Phytolacca Berry

A tincture of ripe pokeweed berries, mentioned in classic texts for sore throats and with a long homoeopathic tradition in weight management.

Phytolacca berry is a tincture of the ripe fruit of pokeweed, Phytolacca americana, a tall North American plant of the pokeweed family with red-purple stems. The berries ripen from green through red to a glossy purple-black and give a deep crimson juice once used as ink. Raw pokeweed is poisonous; homoeopathy uses it only in specially prepared form.

Clarke records that birds feeding on the berries were said to lose their fat, and a tincture of the ripe berries came into use for excess weight. The classic texts also mention it for sore throats. It remains a familiar part of homoeopathic weight-management formulas.

• Weight management
• Sore throat
• Swollen tonsils