TRADITIONAL INTERNAL MEDICINE – DISEASES & FORMULAS
Worms & Parasites
“Characteristic of the presence of (intestinal) worms are fever, loss of colour, pain (in the spine), heart disease, numbness, vertigo, aversion to food and diarrhea”. (Siddhasara of Ravigupta)
“The usual and most ordinary signs are, A stinking breath somewhat Sour … stools like cow dung, of a grey color like Potters Earths dissolved. Other signs are less usual, as a continual Fever, which is often in a day, more violent from the motion of the Worms, with heaviness, cold sweat sometimes, and fainting, loathing, vomiting, and unquenchable Thirst. The Pulse is unequal, the Cheeks are by turns red and blue, the Eyes shine, the Nose itches, the Teeth gnash, and sometimes chatter”.
Worms and Parasites have long been recognised in all Traditions as a pathology associated with Disease. Worms and Parasites may be classified as Internal or External; that is, those such as are found inside the body, like intestinal worms, and external parasites such lice.
Cause:
“The material Cause of Worms is commonly sweet Phlegm which grows putrid”. (The Practice of Physick, 1663)
In Traditional Medicine theory, the environment needs to be suitable for any infection or pathogen to occur. Those with ‘abundant humors’, that is, an excess of undigested filth in their body are more liable to be affected by Parasites. So typically, a degree of Food Stagnation along with improper diet will feed Worms and Parasites.
Treatment:
“The Cure of the Worms is by driving them out, because they are wholly against Nature; And this is done by purging Medicines, which kill worms ,and evacuate the matter that breeds them. Rhubarb is the best, which you may give in a Flux [Diarrhea] or Fever. But you must first give things that Kill them”. (The Practice of Physick, 1663)
It is common practice in the treatment of Worms to take a medicine which ‘Kills’ the Worm, followed by a medicine to purge the Worms from the body. Some medicines said to Kill the Worm actually just disable it by having a narcotic-like effect, allowing them to be dislodged and purged with the subsequent medicine.
By necessity, some of the stronger medicines used for Worms and Parasites are toxic, and these are generally necessary in more severe infestations, as well as some of the more obstinate or dangerous parasitic infections which tend to be more common in tropical regions.
The Tropical countries often have various Worms and Parasites that are both not found in cooler European climates, and can be responsible for severe illness. For this reason, it is worthwhile focusing on some of the Materia Medica and Formulas of the Eastern Traditions in the treatment of Worms and Parasites.
Ayurvedic Krimighna Group for Herbs and Parasites
In Ayurveda Krimighna is the name of the group used for Worms:
Moringa pterygosperma, Madder, Costus speciosus, Embelia ribes, Vitex negundo, Cardiospermum halcacabum, Tribulus terrestris, Clerodendron siphonanthus, Salvinia cucullata
Western Tradition
Simples
Clove
Garlic
Wormwood
Centaury
Carline Thistle root
Betony
Male Fern
Tansy seed
Agaric
Chalcanthum
Mace
Pumpkin seed
Southernwood
Hop water
Elecampane
Hyssop
Pomegranate root-bark
Mezereon
Saltpeter
Medicine According to Worm Type:
General for All Worms:
Garlic, Pumpkin seed, Tansy seed, Male Fern, Embelia ribes, Betel nut, Mallotus
1. “Take and eat Garlic, and it will Kill all worms in mans Belly”. (Physical Rarities, Williams, 1656)
2. “To kill Worms give unto the patient fasting clean milk to drink. 3 or 4 days together then [the] fifth day give him Garlic stamped with warm vinegar to drink”. (The Treasury of Health, 1550)
3. The seed of Colewort [Cabbage] drunk, kills all the Worms of the belly”. (The Treasury of Health, 1550)
4. “Smallage [Celery] seed drunk, kills the Worms, and is mighty in operation”. (The Treasury of Health, 1550)
5. “Agaric given fasting to the patient Kills all the Worms”.
