Sweet Chestnut
Botanical: Castanea Sativa
Family: Fagaceae
Homeopathic remedy: Castanea Vesca
Description: Sweet Spanish chestnut is a large and handsome tree that can get 30 m tall with a crown spread about half its height. The flowers are in showy spikelike creamy yellow catkins. Chestnuts have both male and female flowers on the same tree but they are largely self-incompatible so it is necessary to have at least two trees in order to produce the nuts. Sweet chestnut is the source of the edible chestnuts . In southern Europe, a flour from chestnuts is made that is similar to wheat flour in protein, starch and fat but lacks the gluten; breads and cakes made with chestnut flour tend to fall apart unless some wheat flour is added. Before the potatoes and cord was infroduced, the chestnut nuts were the primary source of nutrition in the poor countries.
Medicinal uses: Anti-inflammatory, Astringent, Expectorant
Keywords: Despair, Anguish, No-way situations, End of the line, Hopeless, No escape, It is over
Dr Bach's description: For those moments which happen to some people when the anguish is so great as to seem to be unbearable. When the mind or body feels as if it had borne to the uttermost limit of its endurance, and that now it must give way. When it seems there is nothing but destruction and annihilation left to face.
Essence: A person needing Sweet Chestnut is in a hopeless situation with no way out. He has arrived at the end of the line and no solution of his problems can be seen. The patient feels that he has endured as much as he could and that it is time to finally surrender. He feels that he has no energy left to fight, but that he has lost.
The difference between the Gorse and the Sweet Chestnut is that while the situation of the Gorse has a clearly visible solution, the Gorse patient is unwilling to accept it, because he feels that there is no hope, the situation of the Sweet Chestnut has not solution and if a one solution would exist, the Sweet Chestnut would use it. The major feeling of the Gorse is dejection and hopelessness, while the major feeling of the Sweet Chestnut is despair and anguish. It is clear that the despair of the Sweet Chestnut is more intense and critical than the dejection of the Gorse.
The difference between the Gentian and the Sweet Chestnut is even clearer. The Gentian person feels downhearted when something has gone wrong, but he will soon pick up and will continue to struggle. The situation of Sweet Chestnut is really the end of the line.
The Sweet Chestnut will help remain in control of the life and perhaps it will uncover an option that was not previously visible.