Lungwort Lichen

Sharp or dull pain beneath the scapulae radiating up to the occiput

Overview. Sticta pulmonaria, more commonly known today by its accepted lichen name Lobaria pulmonaria, is a foliose lichen that grows on the bark of old broadleaf trees in humid, undisturbed forests across the temperate northern hemisphere. Its lobed, lung-textured thallus gave rise to the old doctrine of signatures association with pulmonary disease, and the whole lichen body is the part used. It held a defined place in nineteenth century Eclectic medicine in North America, where it was prepared as a specific tincture for chronic chest complaints with a characteristic pattern of referred back and shoulder pain.

Clinical Notes. Eclectic physicians reached for Sticta less for acute, feverish chest disease and more for the lingering, nagging irritation that follows a bronchitis or pleurisy once the sharper inflammatory phase has passed: a dry, hacking cough, a dull soreness across the upper back and shoulders, and a pain that runs up into the base of the skull.

Action and Therapy. Sticta relieves pain and muscular soreness confined chiefly to the neck, head, and chest, and irritation in parts supplied by the vagus. Thus it proves useful in so-called subacute rheumatic pain extending from the shoulder to the base of the occiput, or in the chest walls, or the smaller joints.

Therapy. In coughs of acute bronchitis, with the indications named, it is useful; in cough, with wheezing and tightness ... asthmatic cough, with the characteristic quick, sharp pains, it. is indicated. It also influences directly the post-nasal mucosa.