Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Wonderful Plants
Type:
Remedy
Chapter:
666.40.00
666.40.00 Asterales
Names: Asteraceae, means radiating, star like; Compositae, means composite.
English: Sunflower family; Compositae.
Botany: 1100 genera; 25000 species; herbs, shrubs; cosmopolitan; flowers composite, radiant and tubular; open places, reacting to the sun; living in regions spoiled with oil.
Use: ornamental; oil
Culture: botanical clocks.
Content: inulin, polysaccahrid storage; sesquiterpene lactons; polyacetylenes; alkylamides; pentacyclic triterpenes; pyrrolizidine alkaloids.
Chinese: constricted liver Chi.
DD: Carbon; Magnesium.
Taxonomy
Asteraceae has long been recognised as a family and had the name Compositae because of its composite flowers. Asteraceae has been shown to be monophyletic. In the Apg3 classification Asteraceae is included in Campanulales.
Traditionally Asteraceae had two subfamilies: Asteroideae or Tubuliflorae and Cichorioideae or Liguliflorae. Asteroideae is monophyletic and Cichorioideae has been shown to be paraphyletic. In other classifications the subfamilies of the Asteraceae are Barnedesioideae, Mutsioideae, Carduoideae, Cichorioideae and Asteroideae. Bremer includes Mutsioideae, Carduoideae in Cichorioideae.
Panero and Funk presented the following phylogenetic tree, taken over by the Apg3 classification:
Barnadesioideae: 9 genera, 93 species; South America, mainly the Andes.
Stifftioideae: South America and Asia.
Mutisioideae: 58 genera, 750 species. South America.
Wunderlichioideae: 8 genera, 24 species, mostly in Venezuela and Guyana
Gochnatioideae: 4 or 5 genera, 90 species.
Hecastocleidoideae: only Hecastocleis shockleyi; Southwestern United States.
Carduoideae: 83 genera, 2, 500 species; Worldwide.
Pertyoideae: 5 or 6 genera, 70 species.
Gymnarrhenoideae: Only Gymnarrhena micrantha; Northern Africa.
Cichorioideae: 224 genera, 3, 200 species; Worldwide.
Corymbioideae: only the genus Corymbium, with 9 species.
Asteroideae: 1, 130 genera and 16, 200 species; Worldwide.
Four subfamilies contain 99% of the species diversity of Asteraceae: Asteroideae 70%, Cichorioideae 14%, Carduoideae 11% and Mutisioideae 3%.
Asteraceae has a morphological complexity. As a result, several genera have required multiple revisions.
Cichorioideae has as Tribes Lactuceae, Vernonieae, Liabeae and Arctoteae.
Asteroideae has 3 groups of Tribes:
1. Inuleae and Plucheae.
2. Gnaphalieae, Calenduleae, Astereae, Anthemidae and Senecioneae.
3. Helenieae, Heliantheae and Eupatorieae.
In the Plant theory Asteraceae is split off from Campanulales and forms it own Order Asterales. Asterales is monophyletic, having one Family, Asteraceae.
For the Subfamilies:
1. Barnedesioideae is included in Mutsioideae and placed in Subphase 1.
2. Cardueae is kept out of Cichoroideae and placed in Subphase 2.
3. Cichoroideae is kept together and placed in Subphase 3.
4. Asteroideae, the biggest subfamily is split in four clades Heliantheae, Astereae, Senecioneae and Anthemideae.
From the point of view of the Plant theory it would be more elegant to raise Asteraceae to the level of Order and the Subfamilies to the level of Families.
Subphases
1. Mutsioideae, including Barnadesioideae.
2. Carduoideae.
3. Cichorioideae.
4. Heliantheae, Helenieae, Eupatorieae.
5. Astereae, Gnaphalieae, Calenduleae, Inuleae, Plucheae.
6. Senecioneae.
7. Anthemideae.
Introduction
Asteraceae are the most developed plants in my opinion. They have a strong need for individuality and autonomy. They want to feel like a human being, not a child, wife, husband, worker or whatever. They want to make the world a better place where everyone can be healthy, happy and in the light. They wants to make the world sunny. But in order to be able to do that they have to become free themselves and find out what is their purpose in life. They need to know what they have come to do in this world.
Themes
The basic themes of the Asteraceae can be found in those of the Lanthanides and Carbon.
Asteraceae have a strong drive for individuality, independence and living their own life. They have a great aversion to being interfered with. They want to do things on their own, go their own way. They prefer to say that things are going well rather than being interrupted or intruded upon. This is exemplified by the symptom known for Arnica where they say they are well and send the doctor away. Even when they are sick they do not want to be hassled by doctors or others. They hate operations, vaccinations, medications and any other intervention. It is an expression of wanting to go their own way of the Lanthanides, combined with that of their body coming from the Carbon theme. The bodily theme is similarly expressed by ailments from traumas. They want to keep their integrity, also bodily. Any blow, beating or accident is an intrusion of their boundaries, a violation of their integrity. Haemorrhages in any form are another expression of that. A basic expression is that they feel vulnerable.
