Sugar Of Milk: Applications and Significance In Homoeopathy From

Its Inception To The Present Time

Prof. (Dr.) Kaushik Deb Das1, Dr. Ritika Bose2, Dr. Sumanta Kamila3

1. Professor , Dept of Homoeopathic Pharmacy, The Calcutta Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital (Govt. of
WB)
2. PGT, Dept of Medicine, The Calcutta Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital (Govt. of WB)

3. MD (HOM), The Calcutta Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital (Govt. of WB)

 Abstract: Lactose is a disaccharide sugar composed of galactose and glucose, naturally occurring in
milk. While homeopathy has historically utilized placebos in practice, incorporating them as
dispensing, therapeutic, and potentizing agents, many physicians remain unaware and are sometimes
skeptical of placebo effects. Dr. Stuart Close noted that, 'The traditional bread pill of our medical
ancestors has given way in the march of scientific progress to the more elegant powder of virginal
white, pure sugar of milk.' Master Kent aptly remarked on its use as a placebo, stating, 'In ordinary
cases, confusion arises immediately if a physician administers another medicine instead of a placebo.'
This article will delve into the significance and applications of saccharum lactis, alongside pertinent
research studies in related fields.
 Keywords: Lactose, Homoeopathy, Saccharum lactis, Trituration

 Introduction: The Latin terms "saccharum," which means sugar, and "lactis," meaning milk, are the
source of the term saccharum lactis.[1] Goat milk being used in its preparation is mentioned in
Homoeopathic literature as it was done so earlier. But the practice has been discarded now for
practical reasons. However at the present time it's being prepared using Cow milk & Buffalo milk. It
is a crystalline powder that is milky white in colour, tastes faintly sweet, and has no smell. It's almost
[2]
insoluble in chloroform, but freely soluble in water and very slightly soluble in alcohol. Its
chemical formula is C12H22O11, H2O and has molecular weight of 360.3, making it a disaccharide.
Common impurities include alum, chloride with the adulterants being Starch & Cane sugar.
 On Sugar of Milk preparation
 It can be extracted from either sweet or sour whey. It ranges from 2 to 8% of milk (by weight),
though the exact percentage varies between species and people. Low-lactose milk is also available.
The Latin word for milk, lac or lactis, plus the suffix "ose," which is used to name sugars, are the
sources of the name.
 Uses of Sugar of Milk:

● Largely used in biochemic preparations as Tablet Trituration

● For preparations of mother powders in both Old & New Method of Drug preparation specific to

Homoeopathy

● For preparations of potentised medicines in decimal potency.

For preparation of triturations from mother drugs, which are insoluble in liquid vehicles. Few
important new homoeopathic remedies which are produced by trituration with Sugar of Milk are
Human papilloma virus type 6, plasmodium falciparum nosode , cancer nosode, etc.
[3]
● Used as a ‘Placebo’ (Dr. Kent holds that in our materia medica, a placebo is the 2nd best

medicine).

● Dispensing medicines: Milk sugar or lactose is the most prominent substance currently used as

homeopathic drug dispensing vehicles. It is used in the form of powders or tablets of different sizes,
which are medicated by adding potentized homeopathic drugs. [4]

● Use of Sac Lac as placebo in comparative study of controlled trials: Most of the research works

conducted in Homoeopathy needs authentication and unbiased outcomes, so randomised controlled

trials are considered as the gold standard for evidence of medical intervention efficacy. In one group,
the patient receives placebo and in other group, patient receives the medicine. Both the medicine and
placebo look alike in order to remove any biasness.

● It's interesting to note that lactose has been selected as the coating material for drug nanoparticles

intended for oral administration. A portion of the theory regarding nanoparticles appears to align with
the homeopathic theory. [5]

● It may act as homoeopathic similimum due to it’s therapeutic action.

● To differentiate between the artificial chronic disease and true chronic disease
● To identify the hypochondriacs and feigners.

● Has industrial uses in silvering mirrors.

● As a food [1]

 On Placebo and Sac. Lac.

[6]
● According to Dr. Stuart Close , a good homoeopath could no longer practice medicine without the

use of placebo, which is the second-best remedy in the Materia Medica.

