Witnessed by: Western
Ipecac (Carapichea ipecacuanha), of the Rubiaceae family. A small straggling understorey shrub with a thin, knotted, annulated root; native range: shaded understorey of the Atlantic and Amazonian rainforests of Brazil, and into Colombia, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Globally recognized as ipecacuanha, poaia ('the roadside sick-making plant') in Portuguese, ipecac, ipecacuanha, Brazilian root in English, and Ipecacuanhae radix in Latin. The part used is root and rhizome. The root is greyish-brown and closely ringed with swollen annulations, snapping to show a horny centre; bitter and acrid, and the dust makes the handler sneeze, stream and wheeze.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
IPECAC
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- ipecac
- Scientific name
- Carapichea ipecacuanha (Brot.) L.Andersson
- Family
- Rubiaceae
Form
- Part used
- root and rhizome
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Western
- bitter · acrid
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- stomach · lungs · mucous membranes · intestines
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Western
- emetic in a large dose, expectorant and nauseant in a small one, diaphoretic, sialagogue, and amoebicidal (through its emetine)
Cautions
Contraindications: as an emetic it is now contraindicated outright: never in the drowsy or unconscious, never after a corrosive or a petroleum distillate, and not in pregnancy; withhold from the debilitated and the cardiac patient
Toxicity: emetine is cardiotoxic and myotoxic and it accumulates — repeated dosing, and above all the covert abuse of ipecac syrup in bulimia, has caused cardiomyopathy, myopathy and death; the root dust is a potent respiratory sensitiser, and the powder must not be breathed
Interactions
- Western
- cardiac glycosides: emetine's own cardiotoxicity compounds glycoside toxicity, and the vomiting disturbs the potassium the glycoside's safety depends on
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