The common garden and pot herb Marigold. Calendula belongs to the same family as those other great vulneraries (a medicine that heals wounds) Arnica and Bellis perennis. The special kind of wounds indicating its use are lacerated wounds and suppurating wounds. It is the homeopathic antiseptic. It restores the vitality of an injured part, making it impregnable against the forces of putrefaction (make rotten). —Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke, M.D.
Calendula is also recognized by the old herbalists, Gerard and Culpeper, refer to it as “a comforter of the heart and spirit.” The color of this flower, a brilliant orange/yellow, induces a lifting of anxieties and a sense of well being. Even of joy according to those using color as medicine. Looking at the more modern homeopathic provings we are afforded a different level of understanding of what the old herbalists may have meant by “a comforter of the heart and soul.”
The constitutional state of Calendula shows an individual with lowered defenses, who catches colds frequently, gets tired easily mentally, emotionally and physically, feels extremely nervous, irritable, fretful, is easily frightened, is very sensitive to noises and Calendula Officinalis starts from them. The patient gives you the impression of being a weak and frightened individual. Every difficult situation and every stress brings about a state of panic. A fear that something bad is going to happen, a feeling as if some overwhelming calamity was hovering over me as to almost unbearable, as one prover put it, and this fear makes the patient very restless.
These people are very touchy individuals who react with irritability and fretfulness if they are criticized or insulted. A morose and fretful mood may be coupled with anxiety and apprehension, especially during a chill, but also with a sleepy, dream like state. The mental pain of anguish and despair is so acute that it may become totally intolerable, such that the individual may eventually reach a state of indifference and may even seem callous. (It is interesting to note here that Calendula has been used successfully in cases where the skin of the hands and or the soles of the feet were thickened, hard and calloused). In an involuntary proving on a baby, Calendula caused screaming, twitching of the hands and face, with colicky pains (seemingly from flatulence). There were even convulsions with fixed eyes, dark round mouth and vomiting of milk with slime. This was accompanied by extreme nervousness and the sensitivity to noise mentioned above. Another symptom was a decidedly yellow tint of the skin and also of the stools (the color of marigold). Clarke, who relates this involuntary proving, reports that cases of jaundice have been successfully treated with Calendula. Great irritability that is, like many symptoms in this remedy, aggravated during a chill may be a key note in these cases.—Materia Medica Viva Volume 7, George Vithoulkas.
For those wishing to use Calendula internally the potencies of 6,12, 30 are recommended.
Let us now take a journey through the remarkable abilities of Calendula to heal wounds and prevent sepsis as recorded in A Physician’s Posy by Dr. Dorothy Shepherd.
Calendula Officinalis is the Similar for clean cuts, wounds with or without loss of substance, with sharp cutting pains, redness, rawness and sometimes stinging pains during febrile heat. These are the indications in the Materia Medica and this has been proved correct in practice.
For example, in hemorrhage a douche of clear tincture of Calendula acts like magic and promotes rapid healing. I have proved the truths of this to myself in many instances. I was looking on once while a veterinary nurse was chocking the tails of some pedigree puppies a few days old. She cut the tails across and then applied pure tincture of Calendula, and immediately the bleeding stopped, and there was hardly a whimper formally of these wriggling pups; when I saw them the next day, all the tails had healed up beautifully. A lady of eighty fell out of bed and injured her nose and there was also constant oozing from the lower lip. I applied half and half Calendula tincture to the bridge of the nose and the lower lip; the bleeding stopped instantly and within twelve hours the jagged cut on the nose had healed over and the swollen, oozing lower lip had returned to its normal size. And that was in an old lady nearly eighty years old, where the healing powers are naturally slowed down.
A working man, busy pulling down the wreckage of a bombed school opposite the dispensary came in with hemorrhage from a small spouting artery, all the capillaries on the back of the hand were oozing freely as well. A few drops of pure Calendula tincture poured on and the spouting artery and the capillaries dried up at once and there was no return of the bleeding. A first aid dressing, plus pressure, had already been applied before he came to us, without any effect. Calendula acted like magic.
Remember, Calendula is the Similar to clean cuts and incised wounds. You can strengthen its action by giving it internally as well, Calendula 6,12,30 in repeated doses, until healing has taken place. It acts on the epithelium and promotes the rapid growth of the normal cells. But if you use Calendula when there is deep seated sepsis, the superficial tissues will close over too rapidly and the septic cells will be shut in, with disastrous effects. In these cases, get the septic wound clean first with Hypericum dressings and later apply Calendula. I have said several times , Calendula is Similar to clean operation wounds and cuts; not only for local applications, but do not forget to give it potentized by the mouth, as soon as the operation and the effects of the anesthetic are over. It will hasten the healing process. A young man was knocked off his bicycle and dragged along the ground, on a gravelly pavement. The skin was rubbed off his face, nose eye-brows and palms of his hands; his face and hands were like raw pulp. Arnica given repeatedly, Calendula tincture applied in dilution——result perfect cure in a few days; no scarring and of course no tetanus; and he was back at work in three days!.
Calendula is of great service in traumatic and general oral surgery. For intraoral use, about 30 drops of Calendula tincture should be added to 500ml of hot water. This may be used as a mouthwash, or gauze may be soaked in the solution and the fomentation pressed against the tooth socket or wound. In the case of an extraction, the fomentation can be held in place by the approximation of the jaws. Mouthwashes should be repeated 3-4 times daily, until full healing occurs. Some prefer to add an additional 30 drops of Hypericum tincture to eace 500ml of water, in order to favor the repair of damaged nerves. —A Textbook of Dental Homoeopathy, For Dental Surgeons, Homoeopathists and General Medical Practitioners, Dr. Colin B. Lessell
More Dr. Shepherd:
“Calendula officinalis is a home-grown produce; it grows easily in the home garden and we should make more free use of these gifts that God has given us. The Marigold is a wonderful flower, a magic herb; looking at it, it raises one’s spirits, gives one hope; and remember, this humble servant of God is willing to serve you further in the kitchen and in the. domestic medicine cupboard; its uses are manifold. It provides the healing touch of nature and prevents the spread of disease, the spread of sepsis——a wonderful mission. So do not forget, Calendula mother tincture in your first-aid medicine chest; use it for hamemorrhages, cut fingers, apply it to the nostrils in nose bleeding, by moistening a piece of surgical gauze or cotton wool——or a clean handkerchief in an emergency——with Calendula, neat if you like, and pushing it up into the bleeding nostril.”
Some of the Calendula products that we have used frequently over the past 50 years:
They always work. Only God and Nature Heal.
Peace to you,
Robert