Comocladia dentata


Comocladia cures the bites of poisonous snakes; of the scorpions; prevents hydrophobia; antidotes poisons; is useful in relieving pain from wounds resulting from falls or floggings (it would be valuable in boarding-schools and on the plantation); favors menstrual flow and removes constipation…


(1 1Notes appended to a Paper on Guao, written by Dr. Jose J. Navarro, of Cuba. American Homoeopathic Review, vol. iii., March.)

The Guao is undoubtedly the “Comocladia dentata,” belonging to the same family as the Rhus toxicodendron and venenata, and the Anacardium occidentale or Cashew tree. Lindley describes it as follows: (2 2Flora Medica, page 289, aphorism 598.)

“Anacardiaceae. Comocladia dentata (Guao). St. Domingo and Cuba. A tree. Stem erect, not much branched. Leaves pinnated, shining and green above; with a round rachis six inches long; leaflets six to ten on each side, with an odd one, oblong, acuminate, spring-toothed, veiny and somewhat downy at the back. Juice milky, glutinous, becoming black by exposure to the air, staining the linen or the skin of the same color, only coming off with the skin itself, and not removable from linen by washing even if repeated for many years successively. It is supposed by the natives of Cuba, that it is death to sleep beneath its shade, especially for persons of a sanguine or fat habit of body. This is firmly believed, and there can be no doubt that it is the most dangerous plant upon the island.”

An interesting article upon the “Comocladia dentata (Guao),” by J.G. Houard, M.D., Philadelphia, comprising contributions toward a proving of this plant, and some symptoms removed by its administration, was published in the Philadelphia Journal of Homoeopathy. (3 3Vol. iv (No. 2), page 73 et seq., May, 1854.)

It seems not irrelevant to call attention to the fact that the Guao (Comocladia dentata) may possibly, from the similarity of the names, be confounded with the Guaco (Mikania guaco), a totally different plant.

The Guaco (Mikania guaco) is a climbing plant used in Central and South America as an antidote to the poison of serpents. It is incidentally alluded to by Humboldt: (1 1Travels, Bohn’s edition, vol. ii., page 364.) “The liana, called vejuco de guaco (Mikania), which M. Mutro has rendered so celebrated, and which is the most certain remedy for the bite of venomous serpents.”

“Forster, Schomburgh, Poppig and Tschudi, agree that in South America the Mikania guaco is the best remedy for the bite of venomous serpents, and that it has in innumerable instances demonstrated its specific curative power. The freshly expressed juice of this creeping plant is dropped into the somewhat dilated wound, the surrounding parts are repeatedly rubbed and covered with the bruised leaves, and the juice at the same time also internally taken. It is efficacious against the bites of the most venomous serpents. It is also used as a prophylactic.” (2 Homoeopathische Vierteljahrschrift, 4, 391-392.)

Turchetti states that Guaco locally applied destroys the specific property of the pus from a chancre, and prevents the production of a second chancre by inoculation. He also claims for it positive curative powers in syphilis. (3 3Schmidt’s Jahrbuch, Bd. 101, p. 168.)

Lindley speaks of the Guaco as follows: (4 Flora Medica, page 344, aphorism 915.) “Aristolochiacea (Guaco). The Guaco of the Caraccas, reported to be a powerful remedy for the bites of serpents, is said by Dr. Hancock to be some plant of this genus.”

In the Allgemeine Homoeopathic Zeitung, (5 5 Vol. i., page 128, December, 1832.) in a letter from Bordeaux it is stated, “A Mexican physician has sent hither a plant, Houacou” (evidently the same as Guaco), “which has proved very curative, in Mexico, in certain very several maladies possessing great similarity to cholera. Our physicians have made successful experiments with it; out of eight patients to whom it was given, six were cured. **A few drops administered on a lump of sugar restored a distinct pulse to a patient who had already become quite pulseless.”

In the Allgemeine Homoeopathische Zeitung, (1 1Val. liv., page 6, 1857.) reference is made to an article by Dr. J. G. Houard, of Philadelphia, in be North American Journal of Homoeopathy. (2 2Vol. ii., page 16.) This article is a translation of a Spanish pamphlet on Guaco in cholera. It gives no other name than Guaco to the remedy used and no description of the plant from which it was derived, but refers to an article on the subject by Dr. Chalmers, an allopathist, in the Diario of Havana.

In the Zeitschrift fur Homoeopathische Klinik (3 3Vol. iii., page 94, June, 1854.) it is stated that Guaco was recommended in cholera by Dr. W. valentin. It had already been recommended in 1853 by Otto, of Copenhagen, for gout, asthma, rheuma; by Chabert, in Mexico, for cholera, and in 1836 had been used with good effect in cholera, by Czeterkyn, in Poland. In 1840, Jobst published a pamphlet on the subject giving communications from the then President of Venezuela, Dr. Vargas of Caraccas. According to the latter, Guaco (in form of tincture) is used in Caraccas in the following diseases: it cures the bites of poisonous snakes; of the scorpions; prevents hydrophobia; antidotes poisons; is useful in relieving pain from wounds resulting from falls or floggings (it would be valuable in boarding-schools and on the plantation); favors menstrual flow and removes constipation; is efficacious against affections of the liver, obstinate ulcers; is said to prevent and cure cancer; has a happy effect in spasm of the stomach and consumption, when the latter depends upon menstrual disturbances; cures asthma; cures tertian and all fevers complicated with chill; is a powerful anthelminthic; restores the functions of the stomach in feeble persons, and stimulates the circulation; cures megrim radically; alleviates toothache, a goodly list of virtues!

We have no complete proving of Mikania guaco, although the editor of the Allgemeine Homoeopathische Zeitung states that one has been made by Dr. Elb, of Dresden.

Dr. Elb refers to this in an article on “Spinal Diseases” (1Allgemeine Homoeopathische Zeitung, 61, 22 and 43.) (of which we hope soon to present a notice to the reader) in the course of which he gives the pathogenesis of Guaco in so far as it relates to symptoms of the spinal nervous system.

Carroll Dunham
Dr. Carroll Dunham M.D. (1828-1877)
Dr. Dunham graduated from Columbia University with Honours in 1847. In 1850 he received M.D. degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. While in Dublin, he received a dissecting wound that nearly killed him, but with the aid of homoeopathy he cured himself with Lachesis. He visited various homoeopathic hospitals in Europe and then went to Munster where he stayed with Dr. Boenninghausen and studied the methods of that great master. His works include 'Lectures on Materia Medica' and 'Homoeopathy - Science of Therapeutics'.