Psychologically they want to become integrated. They have a desire to become one person instead of a complex of different personalities that act differently in different situations. It is a drive for individuation. It makes it difficult for them to project problems onto others. They want to take responsibility for their own life, taking their life in their own hands. They have a feeling that they are not strong enough to keep other influences out of their system. They express that as a lack of resistance. Often that is also physically a problem, expressed by not having enough resistance against infections, especially viral infections with high fever. The typical disease for Asteracaeae is the classical influenza, with high fever, cold shivering, dull mind, muscle and bone pains. Typically they do not have a fear of death at all in these fevers. They are very ill, far away most of the time, want to be left alone. They have an aversion to food and sometimes even to drinks. They do not fear death, they almost feel pleased if they would die. This comes from a kind of natural spiritual confidence, a trust in nature or God.
Autonomy
It is important for them to live their own life, to follow their own path in life. They want to be autonomous and independent. They have an aversion to being influenced, domineered, held back, limited, made dependent or being blocked in any way. They hate to become someone else by any means. They want to do things themselves, also heal themselves when sick. They perceive it as harmful if someone tells them what to do. They hate doctors and their treatments that invade them and overrule them. They have a strong need for integrity. They want to be themselves and be uninfluenced by strangers. But they fear they will not have enough resistance: lack of resistance is a typical expression for them.
Skin: wounds
Intrusion in all forms is felt as detrimental. Typical is the fear that their bodily integrity will be violated. They have accidents, wounds, bruises, ecchymoses. Intrusions into their bodily field can be very detrimental. They feel that their integrity must be defended and that they have to protect their boundaries against the attacks of enemies. They feel vulnerable, insecure, threatened. Their defense can go so far that they even perceive touch or being watched as an attack. They have a strong desire to have enough resistance.
Theme: wound, trauma, accident, threat.
Integration
They want to integrate parts of their personality, like the integration of many small flowers in one big flower. Jung calls this individuation. They try not to be the victim of their different personalities but to be one. They hate the hypocrisy of saying one thing and something else another time.
Theme: integration, individuation, integrity, boundaries, resistance.
Individualisation
They want to be individuals. They want to feel like a human being. They do not want to be a role, a child, wife, husband, worker or whatever. They identify with being human rather than male or female: they are more androgynous. They want to find their purpose in life. During high fevers they often realise their life purpose and become more independent, stronger and mature. High fevers somehow burn the personality into the child.
Self-worth
They have a need for a strong personality. They want to be strong and self-reliant with enough resistance to be able to cope with the world and all its threats. They can be ambitious. They hate humiliation, belittling. They have a need for a safe family, a strong father supporting them to develop their self-worth and individuality.
Mind
Central emotion: vulnerable; lack of resistance.
Androgynous.
Absentminded, confused, cannot think clearly, < fever.
As children they do not feel like children but more as small adults.
Hypersensitive: sounds, music; light, sun; pain, health; intrusions of others, blows, trauma.
Desire: freedom, independence, autonomy.
Desire: resistance; protection from parents.
Aversion: hierarchy, hypocrisy, being domineered, put in a frame or box, controlled, forbidden.
Aversion: doctors, injections, medication, operations, vaccinations, wounds, hurt.
Aggression, anger, fight, bossy, tyrannical; kicking, screaming, beating, biting, stamping their feet, slamming doors.
Obstinate, stubborn, self-willed, conceited.
Timid, shy, closed, pacifism.
Sadness, despondency, weeping.
Ailments from being belittled, criticised, humiliated, treated as a child.
Fear: being hurt, criticised, ruined, threat, invaded; operations, injections, doctors; accidents, blows, wounds, smacked; touch; dark, alone; big scary animals, witches, monsters, vampires, ghosts; death of parents; strangers.
General
Sensation: sore, bruised, beaten; wounded, beaten, broken.
Weather: - > sun; <- grey weather.
Aversion: liver; intestines; food, < fever.
Physical: <<< vaccinations; < dentition.
Body
Fever: !! high more than 39 or 40° Celsius, 102-104 Fahrenheit, cold shivering, alternating with heat and sweating, bruised everywhere, dull, inability to think, sick, only lying, averse food.
General: bleeding, haemorrhage, nosebleed, haematemesis, menorrhagia; inflammation, swelling, oedema, heat.
Infection: virus; ! influenza, flu, measles, rubella; bacteria, microbes; fungi, yeast; parasites; worms; insects.
Head: pain aching, full, pressing, forehead, < bending forward, < stooping; sinusitis, frontal !!; encephalopathy, < liver failure.
Eyes: watering, red, itching, tears.
Nose: hayfever; running nose, < grasses; sneezing.
Mouth: pains, teeth, < dentition.
Stomach: nausea, vomiting.
Abdomen: spleen problems; liver complaints.
Rectum: diarrhoea.
Urinary: cystitis.
Female: infertility; menorraghia, metrorrhagia; miscarriages; parturition problems, bleeding.
Limbs: bones broken; muscle pain, bone pain; fibromyalgia.
Skin: wounds, injuries, bruises, beaten; warts, mollusca.