Sal-Free^TM Centre

"Sal-Free^TM" means an ingredient or product does not contain any salicylates.  It is a reserved term.   * A trademark of Guai-Support.

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Determining the Sal-Status of Homeopathic Medications

The areas of concern for homeopathic medications are the sal-status of active ingredients (plant, mineral, animal or other extracts), the sal-status of inactive ingredients, and the strength designation (such as 1X, 2X etc.).   Minerals, animal extracts or other *sal-free ingredients such as dust are not a concern but any homeopathics made with plant extracts could be a problem depending on their strength designation.

Active Ingredients
The more dilute the homeopathic, the less likely it will block.  Homeopathic strengths are typically noted in X's or C's.  In the decimal scale, indicated as X, the dilution factor is 1:10. In the centimal scale, indicated as C, the substance is diluted 1:100.  Basically, the only strengths that we think may be a problem are 1X, 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, 6X, 1C and 2C. 

We can be certain that anything 24X or 12C and above will not block because at those strengths, no molecules of the active ingredient is left.  The laws of chemistry state that there is a limit to the dilution that can be made without losing the original substance altogether. This limit, which is related to Avogadro's number (6.023  X 10²³), corresponds to homeopathic potencies of 12C or 24X.

We believe that a strength of 7X or higher and 3C or higher would not block.   However, there is reason for concern with 1X, 2X, 3X, 4X and 1C because there is enough of the plant extract left in these strengths to block some individuals.  It is uncertain whether 5X, 6X or 2C would block because it would depend on the amount of the homeopathic medication that you are taking, your individual salicylate sensitivity and the salicylate concentration of the plant used to make the mother tincture.  If you are only taking a few drops then it may be OK but if you are taking many drops per day, you might want to consider doing a blocking test after you have been on the medication for a few weeks.

The various strengths of homeopathic medications (2X, 3X etc.) start from a mother tincture which is then diluted with a carrier substance such as water or alcohol. Plant mother tinctures are generally made so as to extract as much of the plant as possible. They are often referred to as herbal extracts.  They are very strong and would contain a high concentration of salicylates.  

We contacted numerous manufacturers and pharmacists to determine the strength designation of the mother tincture.  An overwhelming majority stated that their mother tincture (a very strong herbal extract) is noted as 1X with a 2X being 1 drop of mother tincture to 9 drops of water or alcohol and so on.  For further information please see:
Estimated Salicylates in Various Homeopathic Strengths  

No strength noted 
A homeopathic with no strength designation can mean a mother tincture or something else.  Contact the manufacturer for more information.

Tinctures
A homeopathic designated as a "tincture" can mean varying strengths depending on the manufacturer. Contact the manufacturer for more information.

HPUS (Class N)
This designates that the ingredient needs no disclosure on the labeling.  We strongly urge you to contact the manufacturer to determine the strength because most in this class are probably a mother tincture strength.

Inactive Ingredients 
In the U.S., homeopathic medications are considered a medicinal product and as such are not required to list additional ingredients.  You will need to call the manufacturer and get them. We apologize for not being able to supply information for each country.  If you don't know about the regulations in your own country, please contact the manufacturer to ensure that the product is *sal-free.  When talking with Hylands Standard Homeopathics about their homeopathic cell salts, they mentioned that they use lactose and acacia gum to hold the active ingredient together.  Neither of those ingredients were listed on the bottle. In this case, they would not be blockers, but it is possible that there could be *sal-full ingredients that aren't listed.

Inactive ingredients or additional ingredients in homeopathic creams can be a problem as noted below under "Creams".  To be safe, you will need to contact the manufacturer for a full list of ingredients on any creams that you use.

Comparison of creams, liquids and pellets for salicylate content
Any active ingredient strength is the same strength in a cream as it is in a liquid or pellet, however there can be a difference in the quantity of added ingredients such as water, alcohol etc.

Creams
If no strength is designated, it often means that the active ingredient is mother tincture strength but you would need to contact the manufacturer and ask, especially if the ingredient is followed by "HPUS (Class N)".  HPUS (Class N) signifies that no disclosure of the ingredient is necessary on the labeling.

Creams will often state the strength of the active ingredient and a percentage or sometimes only a percentage.  The percentage is the volume percentage of the active ingredient. For example, '1X 10%' means a mother tincture as 10% of the product volume. 

To further explain what this might mean in terms of salicylates, one could look at this whole product strength as being a 2X because we are diluting the mother tincture by 1 part mother tincture to 9 parts other ingredients.  As noted above, a 2X will likely be too strong to be safe for our purposes.

Additional ingredients in creams can often be a problem so be sure to contact the manufacturer and ask for any additional ingredients.  We have been told by some companies that they do not list all of their ingredients. 

According to Boericke & Tafel, most of their creams include witch hazel as an additional ingredient.  Witch hazel is sal-full^tm and not appropriate for those needing to avoid salicylates.  They also state that they may not be willing to divulge the additional ingredients for some of their creams but would be willing to tell you if a specific ingredient is in the product.  This is not helpful for our purposes because there are far to many salicylates that we would need to ask about in order to ensure that the product is safe for our use. 

Washington Homeopathic Products will compound creams in a strength of your designation for an additional $15 per product.  They ship internationally.
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Liquids
In our contact with numerous manufacturers we were told that the volume of alcohol and water that are added to liquid homeopathic medications can equal anywhere from 70% to 95%. To put this into perspective, if you have a 6X strength ingredient and you add enough water or alcohol to equal 90% of the volume, you would still not have enough dilution to go from a 6X to a 7X.  For our purposes, the added alcohol and water will not make much difference in determining the amount of salicylates in a product so we can use the strength designation of the active ingredient to determine if the amount of salicylates in the active ingredient is safe for our use.
 
Pellets
The pellets are impregnated directly with the homeopathic at whatever strength is listed on the label.  For the purposes of determining the quantity of salicylate we can go by the strength designation of the active ingredients.


For those who are interested in further information about homeopathic medications:

Boiron explains the preparation of homeopathics
Bioforce describes the production of mother tinctures
HomeopathyNewYork.com explains homeopathic strengths
An introduction to homeopathy in general

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