● In situations where the doctor dislikes giving his patients homoeopathic medicine, or when there is

no reason to give them any medication, he will still give them some unmedicated substance (such as
milk powder, sugar, globules, tablets, purified water, etc.) to satisfy them. We refer to these over-the-
counter drugs as placebos. Methodologically, Hahnemann’s guidelines is even found to be closest to
modern trials to determine optimal therapy in single patients, although homeopaths gave placebos
single-blind, and without randomization of treatment periods.[7]

 Significance of Sac lac as a placebo: [8]

Mind can be a powerful healing tool when given the chance. Recent studies in modern science[8] has
found that under the right circumstances, a placebo can be just as effective as traditional
treatments.

"The placebo effect is more than positive thinking — believing a treatment or procedure will work.
It's about creating a stronger connection between the brain and body and how they work together,"
says Professor[8] Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, whose
research focuses on the placebo effect.

At present time this sugar of milk is also being used in various randomised controlled trials , and a
study published online by PLOS Biology emphasizes on what goes on in the brain during a placebo
effect. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of people with
chronic pain from knee osteoarthritis. The researchers noticed that those who felt relief of pain had
demonstrated greater activity in the middle frontal gyrus brain region, which makes up about one-
third of the frontal lobe. [8]
 Some Excerpts From Organon Of Medicine[9] On Using sugar of milk as Placebo:

1. Sec. 91 (5th edition of Organon)

"When the disease is of chronic character and the patient has been taking medicine up to the time he
is seen, the physician may with advantage leave him some days quite without medicine, or in the
meantime administer something of an unmedicinal nature."

2. Sec. 96 (5th edition of Organon)

"A pure fabrication of symptoms and sufferings will never be met with in hypochondriacs, even in
the most impatient of them; a comparison of the sufferings they complain of at various times when
the physician gives them nothing at all, or something quite unmedicinal."

3. Sec. 281 (6th edition of Organon)

In order to differentiate between the artificial medicinal and true chronic disease the patient is left
without any medicine for eight to fifteen days, meanwhile giving him only some powders of sugar of
milk."

The use of placebo in prescription has been an indispensable part in clinical practice for almost every
physician. It has been advised by Dr Hahnemann and advocated by other stalwarts too under special
circumstances since the inception of homoeopathy. A close look at Hahnemann’s case journals
reveals that the percentage for placebo prescriptions is very high. A close look to his case journal no.
22 from starting 1821 reveals of 85% of the medications being a placebo. [10]

 Saccharum lactis as a Remedy

● It was Dr. Swan, who had introduced Saccharum lactis as a remedy many years back. It was his

"fatigue powders." Saccharomyces cerevisiae, taken at a high potency, could quickly and
permanently remove fatigue when a man, woman, or child had been completely exhausted from
muscular work of any kind of had been too tired to eat or sleep. The patient will felt rested after
intake, as per observation.

[11]
● Dr. Clark provides a thorough summary of a case in his Dictionary: Sight deteriorates; eyes

fatigue quickly. Its characteristic is cold pains. Swan views cold pains as a pivotal point. Neuralgic
pain, cold, in the lobes or cartilages of both ears, as well as in other areas. These aches felt like
needles, only much colder. symptoms worse in a damp room or basement, or before a storm. Better
 with a fire's warmth. gets lost on a well-travelled street. believes her mother wants to kill her, that
there is a big hole in her back just above her sacrum, and that there is someone hiding behind her.

Following are some the indicators for the use Saclac in potency as a remedy as available in
authentic Homoeopathic literature:

 Mind
 The patient who needs Sac lac is anxious in her mind and will often jump out of her chair at the
slightest sound. The patient presents with extreme fear of dying when experiencing heart attacks.
 body odour from the faeces, or just from the hands, before the stools disappear.
 Rectal symptoms: Extreme pain in the anus, extending three inches up the rectum. Along with urine, it
has several other significant rectal symptoms.
[12]
 Heart : Hearrt symptoms are noticeable and unusual. sensitive throughout the entire body.

