Silicea

Pure silica, the mineral of flint, quartz and sand and one of Schuessler's tissue salts, linked with boils, brittle nails, weak hair and slow growth.

Silicea is silica, or silicon dioxide, the mineral that makes up flint, quartz and most sand. Because it is hard and insoluble, homoeopathy prepares it from pure precipitated silica by long grinding with milk sugar. It is one of the twelve tissue salts of Schuessler's biochemic system and occurs naturally in hair, nails, skin and connective tissue.

Homoeopaths associate it with chilly, delicate people who lack stamina and with children slow to grow and walk. It is traditionally used for boils, abscesses and splinters slow to come to a head, brittle nails and weak hair, tender gums, and stubborn constipation where the stool slips back.

• Boils and abscesses
• Brittle nails
• Weak hair
• Tender gums
• Stubborn constipation