Plants

From the Book

Botanical Keys

_ Ivy and Ginseng family with 43 genera holding about 1450 species of rather
stout-stemmed and little-branched shrubs or trees, often strong-smelling and
with large and prominent scars from the fallen leaves.
_ Distribution: Worldwide, but centred in tropics.
_ Sister family to Apiaceae and by some authorities included in a broadly circumscribed
Apiaceae.
_ Leaves often compound, with broad, more or less sheathing leaf-bases.
_ Flowers small, in compound inflorescences, usually either capitate [head-like]
or umbellate.
_ Fruit a globose drupe with several seeds.
_ Classified in order Apiales by both Cronquist and Dahlgren.
_ Compare other families in order Apiales: Apiaceae [Umbelliferae]; Pittosporaceae.

ARALIACEAE IN HOMEOPATHY

Homeopathic name Common name Abbreviation Symptoms
Aralia californica Elk-clover Aral-c. None
Aralia hispida Bristly sarsaparilla Aral-h. 5–10
Aralia nudicaulis Wild sarsaparilla Aral-nu. None
Aralia racemosa American spikenard Aral. c. 240
Aralia spinosa Devil’s-walking-stick Aral-sp. None
Eleutherococcus
senticosus Siberian ginseng Eleut. None
Ginseng1 Ginseng Gins. c. 5402
Hedera helix English ivy Hed. c. 220
Hydrocotyle vulgaris Marsh pennywort Hydrc-vg. None
Oplopanax horridus Devil’s club Oplo-h. None3
Panax quinquefolius American ginseng Panax-q. None4
1 = Identity uncertain: unclear whether it concerns Panax ginseng [Chinese ginseng]
or Panax quinquefolius [American ginseng], or both. 2-4 = Symptoms provings not yet included.

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Details

With more than 2,000 plant remedies now in the materia medica, how does a homeopath narrow down the choices to make a more accurate prescription?

One method is to understand the themes common to each botanical family. Knowing what is common within families and what defines each family member, the homeopath can rule out whole groups of remedies in a particular case and better differentiate the lesser known remedies.

Introducing Plants by Frans Vermeulen and Dr. Linda Johnston! This four-volume materia medica and case reference is the first work to map the differences between all of the roughly 140 botanical groupings that make up our materia medica.

The authors draw a wealth of information from provings, clinical observations, herbalism, folklore, mythology, botany, toxicology and personal accounts to weave coherent pictures of each botanical family and its members. Invaluable information for today’s homeopath!

Vermeulen estimates that as much as a quarter of our traditional plant materia medica is misclassified by botanical family. Accordingly, Plants uses the widely accepted APG II system, which is the latest in scientific, DNA-based botanical classification.

The authors illustrate each remedy with materia medica and with cases from Dr. Johnston’s practice. Combining Vermeulen’s clarity and detail with Johnston’s years of clinical expertise, Plants promises to be the definitive text on botanical remedies for years to come!

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Author

Frans Vermeulen

Frans Vermeulen is recognised throughout the homeopathic world as an author, lecturer and authority on materia medica.

Each of the many books he has authored makes a contribution of major significance to our understanding of substances and materia medica. His lectures are inspiring and appreciated for their liveliness, depth of knowledge and breadth of factual information.

Born in Den Helder, Holland, Frans taught at an elementary school from 1970 to 1978. From 1976 – 1983 he pursued his homeopathic education, while beginning his own practice in 1979. At this time, he had begun to translate homeopathic books by masters such as Kent, Allen, Tyler, Vithoulkas, and many others.

In 1985 he wrote Kindertypes in de Homoeopathie (Children types in Homoeopathy) (Sonntag, 1988), based on his experiences as both a teacher and a homeopath.

In 1992 he wrote Synoptic Materia Medica I (Emryss, 1992), providing a materia medica overview as well as a quick and compact reference. This was followed by the Concordant Materia Medica (Emryss, 1994), which was enlarged in 1997 to include Hering’s Guiding Symptoms.

Synoptic Materia Medica II (Emryss, 1996) broke new ground by focusing on small remedies and the correlations between the sources of the homeopathic remedies and how they relate to the drug pictures.

Furthering that theme, Prisma (Emryss, 2002) takes data from non-homoeopathic sources as both reference material for the homoeopathic materia medica and as the source of potential symptoms. Frans’ two most recent books are Kingdom Monera and Viruses (Emryss, 2005) and by Kingdom Fungi (Emryss, 2007)

Now, after five years in the making, Frans is finishing his book on Kingdom Plants. Co-authored by his wife, Dr. Linda Johnston, the book discusses over 2000 plant remedies in 149 families following the latest classification system, APG II.

Family themes are elucidated based on botanical classifications, phytochemicals, botany, traditional uses, folklore, history and many other sources, further supported by homeopathic information from provings, cases and other materia medica sources.

Linda Johnston

Dr Linda Johnston has been a active member of the homeopathic community worldwide since the inception of her homeopathic practice in 1986. After completing her medical training from the University of Washington, USA in 1979, she had one further year in family medicine.

She started her own private medical practice in 1981. Linda began her homeopathic training in 1986, and began practicing the same year. Linda’s main focus has always been her clinical practice of homeopathy, which she continues to this day.

Contributing to the homeopathic community through writing and teaching are both important to Linda. From 1991 – 1996, she developed and taught a two-year homeopathy curriculum in 4 different US cities to train licensed medical practitioners. She is also a well-known teacher internationally.

Author of numerous articles for homeopathy journals, Linda is also the author of Additions to the Homeopathic Repertory from Kent’s lectures on Homeopathic Materia Medica (Christine Kent Agency, 1990) as well as a popular book for the general public, Everyday Miracles: Homeopathy in Action (Christine Kent Agency, 1991) and her most recent work The Child's World (Saltire Books, 2010).

Since her debut public lecture in 1987, she has made hundreds of radio, television appearances, in addition to print media interviews educating the public about homeopathy.

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