The Mother Tincture
The process of making a homeopathic remedy was first developed by German physician Samuel Hahnemann in the 19th century. Disillusioned with the harmful medical practices of his day, he sought to find a method of healing that was gentle yet effective. His years of trial and error resulted in a new field of medicine that is still commonly practiced in Germany and throughout Europe today.
A mother tincture is made from plant or other natural source. This is done by soaking the plant in an alcohol solution and placing the mixture in a dark container or space so that the chemical constituents of the plant are not destroyed. If the original substance is solid, such as with minerals, the substance must be crushed, or titrated, before added to the alcohol solution. The soaking process can take weeks or even months depending on the substance. The final product is what is known as a tincture, or medicinal extract.
Dilution and Succussion
The next step to produce a homeopathic remedy is to dilute a drop of the original mother tincture in nine drops of purified water. This diluted solution is then succussed, or shaken with impact. Succussion is unique to homeopathy. Instead of simply mixing or shaking a solution, the solution is placed in a sealed container and forcefully impacted from the bottom, usually by a pounding method, at least 100 times. In classical homeopathy, the process of succussion is critical to vitalize, or energize, the remedy. Simply diluting a tincture does not make it a homeopathic remedy. The final dilution is then added by dropper to a lactose-based sugar pill, which is administered as homeopathic medicine.
Potentizing
The process of diluting one drop of the mother tincture in nine drops of water, then performing the first succussion, produces a remedy with a potency of 1x. For the next level, one drop of the 1x remedy is again diluted by the same ratio, one drop of solution to nine drops of water. The dilution is again succussed a minimum of 100 times, producing a remedy with a potency of 2x. This exact process is repeated again and again, producing higher potencies.
Most homeopathic remedies are at least 6x, and can be higher. Homeopathics found in natural health food stores or online will indicate their potency on the bottle. Some common potency measurements are 6x, 12c and 30c (c equals 100). In the case of c-potencies, the dilution process begins with one drop of the mother tincture added to 100 drops of water. Therefore, a remedy with a potency of 30c will have undergone the dilution/succussion process 30 times. Homeopaths teach that the higher the dilution (and therefore, the potency) the stronger the remedy.
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