Homeopathic Pharmacology of Antimonium Tartaricum

 

        

        Antimonium tartaricum is also known as Antimony potassium tartrate, potassium antimonyl tartrate, or tartar emetic. The chemical formula of Antimonium tartaticum is K₂Sb₂(C₄H₂O₆)₂. Antimonium tartaticum is prepared by treating a solution of potassium hydrogen tartrate and antimony trioxide. The British physician John Brian Christopherson discovered in 1918 that tartar emetic could cure schistosomiasis. But the side effects were worse and with the advent of new drugs, it fell out of use.

        Antimonium tartaticum was used in the 19th century as a remedy for alcohol intoxication but was found to be ineffective in 1941. In Homeopathy, Antimonium tartaricum is used in very smaller doses to treat Pneumonia, Bronchitis, Asthma, Asphyxia neonatarum, Ecthyma, Dyspepsia, Psoriasis, etc. Let's learn about its physiological action.

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Mucous Membranes:

        Antimonium tartaricum produces pustular inflammation of the throat, mouth, esophagus, stomach, and small intestines. It produces catarrhal inflammation of the larynx, trachea, and bronchi. It is an emetic and it produces nausea to a much more degree than other emetics. But the action of Antimonium tartaricum is slow, it takes sometimes twenty minutes to half an hour. So it cannot be used as an emetic in cases of poisoning.

        In small doses, Antimonium tartaricum produces a sensation of soreness in the stomach. This sensation is sometimes mistaken for hunger. If we increase the dose, it produces increased secretion of mucus from the stomach and intestines and produces moist diarrhoeic motions with colic.

Respiratory system:

        Antimonium tartaricum produces increased secretion of the bronchial mucus membrane. The respiration is very irregular and the pauses are often very long in advanced stages of poisoning by Antimonium tartaricum. The inspiration and expiration are so forced and prolonged. Antimonium tartaricum has direct influence upon the respiratory centers.

        Antimonium tartaricum produces intense venous congestion of lungs further leading upto hepatization.

Cardiovascular system:

        Antimonium tartaricum is a cardiac poison. It causes acceleration of pulse at first, later the pulse is decreased very decidedly. During this period of slow pulse, the diastolic pauses are extremely long. Then after a while, the pulse suddenly becomes very rapid, but the force of each heartbeat is lost and the arterial pressure falls to a minimum, and in a very few moments diastolic arrest occurs.

        Antimonium tartaricum also produced fatty degeneration of the heart, liver, and kidneys when fed to animals.

Kidneys:

        Antimonium tartaricum produces an increase in urine first, but in cases of severe poisoning, the urine is scanty and bloody, and even causes suppression of urine.

Nervous system:

        Antimonium tartaricum is a direct paralyzer of the motor and sensory nerves. The prominent symptom of Antimonial poisoning, is paralysis, affecting to an extraordinary degree the sensory, and to a less extent the motor nerves. The paralysis occurs in the following order: sensibility toward thermal and chemical irritants, then toward tactile stimuli, then toward locomotion, and finally diminution of reflex action.

Skin:

        Antimonium tartaricum, when applied locally on the skin or given internally produces large number of pustules upon the skin. When applied locally, in one to three days, there appears first a simple redness, followed by papules, which turn into vesicles, and then into pustules. They are very painful and they are about one-eighth of an inch to up to an inch and a half in diameter.

Poisoning:

        Antimonium tartaricum in nine to fifteen grains is regarded as a fatal dose for a healthy adult. But death has resulted from two grains. One grain is approximately 65mg. In poisoning by Antimonium tartaricum we have violent and continuous vomiting, accompanied by diarrhea and sometimes peritonitis. The stool may be watery, bilious, and sometimes even bloody. There is profound prostration with slow pulse and respiration accompanied by repeated faintings.

        There are hemorrhagic exudations and infiltration upon and into the mucous membrane of the stomach and abundant hemorrhage into the intestines. Slight ulceration of the mucus membranes are also frequently seen, and in some cases, it has been found in the upper part of the small intestines.