There is a misconception in some part of media and public in general about homeopaths using steroids. Unfortunately this is a false allegation. Steroids have been used by conventional medicine doctors for certain diseases, whenever they need help to give relief to the patient. Steroid is the easiest recourse and sometimes the primary or ultimate choice.
The response to administration of steroids in a lot of diseases is unbelievably amazing and fast.This lead to a mind-set of any problem which responds quickly or positively to a prescription should be because of a steroid. If a given case under homeopathic prescription does unbelievably well and responds in time less than anticipated, it is often blamed on steroid, or a steroid like effect.There are several Laboratory tests available to estimate the presence of steroids in a given compound. Some are old yet popular test, i.e. colorimetric tests and some are confirmatory tests like Thin layer chromatography method and UV absorption method.Homeopathic medicines when tested with colorimetric method may give false positive reaction for steroids because of the presence of LACTOSE POWDER or SUGAR PILLS, which is often used as a vehicle for dispensing of Homeopathic medicines. In this method when a steroid or any reducing sugar is present in the material to be tested, a brilliant blue co loured compound called ‘farmazan’ is produced as a result of the reaction between the tetrazolium blue salts used in the test & the sample. Most Homeopaths worldwide use saccharum lactose powder [ sugar of milk ] or pills that are made of cane sugar or sucrose(reducing sugar) as carrier of medicines and aldehydes as a preserving agent. Unfortunately if drug contains both will show a positive colour change and that will give false impression of presence of steroids.Please note that ,this is a nonspecific test , the report generally mentions “traces found” and is unable to give the amount of steroid as.
If we really want to find out whether the content has steroid, then, we have to go for other methods used to test steroids like Liberman Buchard test, Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC or HPTLC) methods (Specific Tests for identification of steroids mentioned in Indian Pharmacopoeia 1996; Appendix 3.6 (identification of steroids) and Appendix 3.7 (identification of related foreign steroids)) and UV absorption method. When applied to homoeopathic medicines, all this tests gives negative results for steroids.Homeopathic remedies are tested for steroids using the UV absorption method, none of the samples show up as a maximum between 235nm and 240 nm (i.e. the rate of UV absorption of steroids in dehydrated alcohol or methanol in a clear solution) Absence of such a band means absence of steroid.In fact it is to be admitted that steroids don’t cure all ailments but Homeopathic Medicines have succeeded to harmlessly abolish various diseases without any side effects that steroids cause. Please see the experience of Delhi-based homeopath Dr Arvind Kishore (from the article of Times of India),Kishore got the shock of his life when a patient came to him last July saying the drugs he had prescribed had tested positive for steroids. The lady had tested them in a local lab in Delhi. Such labs aren’t authorised to carry out tests on homeopathic medicines. In Delhi, only a government body, Sriram Institute of Industrial Research, is authorised to test homeopathic medicines for steroids. They gave Kishore a clean slate. ”I spent over a lakh getting all my medicines tested from here just to prove I was clean. Such fly-by night operators are doing great disservice to the homeopathic industry. I have written to the Central Council of Homeopathy and the Drug Controller of India, but so far, no action has been taken against this operator.” But while Kishore was given a clean chit, there are many quacks who simply read books and practise. Says a senior government official in the health ministry, ”There is almost negligible use of steroids in homeopathic medicines. But in the small towns, self-professed doctors often give gullible people wrong medicines, touting them as miracle cures. Hopefully, with increasing awareness, this practice will soon change.” Regards,Dr Ruksana Shamnaz Clinic for Advanced Homeopathy, Kochi
