Carbon group of remedies in Skin complaints

Dr G. Jaysee John BHMS
Jaipur , Rajasthan

Carbon is a vital component of all living organism hence it acts each and every system of body including SKIN. Some Important carbon remedies that have marked action on skin sphere.

GRAPHITES

• Unhealthy skin; every little injury suppurates. Skin is not inclined to heal, ulcerates readily.1, 2, 3,4.
• Moist eruption behind ears, on various parts, from which ooze a watery, transparent, sticky fluid. 1,2,3,4.
• Numerous small, red, itching pimples tipped with pus, which burn after scratching .The itching becomes general and very violent, even on the face and genitals.1, 2.
• Continual itching, < at night ; nothing visible upon skin before scratching, which produces nodules and long welts.2.
• Cracks or fissures of ends of fingers and nipples, labial commissures, of anus, between toes, etc.1, 3, 4.
• Vesicular eruption, Eczema, herpes, with profuse serous exudations. Erysipelas of both sides of the face, burning-sticking pain. 1, 2, 3, 4.

PETROLEUM

• Skin dry, constricted, very sensitive, rough and cracked, fissured, leathery every winter. Thick, greenish crusts, burning and itching; redness, raw; cracks bleed easily .3
• Unhealthy skin; even slight wounds suppurate and spread. General tendency to fester, skin is slow to heal. 1, 2.
• Painful sensitiveness of the skin of the whole body; all clothing is painful. Itching sore, moist surfaces or deep cracks.1.
• Painful, itching chilblains and chapped hands < in cold weather; decubitus.1,3
• Eczema; vesicular eruption forming thick scabs and oozing pus; skin harsh and dry; deep cracks and fissures which bleed and suppurates.1.
• All kind of eruption dry, moist, papular .Herpes ; of genital organs extending to perineum and thighs; itching, redness; skin cracked, rough, bleeding; dry or moist.2
• Heat and burning of soles of feet and palms of hands .1

CARBO ANIMALIS

• Skin dry and hanging in folds. Itching over whole body; evening in bed. 1
• Glands indurated, swollen, painful, in neck, axillæ, groin, mammæ; pains lancinating, cutting, burning.1, 3,4.
• Coppery eruption over whole body, especially in face, on forehead and nose. Scrofulous skin diseases.1, 3,4.

CARBO VEGETABILIS

• Blue, cold ecchymosed with terrible cardiac anxiety and icy coldness of whole surface. 1, 3.
  Itching; worse on evening, when warm in bed.1,2,3,4.
• Burning in various places in the skin, at night, in bed. Moist itch; burning at spots where there is no eruption. Fine itching eruption on the hands and on the thigh near the scrotum.
• Indolent ulcers, burning pain; ichorous, offensive discharge; tendency to gangrene of the margins. Varicose ulcers, carbuncles. Senile gangrene beginning in toes; bed sores; bleed easily.1, 3, 4.
• Moist herpetic eruption, especially in face. Certain forms of leprosy; face appears swollen, spots  reddish-brown; toes appear as if frozen. Moist skin; hot perspiration falling out of hair, from a general weakened condition. 1,3
• Purpura  hemorrhagica, with fever and great soreness.1
• Decubitus in typhus, from decomposition of blood.1

CARBONEUM SULPHURATUM

• Chronic skin diseases with much itching, burning; ulcers; small wounds fester.3
• Vesicles on a red, inflamed and swollen base, partly close together, but mostly separated ; they contain an opaque, yellowish fluid, which forms thick, yellowish scabs, sometimes the discharge excoriates and produces violent itching.1
• Pimples which form scabs, in popliteal space and on dorsum of foot and hands. 1,2.
• Violently itching pimples (like nettle-rash) on the back of the right forearm, obliging him to rub and scratch it.

KREOSOTUM

• Itching violently as to drive one almost wild < evenings and in open air, > from warmth. 1,3,4.
  Large, greasy looking, pock-shaped pustules, over whole body.1,4.
• Eruption dry as well as moist, in almost all parts of body, especially on backs of hands and feet, in palms, in ears, in popliteal region, and on knuckles of hands, with much itching.1,4.
• Watery or sero-purulent herpes, on back of hands and fingers and joints, elbows, knuckles and malleoli, itching violently .1, 3.
• Skin tense, shining, deep red ; Wheals like urticaria.1

ANILINUM

• Vesicular eruption on wrist, Eczematous eruption affecting both knees. Redness, and an intolerable itching of the skin; eczema rubrum.1

REFERENCES

• Hering C. The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica.Vol.1 IV,V,VIII.New Delhi: B Jain Publishers(P)Ltd;1971
• Allen TF. Encyclopaedia of Pure Material Medica.Vols.1-12. New Delhi: B Jain Publishers(P)Ltd;2011
• Boericke W. Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 9^th ed. New Delhi: B Jain Publishers(P)Ltd;2014
• Boericke W.Regional Materia Medica, New Delhi: B Jain Publishers(P)Ltd.1965