Info by Franz Swoboda.
Proving"Thank you, I'm fine".
Despite conscientious examination and clinical experience, the bracken fern gives a closed appearance. In other words, someone you have known for a long time still manages to surprise you.
Fifteen years ago, in an Austrian small group with seven participants, we tested the bracken fern,
Pteridium aquilinum, as a classical medicinal self-experience (AMSE). Jan Scholten's systematics of the plant world was not yet known and we came across the somewhat older examinations by Marie Geary and Lisa Griffiths only during the reappraisal. So we went to work without prejudice, as we call it in homeopathy.
This paper (footnote: you can read the long version with exact test symptoms in Documenta Homoeopathica 27) starts with the description of the plant. Then we relate characteristics of the test to ingredients and previous use. The third part is a case history. It tells of a patient who, after 14 years, is still grateful for the remedy, with which, in the end, his practitioner should also be satisfied.
The final part is a summary of a recent expectoration **.
The plant
The bracken fern,
Pteridium aquilinum originates from the Carboniferous, a time 350 million years ago. Forests of ferns, horsetails and lycopods characterized the landscape, the basis of our coal. When the ferns evolved, there were neither flowering plants nor mammals. These pteridophytes have lost their former size - with the bracken fern being the largest native fern at up to two meters - but have otherwise survived the most adverse living conditions almost unchanged.
Pteridophytes reproduce as spore plants by alternation of generations. In the case of the bracken fern, sporangia are located on the underside of the leaves, which eject their haploid spores when they burst open. Carried on by the wind, haploid gametophytes germinate from them. These prothallia - they are plants in their own right - carry both sexual characteristics and fertilize themselves in a moist environment by the flagellated spermatozoids swimming to the ovules. Now a diploid fern plant, the sporophyte, can grow.
In order to spread underground, the bracken fern allows its rhizomes to grow up to 60 meters long. It reaches an age of up to 1500 years. The leaf part is formed by the funnel-shaped fronds, which sprout and unroll from the rhizomes in spring. Unlike later developed plants, these leaves remain capable of growth into the leaf tips and can root when in contact with the ground.
The bracken fern has developed several defense strategies against competing plants and predators, spreading almost across the globe. It is remarkably resistant to fungal attack, viruses, and chemical substances. The plant exudes fernesol and slows down the growth of other plants in a hormone-like manner; in addition, when the fern fronds rot, the soil accumulates their phenols, which prevent other plants from germinating. Thus, the fern spreads on fallow land, overgrows the forest floor in sparse forests, and can become a problem for forestry after clear-cutting or fires. Respirators are recommended when clearing such areas to prevent inhalation of the spores. The entire plant is poisonous. Even its young leaves contain, among other things, hydrocyanic acid glycosides.
The bracken is largely protected from pests by its ecdysone content, which plays a role in the moulting of insects. It is protected against predators such as horses, pigs and goats by its enzyme content of thiaminase, which destroys vitamin B1 and leads to CNS disorders such as impaired motor function. The ingredient ptaquiloside, to which cows are particularly sensitive, is carcinogenic and remains so even when dried. It is retinotoxic and suppressive to bone marrow, and animals die from internal bleeding. Ptaquiloside is a water-soluble sesquiterpene that has been detected in urine, breast milk, and muscle tissue, accumulates in soil, and thus enters groundwater. Where much bracken grows, people's risk of various carcinomas increases.