Anacardium Orientale

The marking nut of India, traditionally used in homoeopathy for poor memory, exam nerves and a nervous, empty stomach that feels better after food.

Anacardium orientale is the marking nut, Semecarpus anacardium, a tree of the cashew family native to India from the outer Himalaya to the Coromandel coast. Between the layers of its nut shell lies a black, caustic juice once used by washermen to mark cloth, which gives the tree its name. In Ayurveda it is called bhallataka. The raw juice blisters the skin; homoeopathy uses it only in specially prepared form.

Homoeopaths traditionally turn to it for poor memory, absent-mindedness, mental fatigue from study and anxiety before examinations, with low self-confidence. A marked feature is an empty, uneasy stomach that is relieved for a while by eating.

• Poor memory
• Exam nerves
• Mental fatigue
• Low self-confidence
• Nervous indigestion