Sepia

The ink of the common cuttlefish, a major homoeopathic remedy for women, traditionally linked with a bearing-down feeling, period troubles and exhaustion.

Sepia is the dark brown ink of the common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, a squid-like mollusc of the Mediterranean and the seas of north-western Europe. The animal squirts the ink from a sac to cloud the water when threatened, and the dried ink gave artists the brown pigment called sepia.

Hahnemann introduced it, and classic texts count it among the most important remedies for women. Homoeopaths traditionally turn to it for a dragging, bearing-down feeling in the pelvis, late, scanty or irregular periods, yellowish leucorrhoea, and hot flushes with sweating at menopause. Its picture includes weariness, chilliness and an irritable, indifferent low mood.

• Bearing-down feeling
• Irregular periods
• Leucorrhoea
• Menopausal hot flushes
• Weariness