Physicochemical standardisation of the Homoeopathic drug, Apis mellifica: A preliminary attempt

Abstract

Background: Unlike the mainstream biomedical system, honeybees’ therapeutic use has long been well documented in the homoeopathic system. The medicine prepared from the whole honeybee, Apis mellifica, is on the Essential Drug List. Objective: An in-depth physicochemical standardisation of this homoeopathic drug is attempted. Material and Methods: In this study, first the raw drug was authenticated, and then its pharmacopoeial parameters were measured, e.g. moisture content, foreign matter, different ash values, alcohol and water-soluble extractive values. Further, the mother tincture of Apis mellifica was prepared from the authentic raw drug. The pharmacopeial parameters of in-house mother tincture and a commercial mother tincture, e.g. organoleptic parameters, sediment detection, specific gravity measurement, pH measurement, total solids measurement, qualitative ultraviolet-visible spectra determination and high-performance thin layer chromatography were carried out for in-depth standardisation. Results: This study provides the standards for the aforementioned pharmacopeial parameters of Apis mellifica using pharmacopeial procedures. For the first time, the quantitative data obtained here quantifies those pharmacopeial parameters. The comparative study of the parameters of the in-house mother tincture and commercial sample shows the significance of the reported work for maintaining the high quality of the drugs. Conclusion: The data presented here could be used for updating the pharmacopeial standards and limits for the homoeopathic drug Apis mellifica in the future.