Natrum Hypochlorosum

Sodium hypochlorite, the old bleaching and disinfecting solution, traditionally linked in homoeopathy with flabby, tired constitutions and a heavy, dragging womb.

Natrum hypochlorosum is sodium hypochlorite, the active part of household bleach. In the nineteenth century it was sold as Labarraque's solution, a disinfectant used to clean wounds and purify water. The raw solution is corrosive; homoeopathy uses it only in specially prepared form.

Homoeopaths traditionally associate it with a flabby, weak, sluggish constitution and a low, faint mood. Its picture includes a heavy, dragging feeling of the womb with backache and white discharge, hands that are swollen every morning, drowsiness after meals, sore spots and small ulcers in the mouth, and giddiness as if the top of the head would float off.

• Sluggish constitution
• Heavy, dragging womb
• Puffy morning hands
• Mouth ulcers
• Drowsy after meals