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TRITURATIONS
(Introduction)
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Trituration is another method discovered by Hahnemann.
By this method, it becomes possible.—
1. to increase the healing power of a drug;
2. to awaken the healing power of substances which were supposed to be neutral and inactive or inert;
3. to make insoluble substances soluble in vehicales like alcohol and water.
Here the substance is rubbed for a long time systematically with a
non-medicinal material like pure suger of milk, that its inner
concealed, and in the crude state, latent and, so to speak,
slumbering dynamical medicinal power can be awakened and brought into
life. Usually dry medicinal substances which are not soluble in
alcohol are selected from trituration. But some times liquid
substances, like Agaricas, Anthracinum etc., are also triturated.
The process should be carried on in warm and dry atmospheres
and the apparatus to be used should be perfectly clean. The pestle
and mortar should be washed nicely with water, wiped dry and little alcohol should be burnt inside to dry up.
Porcelain pestles and mortars are the best variety for triturations, secondly the agate or glass mortars. If different mortars are used for different potencies, the size of the mortars and pestles should be same in every case. The spatula should also be of porcelain variety (if not ivory or horn), and these should be perfectly cleaned after every process of trituration.
Hahnemann preffered many of the antipsoric substances to be triturated, particularly referring to “Silica, Carbonate of Baryta, Carbonate of Lime, etc”. He also expressed, “The lumps of the metales which have not yet been beaten out into foil, are rubbed off on a fine, hard whetstone under water, some of them, as Iron Under Alcohol ; of Mercury in the liquid form one grain is taken, of petroleum one drop instead of a grain etc.” (Chronic Diseases)
Hard substances are. As a general rule, triturated more easily than soft substances ; Zincum and Iridium, very hard substances, show finer molecules than Graphites, Mercury and Plumbum. In triturating Plumbum the pestle should be used very softly, and in making the first trituration of Mercury, Graphites, and Plumbum double time than normal should be taken. In triturating Ferrum Metallicum the moisture should be driven out often, by keeping the mortar warm every now and then.
Accessories and Processes of Manufacture
Utensils:. Pestle, Mortar and spatula. These untensils should be of porcelain variety and of unglazed grinding surface. The bottom glazed porcelain mortar may be made rough by rubbing it with moist fine sand for some time.
Drugs:. Hard and lumpy drug substances should be first powdered and passed through sieve No. 6, whose width between meshes is O. 15 m.m. Powdering should be done wih pestle and mortar as described above.
Ratio of drugs and Vehicles:. Milk suger, the common vehicle, should be of the purest quality, purified specially for homoeopathic usage. The quantity taken should be nine parts to that of the drug substance in the decimal scale and ninety-nine parts in the centesimal scale.
Procedure of trituration:. One third (3 or 33 Parts) of the required amount
of milk sugar is taken in the mortar and rubbed with pestle a while, so that the pores are
closed. Now the medicine is put in a and mixed thoroughly with the spatula ; the time taken
for this procedure should be one minute.
The mixture is triturated with sufficient force for six minutes. The force exerted should be such that the sugar-of-milk is not pressed hard to the mortar but may be scraped up within three or four minutes. The rotation of pestle should be done only in one direction. Anticlock-wise may be the convenient direction. Circular movement of the mortar shohld be steady, forceful and grinding in nature.
The triturated substance is then scraped from the mortar and pestle with the spatula for 3 minutes and mixed thoroughly for one minute. The powder is again triturated for 6 minutes as before, scraped for 3 minutes and mixed for one minute. Now the first part of the trituration is completed thus in 20 minutes.
The second one-third of the sugar of milk is then added to the already triturated mass and the trituration is repeated exactly as before, two times: 6 minutes trituration, 3 minutes scraping and one minute mixing. The total time taken for the process, done twice, being 20 minutes.
Lastly the remaining one-third of milk sugar is added and the whole process is repeated within the next 20 minutes. Thus within a total period of one hour the first trituration is ready. The medicine is now kept in suitable bottles, with tightly fitting corks and the name, number and scale of potency marked clearly on the bottle.
To prepare the next trituration, any suitable quantity of previous trituration is taken in a new mortar (or in the same mortar after cleaning it thoroughly as already directed) and 9 times or 99 times of sugar of milk added according to either of the two scales and trituration carried out exactly as before, for one hour complete.
Tincture Trirurations
Tincture-trirurations are prepared directly from strong tinctures, which contain the soluble constituents of the drug only. So they are distinguished from the triturations made with the entire drug substance by adding a minus sign above the figure, denoting the strength, e.g., 1x showing that the preparation contains less of the drug substance.
Preparation:. Ten cc. of the mother tincture is added to 10 grams of sugar of milk mixing carefully in a mortar with pestle and spatula and covering them with a clean, pure white paper until moistened powder is nearly dry. Then triturated gently until quite dry and preserved in glass or porcelain jars in a cool dry place.
If the tincture used should represent a drug-strenght of 1/10, the resulting tincture-trituration should be marked 1x if however the tincture represents 1/100, it should be marked 2x.
Succeeding triturations may be made by adding to one part of this tincture-trituration, 9 parts of sugar of milk thoroughly mixed and triturated, according to the ordinary method of trituration ; the roduct being marked 2x, 3x, etc., according to the amount of drug substance it may represent.
Converting triturations into liquid potencies
The trituration is to be carried out up to the 6th potency in the decimal scale and upto the 3rd potency in the centesimal scale.
One grain of the triturated medicinal powder is taken in a clean bottle of neutral glass and 30 drops of distilled water are added. The powder is dissolved by turning the bottle a few times round on its axis or more rapidly by simple agitation. Now 50 drops of strong alcohol is added to solution and shaken ten times, according to the shakes given in the usual potentisation. The resulting liquid will be the 8x or 4x potency in accordance with the trituration taken of the decimal or centesimal scale.
Instead of one grain, any required quantity of trituration can be taken, provided the distilled water and alcohol added are 50 times in quantity to that of the powder. After filling the bottle with liquid, 1/3 of the vial should remain empty to allow succussion and dispersion.
The distilled water is added first, because sugar of milk is not soluble in alcohol. As sugar of milk is even not highly soluble in water, 50 times of water is added to ensure a complete solution. It will also avoid precipitation when alcohol is added. So 7x dilution cannot be prepared from the trituration. In 5 parts of water one part of sugar of milk is not completely soluble and more over when alcohol is added sugar of milk will get precipitated. Solubility of sugar of milk is one part in 6 parts of water at 20*C.
The succeeding dilutions are made in the usual method by taking one part of the 8x or 4th potency and the required amount of alcohol in a separate bottle and shaking the same 10 times.
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