Caladium Seguinum

Dumb cane, a tropical house plant, traditionally used in homoeopathy for tobacco craving, intense itching and insect bites that burn and itch.

Caladium seguinum, now classed as Dieffenbachia seguine, is the dumb cane, a tropical American arum with large, cream-mottled leaves, widely grown as a house plant. Chewing the plant makes the mouth and throat swell so that speech becomes difficult, hence its name; homoeopathy uses it only in specially prepared form.

Homoeopaths traditionally link it with smokers: a craving for tobacco, together with the headaches and forgetfulness of heavy smokers. It is also associated with intense itching of the skin and private parts, and with insect bites that burn and itch severely.

• Tobacco craving
• Itchy skin
• Itchy insect bites
• Smoker's headache