Chelidonium is commonly known as Greater Celandine. It’s a plant from the Papaveraceae (Poppy) family. In homeopathy, this remedy is known for its remarkable action on the liver and biliary system—think of it as a liver-cleaning friend who gets cranky when your digestion slows down.
🔍 Key Themes
- Liver and gallbladder remedy
- Right-sided symptoms
- Icy coldness and drowsiness
- Yellow discoloration (skin, stool, tongue)
- Pain under the right scapula (shoulder blade)
🧠 Easy-to-Remember Personality
Chelidonium is like an old, sleepy man with liver trouble. He’s yellow, tired, chilly, has a bitter mouth, and always complains about pain in his right shoulder and upper belly.
🔬 Breakdown of Symptoms
| System | Symptoms |
|---|---|
| Mind | Dullness, forgetfulness, great lethargy, desire to sleep |
| Head | Headache over the right eye, better after eating |
| Face | Yellow face; jaundice-like appearance |
| Mouth | Bitter taste, yellow coating on the tongue (especially at the base) |
| Stomach | Nausea and vomiting (especially of bile); worse after fatty foods |
| Abdomen | Liver region sore; fullness and pressure in right hypochondrium |
| Stool | Constipation with clay-colored or yellow stool |
| Urine | Dark yellow or orange; scanty |
| Back | Pain under right scapula is keynote |
| Extremities | Cold extremities; hands and feet icy cold |
| Fever | Alternating heat and chill, especially in liver disorders |
| Modalities | 🔻 Worse: motion, touch, change of weather, early morning 🔺 Better: eating, hot food/drinks, pressure, lying on left side |
💊 Therapeutics – Where Do We Use Chelidonium?
📍 Common Indications:
- Jaundice
- Hepatitis
- Gallstones
- Cholecystitis
- Liver enlargement
- Bilious vomiting
- Right-sided sciatica
- Lobar pneumonia (right lung)
✨ Similimum Insight
Chelidonium is the remedy when the liver is sluggish, the stool is pale, the tongue is yellow, and the patient is drowsy and chilly with a distinct pain under the right scapula. The whole picture feels like the body is clogged and needs drainage.
🔄 Comparison with Related Remedies
| Remedy | Key Difference |
|---|---|
| Lycopodium | Also acts on liver; more flatulence and right-to-left symptoms; emotionally timid, craves sweets |
| Nux vomica | Liver and digestion remedy too, but more irritable, oversensitive, and constipated with ineffectual urging |
| Podophyllum | Also has liver and gallbladder symptoms, but painless, offensive diarrhea |
| Carduus marianus | Strong liver remedy; more focused on cirrhosis and portal congestion |
| Bryonia | Dryness, stitching pains, right-sided pneumonia—but wants to lie still and is very irritable |
| Mercurius | Also yellow tongue and jaundice, but has more salivation and offensive discharges |
| Ipecac | Has nausea and vomiting like Chelidonium, but no liver pain, and tongue is clean |
| China officinalis | Liver and spleen complaints, but mainly from fluid loss and weakness |
| Sulphur | Congestive liver, skin issues, and burning—used as a deep-acting constitutional |
| Chionanthus | Specific for gallstones and jaundice, but less broad-acting than Chelidonium |
