What is Sanguinaria canadensis?

Sanguinaria canadensis is a single homeopathic remedy made from bloodroot, a small white spring flower of North American woods. Homeopaths reach for it most often for one-sided headaches, a hot flushed face, and hay fever.

The remedy is serially diluted, which means it is watered down and shaken again and again. By the time it reaches 30C, essentially none of the plant is left. What you swallow is sugar and water.

Here is the plain verdict. Trials do not show homeopathic remedies working better than placebo (a dummy pill), and no trial has tested this one. Its use in homeopathy is long-standing and real, but long use is not proof that something works.

One warning belongs up front. Raw bloodroot is a poisonous plant, and pastes made from it, sold as "black salve", have burned deep holes in people's skin. A 30C pill and a raw bloodroot paste are not the same product, and this page treats them separately.

How does Sanguinaria canadensis work?

There is no accepted physical way for a 30C pill to act on the body, because no plant material remains in it.

Homeopathy works from two ideas. The first is "like cures like": a substance that causes symptoms in a well person is given, in tiny amounts, to a sick person with similar symptoms. The second is that shaking each dilution leaves some kind of imprint in the water.

That second idea has no support in chemistry or physics. Water does not hold a lasting print of what was once in it, as far as anyone has been able to show.

Raw bloodroot does do things in the body. Its main chemical, sanguinarine, kills cells it touches and can burn tissue. None of that applies to a 30C pill, and it is not a reason to expect the pill to help.

So the honest answer is this. Any relief you notice is most likely the problem settling on its own, or placebo, which is a real and measurable comfort effect but not an effect of the remedy itself.

What forms does Sanguinaria canadensis come in?

The usual form is small sugar pellets that dissolve under the tongue.

You may also find liquid drops made with alcohol and water, and single-dose tubes of tiny pills. Common strengths sold for home use are 6C, 12C and 30C.

Low X potencies, such as 3X, are much less dilute. These can still hold traces of the plant, so treat them with more care than a 30C.

The mother tincture, often marked with the symbol Ø, is not a homeopathic dilution at all. It is a raw plant extract that still contains sanguinarine, and it can burn the mouth and gut. Do not buy it for self-treatment.

Bloodroot also turns up in skin pastes sold online as "black salve". That is a different and dangerous product, not a homeopathic remedy.

Where it comes from:

Bloodroot has a long record of use in North America. Native American peoples used the red root juice as a dye and body paint, and used the plant in their own medicine.

In the 1800s, American Eclectic doctors used bloodroot for coughs and chest complaints, and as a caustic paste on skin growths. Dentists later used purified sanguinarine in mouth rinses for plaque.

The remedy entered homeopathic practice in the mid-1800s through American provings, which are tests where volunteers take a substance and record what they feel. It has stayed in homeopathic materia medica ever since, mainly for right-sided headaches.

So the plant carries a genuine traditional record, and the homeopathic preparation is a long-standing staple of that one tradition.

What does Sanguinaria canadensis help with?

• Right-sided migraine and severe headache: This is the classic homeopathic picture for the remedy: pain starting at the back of the head on the right, spreading over to the right eye, with sickness and a need for a dark, quiet room. No trial has tested homeopathic Sanguinaria for migraine. Migraine also needs proper medical care, because good treatments exist and headaches can have serious causes.
• Hot flushes and flushing of the face: Homeopaths pick it for sudden heat in the cheeks and burning palms, often around menopause. Only tradition supports this use. If flushes are wearing you down, ask a doctor about options that have been tested.
• Hay fever, sneezing and a runny nose: It is used for a raw, burning nose with sneezing fits, and in some homeopathic texts for nasal polyps, which are soft growths inside the nose. There is no trial evidence for either use. Polyps need a real diagnosis, not a home remedy.
• Dry, tickling cough: Homeopathic texts describe a dry cough that is worse at night and worse lying down. This comes from provings and case notes, not from trials. A cough lasting more than three weeks should be checked.
• Right shoulder pain: The remedy is linked in homeopathy to pain in the right shoulder that is worse at night and worse on raising the arm. No human study has looked at this.
• Burning feeling in the palms and soles: This symptom is part of the traditional remedy picture rather than a condition on its own. Burning hands and feet can also come from nerve problems or diabetes, so get lasting burning checked.

Which foods are rich in Sanguinaria canadensis?

Never eat bloodroot root, sap or leaves, and never make your own extract from the plant.

What are the side effects of Sanguinaria canadensis?

• Nothing at all: the usual outcome with a 30C pill
• A short flare of your symptoms, which homeopaths call an aggravation; it is reported but not proven
• Sugar load from the pellets, which matters if you have diabetes
• Burning in the mouth and throat from the mother tincture or a low potency
• Nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps from the mother tincture
• Diarrhoea from the mother tincture
• Dizziness or faintness from a drop in blood pressure after swallowing raw bloodroot
• Blurred vision or sore eyes after contact with raw plant juice
• Deep skin wounds, tissue loss and heavy scarring from bloodroot paste sold as black salve

Good to know:

For a 30C pill, side effects beyond placebo are not expected, because there is nothing in it to cause them.

The real risks sit with the crude plant. Swallowed bloodroot extract can burn the gut, cause vomiting and drop your blood pressure. Bloodroot skin pastes have caused disfiguring wounds and have let cancers spread while people treated themselves at home.

The other risk is delay. A remedy that does nothing is still harmful if it keeps you from care that works.

How much Sanguinaria canadensis should you take?

• Recommended daily: There is no proven dose, and nothing here is a recommendation to take it. In homeopathic practice, a common home choice is 30C. Three to five pellets are placed under the tongue and allowed to melt, up to three times a day for a short spell. Homeopaths usually stop as soon as things improve. They also lower the number of doses rather than raise them. Low potencies from 1X to 3X, and the mother tincture, still hold real plant chemicals. Do not self-treat with those. Swallowing raw bloodroot extract can poison you.
• Best time of day: There is no set time. Homeopaths often suggest taking it away from food, drink, strong mint or coffee, by about 15 minutes either side. That custom has no evidence behind it, but it does no harm.
• With or without food: Take it with an empty mouth, between meals. Let the pellets melt rather than chewing or swallowing them with water.
• Time to effect: Homeopaths expect a change within hours for a sudden problem, or within a few days at most. No trial supports that timing. Any change you feel may be the problem easing by itself, or placebo.
• How long to take it: Keep any trial short. For a sudden problem such as a headache, a few days is the usual limit in homeopathic practice. If nothing has changed after three days, stop. Repeating a remedy that is doing nothing has no point. Do not use it for months on end for an ongoing problem without seeing a doctor first. The risk is not the sugar pill; the risk is leaving a real condition untreated.