 The reason for use of Sugar of milk instead of other solid vehicles in trituration process
 Sugar of milk is preferred to other solid vehicles for trituration as it is crystalline & harder as per
“moh” scale than most of the insoluble drug substance being used for drug preparation in
Homoeopathy. Hence it is capable of grinding the drug substance into finer sub divisions during the
process of Trituration. In addition to that it is odourless, slightly sweet to taste and gritty to touch.
 Hahnemann chose globules of Saccharum lactis (milk sugar) as the chief vehicle of his remedies
because he considered it the most inert substance he could find. But his method of attenuating
remedies had shown that no substance is inert in potency’s and experience shows that no substance is
absolutely inert in any form. [13]

 Some facts from Allied fields on trituration with Sachharum Lactis:

 As per a recent study conducted by Surana et al, The effect of trituration on thermal degradation of
lactose (sugar of milk) was studied using a thermogravimetric analyser. According to this study a
correlation between the rate of degradation with increased potency observed up to 600~ suggests
that the vehicle plays an important role in the bioavailability of the drug. Comparison was also
made between machine and hand triturated lactose. For lower potencies (up to the 2x) machine
triturated lactose was found to degrade faster than hand triturated lactose, whereas at higher potencies
hand triturated lactose showed faster degradation as compared to machine triturated lactose. [14]
 A research was conducted to study the impact of trituration with a-lactose monohydrate. Six
starting homeopathic materials were investigated in this research. To our surprise the study concludes
that “The experimental findings grain size in micro or nanoscale -justified the grinding process,
trituration, as the tool of turning the insoluble materials in soluble ones and so the preparation
of homeopathic solutions is feasible” supporting the conventional trituration process advocated by
Master Hahnemann. Appropriate measurements demonstrated that the constituents of the samples
were in the nanoscale (0.177um-0.563 um) except Iron (1.271um ) and Arnica Montana (1.216um).
Thus, in mother tinctures of homeopathic remedies following the trituration of insoluble RSMs
the micro- nano particles are present and probably responsible for the physicochemical and
medicinal properties of the remedy.[15]

 Conclusion:
 Hahnemann states that our mission is to cure the patient & not to hurt them. It is very much better to
give placebo than prescribing unwanted or wrong medicines. Sac lac is the best way to prescribe
placebo in certain disease conditions like Artificial Chronic Disease, Pseudo- Chronic Disease, Mental
diseases of emotional origin, Indisposition & Hypochondriac patients. Even it is one of the best medium
to dispense medicine. The need and benefits of Sac lac in homoeopathy is inexplicable. Even research
studies have proven its therapeutic values. So it’s a need of time to consider Sac Lac as a powerful tool
in homoeopathic pharmacy and more studies and proving is required to value it's richness towards
therapeutic effects.

References:

1. Banerjee DD. Augmented textbook of homoeopathic pharmacy: 2Nd edition. 2nd ed. New Delhi,
India: B Jain; 2022.
2. India. Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia Committee. Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of India (H.
P. I.). New Delhi :Controller of Publications, 1971.
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New Delhi, India: B Jain; 2023.
4. Chandran NKC. Is milk sugar or lactose an ideal dispensing vehicle for homeopathy drugs? A
re-thinking is needed! [Internet]. REDEFINING HOMEOPATHY. 2018 [cited 2024 May 11].
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%20globules%20of%20Saccharum,absolutely%20inert%20in%20any%20form
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effect
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perspective/
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12. Yingling W. Saccharum lactis [Internet]. HomeopathyBooks.in. Hpathy Medical Publishers; 2018
[cited 2024 May 11]. Available from: https://homeopathybooks.in/the-homoeopathic-recorder-1931-
aug-vol-xlvi-no-8/saccharum-lactis-2/
13. Nissen M. Milk Sugar is Used for Homeopathic Remedies [Internet]. Myra Nissen, Certified
Homeopath. Myra Nissen - Certified Homeopath; 2014 [cited 2024 May 11]. Available from:
https://myranissen.com/blog/milk-sugar-homeopathic-remedies/
14. Surana V, Shukla R, Jain GL, Gupta VK. Effect of trituration on thermal degradation of lactose using
thermogravimetric analysis. British Homeopathic Journal. 1995 Apr;84(02):75-9.
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of solid materials are strongly affected by trituration in lactose, before turning them into homeopathic
solutions. Materials Science and Engineering: C. 2018 Dec 1;93:305-18.