CBC’s Marketplace TV show analyzed some homeopathic products only to discover that the main ingredients are sucrose and lactose, in other words: sugar pills or placebos.
The homeopathic industry is particularly profitable and generates billions of dollars in Canada. The various companies that manufacture these products say the pills are composed of diluted minerals and plants, and offer powerful healing properties for humans.
Marketplace asked chemist Matthew Forbes to analyze two of the most popular over-the-counter homeopathic medicines, Belladonna and Ipeca, both at the common 30C dilution factor.
In each product, Forbes tested for any trace of the active ingredient. He found none. “It’s below a level we can accurately or precisely measure. It’s roughly equivalent to five billion times less than the amount of aspirin you’d take in a single pellet.”
According to Forbes, the medicines in CBC’s test were shown to be sugar pills. "We can say that they are primarily sucrose and lactose. Any active ingredient that is left is at such a small concentration compared to the sugar, it’s virtually mind-boggling.”
There are currently no official guidelines in the manufacture of homeopathic products, but within two years, Ontario will be the first province to regulate the industry.