Drosera rotundifolia is the world’s only carnivorous plant, i.e., a plant which behaves almost like an animal. It is found in boggy places where it overpowers, smothers and decomposes insects by exuding drops of acrid, viscid liquid.
Drosera is predominately a cough remedy, especially whooping cough, but offers much more because of its marked Tubercular symptomatology which makes it useful in the treatment of children with behavioural problems.
At the physical level, the patient requiring Drosera, homeopathically, feels smothered by thick ‘boggy’ mucous and suffocated by a spasmodic cough in which the expectoration is thick and slimy. The burning found in Drosera in the throat, chest and larynx parallels the plant’s secretion of acrid juices.
The main feeling of Drosera is of being persecuted, trapped, chocked and killed.
There is an inability to breathe, or catch one’s breath, which on a mental level manifests in a feeling of persecution [delusion; he is persecuted], [mistrust], deception and suspicion [suspicion].
There is a great mistrust and of close friends, and accordingly the remedy is suitable to those who are too sensitive to others’ maliciousness in a world where one must ‘eat, or be eaten.’
There are many anxieties in Drosera [anxiety about the future] [anxiety when alone] and [anxiety at night], since the cough is worse at night, especially after midnight and at 3:00pm.
Drosera is sleepless and its dreams are anxious and frightful. Accordingly, Drosera has a [desire for company], and is aggravated while alone and has a fear of being alone. The Drosera patient, however, is self-willed, obstinate and insists on carrying out their own plans.
There is much restlessness and Drosera is capricious and indecisive. Its moods are changeable and variable. There is difficulty in concentrating while reading and studying.
There is much sadness and depression, especially in the evening, the most evident time of aggravation and in line with Drosera’s dread of night.
There is a suicidal disposition by drowning in the evening. The desire to drown parallels the consumption of the patient by the copious and spasmodic cough and mimics the consumption of insects by the plant’s viscid liquid.
If this is not nature’s medicine at its best, a wonderful homeopathic tenet, or keynote, what is?
