medical homeopath, consultant, and independent researcher having 17+ years of experience as a clinician, researcher, and a teacher.
