Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Track Crotalus cascavella with reminders and record whether it helped, in the app.
Crotalus cascavella is a homeopathic remedy. It is made from snake venom. The snake is the Brazilian rattlesnake, Crotalus durissus terrificus.
Homeopaths give it for throbbing head pain and a racing heart. Some also give it for a strong fear of being alone. They pick it when symptoms feel worse at night.
The venom is watered down again and again. At the usual 30C strength, no venom is left. Trials do not show it beats a dummy pill (placebo), and long use in homeopathy is not proof that a remedy works.
The honest answer is that no one has shown how this remedy could work.
Homeopathy rests on an idea called like cures like. A thing that causes symptoms in a well person is said to ease the same symptoms in a sick person. Raw rattlesnake venom causes bleeding, shock and heart strain, so homeopaths match it to those symptoms.
The venom is then diluted, one part in a hundred, over and over. At 30C that step has been done thirty times. Past about 12C, not one molecule of the starting venom is likely to be left.
Some homeopaths say the water keeps a memory of the venom. Chemists and physicists have looked and have not found one. Any change people notice is best explained by placebo, care, rest and time.
You will most often see tiny sugar pellets or liquid drops.
Common strengths are 6C, 30C and 200C. The C stands for one dilution step of 1 in 100. A higher number means more steps and even less starting material.
LM and Q strengths are sold too. Low strengths such as 3X or 6X may still hold traces of real venom. Buy only from a maker that follows pharmacy standards.
This remedy has a small but long-standing place in homeopathy.
Homeopaths in Brazil tested the venom on healthy people in the 1800s. They wrote down every symptom the testers reported. Those notes became the remedy picture that homeopaths still read today.
It sits beside other snake remedies, such as Lachesis and Crotalus horridus. It has never been a front-line choice. Most homeopaths reach for it rarely.
Call emergency services now if you have chest pain, trouble breathing, a face or arm that droops, slurred speech, or bleeding you cannot stop.
See a doctor soon if your headaches are new, worse or very sudden. Do the same for a heart that races often, for easy bruising, or for nosebleeds that keep coming back.
Stop the remedy and speak to a doctor if a rash, swelling or stomach upset starts after you take it.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Crotalus cascavella is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
One email with the summary. We'll also send a short weekly evidence update — unsubscribe any time.