6. Pomegranate rind and Ash tree bark, boiled in wine and drunk “flees the Worms wonderfully”. (The Treasury of Health, 1550)
7. Pills of Galbanum and Sugar Candy.
8. Anoint the navel with Bitter Almond oil or Peach kernel oil.
Tapeworm:
Betel nut, Carrot seed, Clove, Dryopteris crassirhizoma, Garlic, Embelia ribes, Fern root, Pomegranate root-bark, Pumpkin seed, Omphalia Lei Wan, Torreya Fei Zi
Flatworm:
Pumpkin seed, Betel nut
Round Worm:
Betel nut, Clove, Garlic, Hyssop, Pomegranate root bark, Pumpkin seed, Wormwood, Mango kernel, Omphalia Lei Wan, Torreya Fei Zi
1. Wormwood, Rue, Peach leaf (equal parts, decocted)
2. Tansy, Wormwood, Camomile (equal parts, decocted)
Schistosome:
Pumpkin seed
Ascariasis:
Carrot seed, Melia azadirachta, Mallotus
Simple Treatments for Worms
1. Vinegar taken in doses of 2 teaspoonfuls diluted with water can clear Worms, especially in children.
2. Male Fern (2-9 grams of the powder, or ½–1 teaspoonful), followed by a purge; of the Oil: 5–30 drops; of the Fluid Extract: 1–4 fluid drams)
3. Root bark of Pomegranate (5 grams of the powder, taken morning and night, followed by a purgative); used for Tape-, Round- and Pin- Worm
4. Tansy seed (or herb): 20-40 grains of the powder; or a small cupful of the infusion morning and night.
5. “Women use to give to Children troubled with the Worms, Worm-seed made up with Sugar, or mixed with Honey which is an excellent Medicine, because the Worms desiring sweet things, take in the Honey, and withal the Worm-seed, whereby they are destroyed”. (The Practice of Physick, 1663)
6. Garlic, eaten on an empty stomach, or taken in Milk
7. Cut an Onion small, cover with water and steep overnight. In the morning drink the water.
8. “Take the peel of Oranges, dry them, and make them in powder, and drink in Malmsey (wine) or stale Ale, there is nothing better”. (Physical Rarities, Williams, 1656)
9. Deer horn, Salt (2 drams each). Boil in 4 spoonfuls of water and drink
10. Worms in Children, quench red hot iron in Goat Milk and give to the Child.
11. Worms in Children, melt Tin and quench in fountain water several times. Give the water for them to drink. (Lemery)
12. “Burn the horn of a Ram, and make the patient drink the powder [in water], and the worms will die.” (Syrian “Book of Medicine“)
Externally:
1. Garlic paste is spread between 2 pieces of cloth is applied above and below the navel in children.
2. Wormwood boiled in oil and the oil applied to the abdomen is especially useful for children. The juice can be applied too.
Another: Wormwood juice (2 parts), Ox Bile (1 part), mix and annoint of the belly. (Brunschwig, 1561)
3. Bull Bile dipped in wool and applied warm to the Navel.
4. Worms in Children:
Aloe
White Dittany
Gentian
Wormseed 1 scruple ea.
Powder and add enough Butter to form an Ointment. Fill half a Walnut shell with it and bind to the navel. “In one night it will remedy him, it is a thing which has been well proven”. (Secrets of Alexis)
5. Garlic
Wormwood
Mint
Feverfew
Tansy
Beat all together with Bull Bile, then fry together, put in a linen cloth and apply to the navel as hot as comfortable. (Physical Rarities, Williams, 1656)
Formulas for Worms
1. “Pills of Ruffus are excellent to kill them and bring them forth”,
2. “If the Fever be not great, 2 drams of Hiera Picra more or less, are to be mixed in a Potion, for by its bitterness it Kills and expels Worms excellently”. (The Practice of Physick, 1663)
3. “Rondoletius highly commends the Electuary Diacarthamum, as an excellent remedy to expel Worms, and to purge Phlegm and corrupted Chyle”.
Wormwood Wine
Byzantine Syrup – Simple & Compound (Mesue)
Syrup of Wormwood
Syrup of Rhubarb
Syrup of Chicory with Rhubarb
Electuary Against Worms
Lesser Cumin Composition (Diospoliticum) (Galen)
Diacalaminth (Galen)
Dialacca Majores (Mesue)
Diaturbith with Rhubarb
Pills of Ruffus (Common Pills)
Lesser Pills of Cochia
Theriac of 4 Ingredients (Diatessaron)
Hiera Picra
Theriac
Mithridate
Garuda 5 (Khyung Lnga) (Tibetan)
Eliminator of Undying Micro-organism (Tibetan)
Costus 13 (Tibetan Medicine)
1. Rhubarb and Coralline, ½ dram each, taken in a potion.
2. Wormseed, Rhubarb Coralline (equal parts)
3. Equal parts of Basil and Mint juice taken every morning.
4. Aloe, burnt Deer horn, Wormseed (equal parts)
5. Egg yolk, a little Chalk, and 4 spoonfuls of vinegar are mixed and taken first thing in the morning for 3 mornings, followed by a purgative. ‘This is a noble medicine and often proved’. (Brunschwig, 1561)
6. POWDER FOR WORMS
Saltpeter
Bayberry
Juniper berry 1 oz. ea.
