Guaiacum

Overview. Guaiacum wood is the dense, resin-rich heartwood of Guaiacum officinale and the closely related Guaiacum sanctum, small evergreen trees native to the Caribbean and northern South America. The wood and its exuded resin, guaiac, were introduced to European medicine in the sixteenth century as a treatment for syphilis and were later carried forward by the eclectic physicians as a warming alterative for chronic rheumatic and gouty complaints. It remains best known today as the reagent used in the traditional guaiac based fecal occult blood test, a legacy of its distinctive chemistry rather than its clinical use.

Clinical Notes. Guaiacum wood was reached for by the eclectics as a deep acting alterative for chronic, sluggish constitutional states, particularly chronic rheumatism and gout that worsened with cold and damp and eased with warmth.

Therapy. This remedy is a most active astringent in full doses, and yet in overdoses it acts as a cathartic. In medium doses it influences acute dysentery and diarrhea, and other relaxed conditions of the bowels.

Properties and Uses. This resin is an active stimulant, quite local in action, exciting to the stomach and slowly so to the remote circulation, and elevating all the secretory organs by increasing their sensibility and capillary flow.