The high potential variability of chemical composition of the plant material involved in the manufacture of
homoeopathic mother tinctures (a common source of homoeopathic medicines), renders both their quality control and
assurance a significant challenge (Pande and Pathak, 2006). The absence of significant regulations regarding the quality of
Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) in South Africa contributes to this challenge (Gqaleni et al, 2007). In
order to assess any quality differences between local and international manufacturers, the following homoeopathic mother
tinctures,
Artemisia absinthium
,
Rosmarinus officinalis
e foliis recentibus,
Salvia officinalis
and
Sambucus nigra
, were
chosen on the basis that they can be grown both locally in South Africa and internationally and are prepared according to the
German Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia (GHP), method 3a. Colour analysis was followed by thin layer chromatographic
(TLC) analysis on each selected sample and relevant reference sample using both aluminum-backed TLC plates and glassbacked
HPTLC plates. Photographs were taken of the resultant chromatograms, active components were identified,
comparisons to the reference chromatograms were made and the overall quality of each homoeopathic mother tincture
deduced. The quality of all nine of the selected samples manufactured internationally complied with the minimum quality
standards set by the GHP. Five out of the six local samples complied with the minimum standards of the
GHP._Notwithstanding the minimum GHP standards, the superior number of high quality international samples implies that
their quality exceeded that of the locally manufactured tinctures. Greater regulation regarding the quality of these types of
products has therefore been identified.
