Cedron the Voluptuous Disposition

It was 9.50am I was attending OPD, a young girl of 20 years old, fair and slim in a tight dress with provocative appearance entered my room……. she was narrating about her bad headache which was mostly left sided, shooting, pressing, throbbing in eyes, temples and back of head. Her medical file revealed no abnormal values. When I inquired about the duration and time of her problem, she told me that she had suffered for the last five years. Suddenly she started crying, tossing, and turning her head and body like a snake. She was humming and moaning like the rattling of a snake. Her head was swollen and flushed. I told her mother to take her into the waiting hall and she was given BELLADONA 30 repeatedly. She recovered within one hour. On further questioning the mother, I found that she had malarial fever three times in the past five years and had taken allopathic medicine.

The periodicity, left sided complaint, voluptuous disposition and excitable nervous temperament lead me to give her CEDRON in ascending potencies (0/3-0/20) and thereby she was freed from her headaches.

Let us look at the Cedron plant. It is a small evergreen tree with a cylindrical trunk and leaves that are pinnate and three feet long (like clock on tower). It manly occurs in poorly drained soil on flood plains, adjacent to rivers along paths and hedges (malarial prone belt); the Cedron pods are twisted around as it grows (like rattle snake) and hence it is called rattlesnake bean; the fruit is four cm long containing one seed (like alarm hand in clock) and four of the cells being barren and produce rattling sound when it is completely dry (like loosely attached homey segments at the end of the tail of a rattle snake, making a rattling sound while moving).

We see Cedron as an excellent anti-malarial drug due to the nature of its occurrence. Its clock-like features recall its periodicity and left sided complaints (clock handles revolve to left side). It’s resemblance to a rattlesnake  reflects its use internally and externally for antidoting snake poisoning. The humming and moaning is referred to as a rattling sound. Thus the shape, behaviour, odour, taste and many such natural features of the plant and its parts help recall its indications and form the drug portrait.