Abstract
Introduction The system of homoeopathic medicine calls for continued development and upgrading.
Many drugs used in homoeopathy have limited information about their original composition
and collection method, making their exact reproducibility practically impossible or
challenging. To improve the quality, reliability, ethics, legality, purity and science,
there is an urgent need to review, revise, revolutionise, re-develop, remove and revamp
many drugs in the Materia Medica in the current light of technology and modern medical knowledge.
Method A rigorous literature review of homoeopathy Materia Medica, pharmacopeia and manufacturing units was done. Based on the literature review, we
have identified some challenges and suggested ways to overcome them.
Observation and Discussion The common observation is that most homoeopathy drugs prepared and sold in the market
are prepared by simply stepping up the ‘back-potencies.’ Many drugs could be made
afresh without depending on the old stocks of back-potencies. Although few pharmacies
have started this practice in the UK, Brazil, the United States and India, many pharmacies
prefer the back-potency route probably due to the reasons such as difficulty in procuring
identical raw materials (e.g. Lachesis, Tarentula, Spongia, X-ray), expensive raw materials (e.g. Aurum metallicum, Argentum nitricum, Platina) and lack of facility to process the raw material (e.g. Phosphorus, Radium bromide, Diptherinum, Carcinosin).
Well-defined mechanisms are required for drug standardisation, authenticity and quality
of source material, standardised potentisation method, quantifiable force parameter,
complete tracking record of back potency (traceability).
Keywords
homoeopathy - drugs - standardisation - reproducibility - sources - back-potencies
