Although mother tinctures aren`t actual homeopathic remedies because they aren`t potentized, they are sometimes prescribed by homeopaths for people and animals. They are prescibed either palliatively or curatively for several disorders. So if you see the indication MT or Q (or the Theta symbol) on a bottle of tincture it means that it is a mother tincture and not a homeopathic remedy which has indications such as 1x, 2x, 3x etc. or 1c, 3c, 6c etc. Sometimes a liquid remedy in 1x potency is also called a mother tincture.

A remedy can be called homeopathic as soon as it has been prepared with potentization which is a process peculiar to homeopathy and this process is a mathematico-mechanical process, which reduces, according to a certain scale, the drug substances to a state of physical solubility, physiological assimilability and therapeutic activity. There`s a quantitive reduction in the drug substance but a qualitative increase in its medicinal or therapeutic properties. This potentization is carried out in 2 ways. In the case of dry and insoluble substances by the process known as trituration, and in the case of liquids and soluble substances by the process known as succussion.

to be continued

Wim

__________________
Homeopath for people and animals.
(Sorry, Wim no longer works here.)

Continuation :

Mother tincture (denoted by MT or Q) is the original tincture, which is directly prepared from the corresponding source of the raw material. It is prepared from drug substances (plants or animals, but mainly from plants) with the help of alcohol. The juices contain all the medicinal properties and alcohol is added in order to preserve them.

Four classes of preparations of mother tinctures are in vogue since the time of Dr. Hahnemann. This is because of the fact that the juice contained in different plants varies in accordance with the nature, growth and development of the plant and the soil. These 4 classifications of plant materials by Dr. Hahanemann are : most juicy, moderate juicy, less juicy and dry samples.

Before the mother tincture is prepared it is obligatory on the part of the pharmacist to test the source material for its purity and authenticity.

The animal remedies are produced from wild or domesticated animals. Wild animals are to be hunted.

Where the drug consists of insects they are either collected from wild insects or are obtained by providing food, shelter and optimum conditions for their propagation.

to be continued

Wim

__________________
Homeopath for people and animals.
(Sorry, Wim no longer works here.)

Continuation :

Where the remedies are prepared from reptiles and their venoms, they are either collected wild or cultivated in snake farms. Experts in this field rear them and the venoms are collected in glass flasks.

Materials such as lard and lanoline are used in external applications as vehicles. Milk products such as Lac caninum and Lac defloratum may be collected from wild or domesticated animals.

The endocrine products and certain enzymes are collected from sheep or cattle from the slaughter houses.

Dr. Hahnemann in his Organon of Medicine, 6th edition (aph. 266-268) describes the method that he employed in the preparation of the mother tinctures from fresh plants and animal specimens (e.g. Pyrogenium obtained from putrifying beef). He was in favour of using only the fresh specimens, because there`s less chance of evaporation and decomposition of certain chemical constituents. It is equally true that commercially the preparation of mother tinctures from fresh samples is difficult due to distances involved and the time taken in transit. That`s why the air dried samples are mostly used in the preparation of mother tinctures today.

Please also see (for the difference between a mother tincture and a homeopathic remedy) :

http://www.headshaking.com/homeopathy.htm

Wim

__________________
Homeopath for people and animals.
(Sorry, Wim no longer works here.)

Bumped up for Tracy

W.

__________________
Homeopath for people and animals.
(Sorry, Wim no longer works here.)

Thanks, Wim!

Tracy