Squilla

The bulb of the Mediterranean sea onion, traditionally used in homoeopathy for a hard, tiring cough and as a remedy of the heart and kidneys.

Squilla maritima is the sea onion, or squill, now named Drimia maritima, a plant of sandy Mediterranean coasts whose large bulb sits half out of the ground. Tall spikes of small white flowers rise in late summer, after the leaves have died back. The bulb has been used since ancient Greece; homoeopathy prepares its remedy from it.

Homoeopaths traditionally use it for a violent, exhausting cough with much mucus, sneezing and watering eyes, brought on by a deep breath or cold drinks. The old books also name it an important remedy of the heart and kidneys, with breathlessness and plentiful watery urine.

• Hard, tiring cough
• Cough with sneezing
• Breathlessness
• Heart and kidneys