Cactus Grandiflorus

The night-blooming cereus of the Caribbean, traditionally used in homoeopathy for a gripping tightness about the chest, as if bound by an iron band.

Cactus grandiflorus is the night-blooming cereus, now named Selenicereus grandiflorus, a climbing cactus of the Caribbean and Central America. Its large, scented white flowers open for a single night and close again by morning. Homoeopathy prepares its remedy from the fresh young stems and flowers.

Its keynote in homoeopathy is constriction. Homoeopaths traditionally associate it with a tight, gripping feeling around the chest, as if an iron band were being drawn ever tighter, with palpitations that are worse when lying on the left side. Its complaints are said to return at the same hour each day.

• Tight feeling in the chest
• Palpitations
• Worse lying on the left
• Complaints at the same hour