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The Homœopathic Pharmacopœia of the United States (HPUS) has been in continuous publication since 1897, when it was first published by the Committee on Pharmacy of the American Institute of Homeopathy. Prior to that, pharmacopœias had been published by Boericke and Tafel (1882) and Jahr (1841). In recent years, homeopathy has seen a great resurgence in the United States, increasing the need for an updated edition of the HPUS since its last publication in 1982.
In reality, the HPUS has consisted of several different books: the HPUS Eighth Edition, Volume I (1979); the Compendium of Homeotherapeutics (1974); and Supplement "A" of the HPUS Eighth Edition (1982). This system of three texts caused information to be difficult to access.
To eliminate the difficulties presented by this system, the Homœopathic Pharmacopœia Convention of the United States (HPCUS) decided to republish these texts into one compilation to be known as the Homœopathic Pharmacopœia of the United States Revision Service.
A medicinal preparation of biological (animal or botanical), mineral, or synthetic origin which meets the "Criteria for Eligibility of Drugs for Inclusion in the Homœopathic Pharmacopœia of the United States," is designated an "Official Homeopathic Drug" after inclusion in the Homœopathic Pharmacopœia.
The HPUS is a cookbook. It tells the pharmacies how to make stuff. If they can’t figure out how to make it, then it's not a part of the HPUS. That does not mean that you can’t get it (if a pharmacy has it in stock) it just means that it is not an official product. The magnets were dropped simply because the instructions were not clear: “Take an amount of milk sugar (how much?) and expose it to a strong magnet (what gauss?) for a period of time (how long?).”
If someone wants to do it the right way by measuring it all, make a new preparation of Magnet, and then do a do a proving, we could get it back in the HPUS. Since Fincke kept careful notes, we still have X-Ray in the book
There is no similar legislation for herbal preparations. The passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in 1994 placed the burden of proving that an herb is unsafe on the FDA, rather than on the herbal products industry, and prohibited the FDA from treating herbs as food additives. Scientific information can be used in connection with herbal products, which are now labeled as "dietary supplements."
