Ultra-high diluted medicines and their probable role in homoeopathic drug standardization

Abstract

Background: Pharmaceutical homeopathic industries are the mainstream manufacturers for high dilution potencies. In coming years, the CAGR for the homeopathic medicines will be high around 12.5% compared to all other alternative present in the global market. Therefore, a need is felt in upgrading the homoeopathic drug standardization as the presence of nanoparticle in high dilutions can prove to be the new defining parameter for their quantitative analysis. Methods: An online database search was made and the studies on nanoparticles with ultra-high dilutions (UHDs) chosen based on pre-defined keywords were used. Databases searched were from Google scholar, Pub-med, Web of science, Science direct, SCOPUS, CINAHL, EMBASE, Psych-info, WILEY. Articles published from 2000 to 2018 were included. Results: There were 09 research manuscript identified showing the results of ultrahigh dilution medicines testing on presences of nanoparticles. Most researched homeopathic medicine groups were from mineral and plant derived medicines. Techniques like HRTEM, FESEM, EDS, SAED, ICP-AES, DLS, and PDI etc. were used in identifying nanoparticles in ultrahigh diluted attenuations. Conclusion: The data of average size of nanoparticles could be tabulated into a reference range for the development of a standardized range of nanoparticle for any particular remedy and concerned potency hence need to define new parameter in differentiating of each potency in quantitative method and upgrading the pharmacopeia on quality testing parameters of these ultrahigh diluted medicines.