Yucca filamentosa
Quick Facts
- What it is: A homeopathy single remedy made from bear grass (Adam's needle), thinned so far that a 30C pill holds no plant.
- Main uses: Coated tongue and bad taste, Wind and bloating, Heavy, full feeling after food
- Best for: Short-lived, mild gut upsets in people who already use homeopathy
- Active ingredients: None left at 30C, Saponins (soap-like plant compounds) in the raw plant, Tannins
- Forms: Sugar pills, Pellets, Alcohol drops, Mother tincture (raw extract)
- Time to effect: Hours to a few days by custom; no trial supports this.
- Side effects: Almost none from 30C pills; the raw tincture can upset the stomach and loosen the bowels.
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What is Yucca filamentosa?
Yucca filamentosa is a single homeopathy remedy. It is made from a plant. The plant is also known as bear grass or Adam's needle.
Single drug means it is given on its own. It is not mixed with other remedies. It is used mostly for gut and liver-type complaints: a coated tongue, a bad taste, wind, and a heavy, full feeling after food.
The remedy is thinned over and over. At 30C, no plant matter is left in the pill. Trials do not show it works better than a dummy pill, and long use is not proof that a thing works.
How does Yucca filamentosa work?
No one has shown how this remedy could work in the body. That is the honest answer.
Homeopathy rests on two old ideas. The first is that a plant that causes signs in a well person can ease those same signs in a sick one. The second is that shaking and thinning the mix makes it act more strongly.
Science does not back either idea. At 30C, one drop of plant juice has been thinned so far that none of it is left. Any change you feel is most likely a placebo effect, which means feeling better because you expect to.
What forms does Yucca filamentosa come in?
You will find it as small sugar pills, as tiny pellets, and as liquid drops. The drops are made with alcohol and water.
Common labels are 6C, 12C and 30C. Lower numbers, such as 1X or 3X, still hold some plant matter. Higher numbers hold none.
A mother tincture is different. It is a plain alcohol extract of the raw plant. It is not a thinned homeopathy remedy, and it can act on the gut.
Where it comes from:
Yucca filamentosa grows in the sandy soil of the southeastern United States. Native peoples there used the root as soap and the leaf fibre as thread and needles.
American homeopaths took it up in the 1800s. They based its use on small self-tests called provings. Its record is thin, and it sits at the edge of the materia medica, the reference book of homeopathy remedies.
Who should avoid Yucca filamentosa?
- Do not use if you would be taking it in place of medical care for a serious or fast-changing illness.
- Do not use if you have yellow skin or eyes (jaundice), dark urine, or pale stools — these point to a liver problem that needs a doctor now.
- Do not use if you have ever reacted badly to yucca or to other plants in the agave family.
- Do not use if you take disulfiram (a drug that helps people stop drinking) or metronidazole (an antibiotic), unless you choose the sugar pills — the liquid drops contain alcohol.
- Do not use if you avoid alcohol for health, religious or recovery reasons and only the liquid drops are available.
- Do not use if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, unless your doctor or midwife has said it is fine.
- Do not use if you are giving it to a child under 2 without a doctor's advice.
- Do not use the raw tincture if you have ongoing diarrhoea, or a blocked bowel (a gut that food cannot pass through).
When should you see a doctor?
See a doctor if your belly pain gets worse, or if it wakes you at night. Get help the same day for yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, blood in your stool, black tarry stools, or vomiting you cannot stop.
Also see a doctor if a coated tongue, bloating or poor appetite lasts more than two weeks. The same goes for losing weight without trying, or a fever with belly pain. Do not wait to see if a remedy helps first.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
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