The methods of preparation we employ at Hahnemann Laboratories are rooted in the traditional methods used by homeopaths since the days of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann.
For example, we still use glass vials and cork stoppers for preparing and succussing our liquid potencies. We are also following very carefully the standards established by the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States (HPUS) and the regulatory requirements of the FDA. And then we exceed these requirements by using procedures we have designed to guarantee you that our remedies are the finest available.
The entire process of making a Homeopathic medicine consists of the following steps:
- 1. Selection of raw material
- 2. Trituration of raw material if insoluble in water or alcohol (Grinding with mortar and pestle)
- 3. Preparation of liquid potencies by dilution and succussion
- 4. Medication of blank pellets with liquid potencies
- 5. Drying of medicated pellets
- 6. Packaging of medicated pellets in vials for use by homeopathic doctors for their patients, and by individuals for themselves and their families.
We select our raw materials by purchasing the highest quality starting materials available. We purchase the exact materials needed to make the metals, salts, elements, and compounds of the materia medica. For example, we purchase gold foil of the highest purity to make Aurum metallicum.
We obtain our plant mother tinctures from homeopathic manufacturers whom we have successfully relied upon for twelve years to supply tinctures of the highest quality. For those materials which are insoluble in water or alcohol we need to triturate, or grind, these materials for many hours according to the directions of Hahnemann and the HPUS.
Traditionally this was done manually by grinding the material in a mortar and pestle. We do this work with a mechanical device called a ball mill. This is similar in design to something you may be more familiar with called a rock polisher, or rock tumbler. The ball mill consists of a cylindrical porcelain jar with a tight lid. The material we want to triturate is placed into the jar along with 99 times as much lactose and the extremely hard "balls" which will grind the material. (Actually we now use small cylinders rather than the balls used originally. Small cylinders grind better than balls.)
The closed jar is placed on two horizontal rollers. When the motor is turned on the rollers turn, forcing the cylindrical jar to rotate also. The carborundum "balls" roll over the material and lactose constantly for hours, reducing the material to a very fine powder. Ball mills are extensively used in science and industry to grind up materials wherever exceptionally fine powders are needed. The use of a ball mill for trituration is much better than hand grinding and is also much cleaner for the workplace, protects the purity of the medicine, and is safer for the person involved.
In trituration, what we are doing is preparing a dry dilution. We take 1 gram of material and 99 grams of lactose, and mix them together carefully before adding them to the ball mill. When the ball mill has run for at least several hours, the material is removed and is designated as the 1C level of potency. One gram of the 1C is mixed with 99 grams of lactose and put back into a clean ball mill.
After grinding the material for at least several hours, the material is carefully removed and is designated the 2C potency. In the same way, 1 gram of the 2C is mixed with 99 grams of lactose and ground in the ball mill and becomes the 3C potency. Homeopathic materials are therefore triturated for many hours to produce the final 3C triturate which is then used to prepare liquid potencies. One gram of the 3C is dissolved in a total of 100 milliliters of a water and alcohol solution. In this way even substances which are completely insoluble are turned into liquid preparations which may be treated just like liquid preparations of soluble materials.
For the preparation of liquid potencies from solutions of soluble substances, triturates, or plant mother tincture, there is a two-part process at each step. First, we prepare a one to one hundred dilution of the solution and then we succuss this new dilution vigorously at each step. (Succussion is the forceful pounding of the liquid dilution against a firm but resilient surface.) WE TAKE THIS PROCESS VERY SERIOUSLY. THIS IS THE CORE FUNCTION AT OUR LABORATORY. It is so important that these steps be done correctly that we do not allow one person to perform them acting alone.
We require that a trained person act as a witness to the entire procedure to guarantee you that each critical step was performed correctly. Here at Hahnemann Labs we always prepare the first fifteen potencies in separate vials, which is the Hahnemannian method. It is our experience that each and every potency should be vigorously succussed in order to fully develop its potential. We have designed a new semi-automatic potentizer which ensures that each of these succussions is performed with the same number of strokes and with the same force on each stroke to ensure that every medicine we make is of the highest quality.
After the first fifteen potencies we prepare the subsequent potencies on our famous Quinn Potentizers. These custom designed and built homeopathic medicine preparation systems have prepared all of our high potencies for the past twelve years. The design of the Quinn Potentizers was guided by a simple principle, that the machine actions should duplicate as closely as possible the actions of a vigorous person preparing a homeopathic medicine by hand.
To this end the engineers who built the equipment actually measured Michael Quinn's arm from elbow to closed hand in order to build a mechanical arm of the same length. They measured how far up and down he moved the vial while vigorously succussing the vial, and how fast he moved. This data was used to produce the drive system which pounds the mechanical arm against a firm rubber pad from a height of five inches twenty times in two seconds. The force of the succussion is equivalent to dropping, by gravity alone without any muscular action, your closed fist against a table from a height of fifteen inches. The blow is powerful enough that you would never put your finger between the vial and the rubber pad!
As we mentioned under the description of our facilities, each potentizer is in a separate room which is supplied by high purity HEPA filtered air which is then vented from the building to prevent cross-contamination. The blank pellets and vials of alcohol needed for the preparation of homeopathic medicines are packaged for use in a room which never has any homeopathic medicines in it, in order to prevent even microscopic cross-contamination. The blank pellets are medicated in a room dedicated for this purpose. We medicate the pellets by adding a solution of the homeopathic medicine in alcohol to the container of pellets and shaking the container to distribute the alcohol uniformly over the pellets. The medicating solution is allowed to penetrate the pellets for a minimum of five minutes.
This step is also observed by the witness to insure absolute accuracy. The pellets are dried by placing them on a clean white paper filter in a drying chamber. The drying chamber is also vented to the outside so that air is constantly flowing across the pellets and to the outside. This step is also observed by the witness to insure absolute accuracy. The dried pellets are packaged for sale in several vial sizes in our packaging room. Each medicine is packaged in an area free of any interference with any other medicine. Here again, the air flow is designed to pull clean air over the pellets and exhaust it, keeping each remedy handling area clean. Extensive double-checking is also employed in the packaging room to guarantee that our medicines are correctly packaged and labeled.
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