What is Equisetum hyemale?
Equisetum hyemale is a homeopathic single remedy made from scouring rush, the plant also known as horsetail. Homeopaths give it mainly for bedwetting in children and for a constant urge to pass urine. It usually comes as pills, pellets or drops at 6C or 30C.
The remedy is made by serial dilution: the plant extract is diluted and shaken over and over. At 30C essentially none of the original plant material remains in the pill. Controlled trials have not shown homeopathic remedies to work better than placebo (a dummy pill).
Long traditional use is not proof that something works, and that applies here as well. We report tradition and evidence as two separate things on this page. The evidence grade for this remedy is insufficient.
How does Equisetum hyemale work?
Homeopathy rests on an idea called "like cures like": a substance that could cause symptoms in a healthy person is given in very dilute form for similar symptoms. Crude horsetail can irritate the urinary tract, so homeopaths use the diluted remedy for urinary complaints.
No accepted body process explains how a 30C dilution could act. At that strength the pill holds sugar, water and alcohol, not measurable plant. Reported benefit is best explained by placebo effect and by symptoms settling on their own.
The crude, undiluted herb does have real effects, such as increasing urine output. Those effects belong to the herb, not to the high dilutions sold as homeopathy.
What forms does Equisetum hyemale come in?
Most often you will see 6C and 30C pills or pellets that dissolve under the tongue. Liquid dilutions in alcohol and water are also sold.
Lower potencies are a different matter. Mother tincture and low dilutions such as 1X or 3X still contain real plant material, so the herb cautions on this page apply to them.
Combination bladder or bedwetting products may list Equisetum with several other remedies. Check the label for the potency and for the other ingredients.
Where it comes from:
Scouring rush has a long record as a plant medicine. European folk use covered wounds and urinary complaints, and Chinese medicine uses Equisetum hyemale as mu zei for eye complaints and bleeding.
The plant entered homeopathic materia medica in the nineteenth century. Homeopathic writers such as Boericke tied it to bedwetting and to painful, frequent urination.
Its homeopathic use has stayed narrow and fairly stable since then.
Who should avoid Equisetum hyemale?
- Do not use if you or your child has blood in the urine, fever, back pain, vomiting or burning pain when passing urine - these need a doctor now, not a homeopathic remedy
- Do not use if you have a diagnosed urinary infection and would be taking this instead of the antibiotics you were prescribed
- Do not use if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, unless your doctor or midwife agrees; the crude plant is not considered safe in pregnancy
- Do not use if you take lithium (a mood-stabilising medicine) - avoid the mother tincture and low dilutions completely
- Do not use if you take digoxin (a heart medicine) or water pills (diuretics) and are considering the mother tincture or low dilutions
- Do not use if you have kidney disease, heart failure or low potassium (a blood salt) and are considering the mother tincture or low dilutions
- Do not use if you drink heavily or have been told your vitamin B1 (thiamine) is low, because the crude plant destroys thiamine
- Do not use if you are allergic to horsetail or scouring rush
- Do not use if you cannot tolerate lactose (milk sugar) and the pellets list it as the carrier
- Do not use if you would be giving alcohol-based drops to a baby or a young child
- Do not use if your child was dry at night and has started wetting the bed again, until a doctor has checked why
When should you see a doctor?
See a doctor the same day if there is fever, chills, back or side pain, blood in the urine, vomiting, or burning pain when passing urine. Book an appointment within a few days if the urge to pass urine is new, getting worse, or is waking you often at night. Also see a doctor if a child who was dry at night starts wetting the bed again, if bedwetting continues past about age seven, or if it comes with heavy thirst, weight loss or daytime accidents. Stop the remedy and get advice if a rash, swelling of the lips or face, breathing trouble, muscle weakness or an uneven heartbeat starts after you begin taking it. If you have been using this for two weeks with no change, stop and get the problem properly assessed.
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