Powder. A child can take as much as lies of a Groat (a coin about 25mm / 1 inch in diameter); adults can take a larger dose.
“Two or Three Doses rarely fails, in Curing Worms … It reduces the Worms into a Slime, as I have proved, by casting a little of this Powder on Earthworms, which in half a Quarter of an Hour turns them to Slime”. (Salmon)
7. Hiera Picra 2 drams
Wormseed
Scordium
Centaury
Coralline 1 dram ea.
TCM Classification
Simples
Bing Lang-Betel nut
Chang Shan–Dichroa
Da Suan–Garlic
Fei Zi–Torreya seed
Guan Zhong–Cyrtomium
Qian Dan–Minium (Lead)
He Shi–Carpesium fruit
Ku Lian Pi–Melia root bark
Nan Gua Zi–Pumpkin seed
Shan Jun Zi–Quisqualis
Wu Yi–Elm cake
Chinese Formulas for Worms
Fei Er Wan
Hua Chong Wan
Li Zhong An Hui Tang
Lian Mei An Hui Tang
Wu Mei Wan
Tapeworm
Pumpkin seed 60 grams
Betel nut 30 grams
Take a concentrated decioction of Pumpkin seed, followed 2 hours later with a concentrated decoction of Betel nut. About 4 hours later there will be diarrhea with Tapeworms. If the heads are not in the stool, repeat after 2 weeks. This formula is called Qu Tiao Tang (Expel Tapeworms Decoction).
Lice
Simples
Topically:
Alum – strong wash topically
Aniseed essential oil
Bitter Almond Oil
Broom (Cytisus) – the juice boiled in oil ‘is the safest and surest medicines to kill Lice in the Head or Body of any’. (Culpeper)
Cannabis – herb boiled in oil and applied
Daphne Gnidium
Datura – herb boiled in oil and applied
Delphinium denudatum
Fern root – decoction of the herb or root as a wash, or the oil in which the herb has been boiled
Fumitory – juice mixed with vinegar
Hellebore, Black – wash topically
Henbane – decoction or herb boiled in oil
Hyssop – oil applied for Lice
Ivy leaf – a strong decoction of the leaf is used as a wash for ‘vermin in children’s head’ (Lice)
Laurus (Bay tree)
Lavender Essential Oil
Neem Oil
Nigella – strong wash or oil
Pyrethrum
Scabious – strong wash is used for Lice
Scammony
Stavesacre seed – acid tincture used topically
Storax – mixed with Oil (1:1)
Sulphur – ‘Wearing day and night next the skin in a muslin bag bits of Sulphur acts sufficiently as a preventative and curative of Lice’. (BMJ, 1915)
Tamarisk – strong decoction kill Lice and Nits
Veratrum album, White Hellebore
Vernonia cinerea – seed decoction as a wash
Wild Rue – strong wash or vinegar tincture
Formulas:
Internally:
Lesser Pills of Cochia
1. “The powder of Harts tongue drunk in wine, doth suffer neither lice nor knits to live on the body, much less if it be made into ointment”. (Natura exenterata, Philiatros, 1655)
Topically:
1. Salt water was also used as a wash (Syrian ‘Book of Medicine‘, Budge, 1913)
2. “Crab Lice” in the genitals, mix ashes with oil and apply. (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615)
3. Powder Against Lice: Stavesacre seed, Long Pepper (equal parts). Powder. For topical application.
4. Ointment Against Lice:
i. Pyrethrum, Mustard seed (2 oz.), Parsley seed (4 oz.), Lard (32 oz.), Anise oil (2 drams); powder the herbs, mix into the lard and add the oil. (Niemann)
ii. Stavesacre seed (1 part), Lard (3 parts). Infuse with heat for several hours, express. (Pharmacopoeia medici practici universalis, Bruxelles, 1817)
iii. Stavesacre seed (2 drams), White Hellebore root (1 ½ dram), Tobacco leaf (1 dram), Oil of Tobacco (sufficient), Wax (a little). Infuse, when strained add Oil of Lavender (8 grains). Mix. (Niemann)
Picrasma quassioides, Ku Mu – tincture can be used to kill head lice
Sophora, Ku Shen – strong decoction is used as a wash for Lice
Stemona, Bai Bu -strong decoction or tincture for Lice and Fleas
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