Produced according to strict manufacturing standards, homoeopathic treatments are remedies that treat diseases without attacking the body. To be free of toxicity and to retain their healing virtues, these remedies must go through various stages of preparation. Able to benefit from the expertise of health professionals, homoeopathic remedies combine reliability and efficiency while respecting Hahnemann’s methodology.
When homoeopathy is born in the late 18th century, the remedies prescribed to patients are prepared by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann himself from stocks collected in the wild. After his death, homoeopathic physicians who succeed him perpetuate his method of preparation by manufacturing their own remedies.
Given that homoeopathy is not widespread at that time, the physicians do not see the need to prepare their remedies in larger quantities. But two centuries later, homoeopathy is a therapeutic method of which the popularity is constantly increasing among patients. To meet the growing demand, homoeopathic practitioners then choose to proceed to the manufacturing of medicines in the laboratory, which then allows them to produce sufficient quantities of drugs, while ensuring their patients maximum safety. Since then, homoeopathic remedies are subject to a rigorous preparation that requires the expertise of many professionals.
Essential to the preparation of different remedies, the basic substances used in homoeopathy are derived from vegetable, mineral, animal or chemical stocks. There are currently more than 3000 basic ingredients that are mainly of vegetable, animal or mineral origin.
When the stocks are of vegetable origin, the laboratories mainly ensure the freshness of the harvested species so that they can retain all of their healing properties. In addition, it is important to know that the crops are always harvested with the utmost respect for the environment, so as not to disturb nature’s equilibrium.
The animal products are sampled by competent professionals so that all of the stocks’ therapeutic properties can be preserved. For practical reasons, the different stocks used in the manufacturing of homoeopathic medicines are known by their scientific name. Indeed, given that the Latin names are internationally known, it is much easier for practitioners around the world to refer to the prescribed substances by using names that are common everywhere.
In order to be included in the composition of remedies, the collected substances must be turned into mother tinctures, which will in turn be diluted and potentized several times. Among the substances used in homoeopathy, a distinction is made between those that are soluble in water or alcohol and those that are not. Mother tinctures made from soluble substances are obtained by letting the stocks macerate in water or alcohol for a long time.
The substances that are not soluble in water and alcohol need to go through a preliminary trituration phase, that is to say, a grinding method carried out in a lactose-based solution. After the trituration, the ground stock can then be dissolved in water or alcohol in order to finally obtain a mother tincture.
The dilution and potentisation of mother tinctures are fundamental steps in the homoeopathic remedies’ manufacture since they are responsible for granting the different remedies their therapeutic efficiency. Dilution is an operation that involves repeatedly diluting a mother tincture in a precise amount of fluid to gradually reduce the treatment’s dosage. Today, the dilution processes used in homoeopathic medicine may either be Hahnemannian or Korsakovian, depending on the case, although centesimal Hahnemannian dilutions (CH) are by far the most common. The potentisation is the process that includes all of the succussions performed after each dilution, so that the final product can retain all of its healing properties throughout the preparation.
As a result of the different potentisations and dilutions carried out when preparing the remedy, it is important to incorporate the obtained substances into small pills so that they can be easily consumed. Also known as impregnation, this process involves incorporating the various developed substances into a set of granules or capsules that correspond to the most common dosage forms of homoeopathic remedies. To do this, each laboratory uses its own specific method to ensure that the different active ingredients are evenly distributed in the selected pharmaceutical media. It should also be noted that other forms of dosage exist, such as tablets, suppositories, drops or small glass vials. Nonetheless, note that these types of media are not as widespread as granules and capsules. Once the impregnation phase is over, the granules and capsules are packaged in tubes to be prescribed and consumed.
