Differences Between Homeopathy and Herbal Medicine
Alternative medicine includes many different practices that can often be confused with each other. Despite their scant scientific support, these methods have continued their popularity in recent years. Recently, we have seen how homeopathy and herbal medicine have been increasingly accepted by patients. That’s why today we’d like to take the opportunity to clear up any questions you may have about the topic, as we tell you the differences between homeopathy and herbal medicine.
Although it’s true that these methods share several characteristics in common, in reality, the way they operate is completely different. Some sources treat them as the same thing, which doesn’t help to solve the problem at all. If you’re not very familiar with the characteristics of each one, we’ll explain five points that you need to take into account.
5 differences between homeopathy and herbal medicine
The fields in which many of the methods of alternative medicine operate can be confusing. There isn’t only confusion around homeopathy and herbal medicine, but also with regards to variants such as trophotherapy, naturopathy, aromatherapy, and herbalism.
This occurs because these distinct practices are all lumped together under the banner of alternative medicine or natural medicine. However, researchers have gone to great pains to distinguish them very clearly. Stay with us as we bring you five criteria to help you understand the differences between homeopathy and herbal medicine.
1. The origin of the products
One of the most important differences between homeopathy and herbal medicine is found in the origin of the products. Phytotherapy exclusively uses plants to prepare its treatment. They can be taken from leaves, flowers, stems, roots, or extracts in the form of oil.
Homeopathy also uses plants, but makes use of other types of ingredients as well, such as minerals (such as phosphorus or white arsenic), animal products (such as snake or bee venom), and sometimes synthetic products. In this way, they explore other alternatives besides plants.
2. The elaboration of the products
Another difference between homeopathy and herbal medicine lies in the way the product is made. As you probably already know, each type of homeopathic medicine has gone through different processes in which the ingredients are diluted in alcohol or distilled water. These processes are known as empowerment or dynamization.
The number of times the ingredients are diluted is at the discretion of the homeopath. It can be just one time (very rare) or up to 400 times. During preparation, some, but not all, homeopaths include steps to maximize the effectiveness of the compound. For example, by exposing it to sunlight or X-rays.
This doesn’t happen with herbal medicine. In general, these plant-based products are taken through tea infusions. For this reason, there’s no prior elaboration of the remedies. It’s also possible to find them in the form of capsules and tinctures. The latter case is the closest thing to homeopathy: the herb is macerated for several days in water and then strained to obtain its active principle (undiluted).
3. Active compounds
This brings us to another of the differences between homeopathy and herbal medicine. As you have seen, practically all the active compound is lost during the homeopathic dilution process. So much so that studies and research show that in high dilutions there are practically no molecules of the original active compound.
In this way, the patient ends up drinking or ingesting a product with little or no concentration of the active compound. The opposite happens in herbal medicine. Regardless of the distribution that the patient chooses (infusions, tinctures, or capsules), they always end up consuming an infusion of one or more active ingredients. However, in some cases, the doses can be higher than what experts recommend.
4. Side effects
As the evidence indicates, and also taking into account that it doesn’t have active principles (or, at most, insignificant amounts of them), homeopathy doesn’t produce side effects. If the dilution is very low, some are likely to be present; but they’re usually unnoticeable. The sequelae can also appear due to the placebo or nocebo effect.
High concentrations of active compounds in herbal medicine and infusions can expose the patient to side effects. Because of this, the researchers warn of the uncontrolled use of these types of alternatives. Although some plants may have beneficial ingredients, they may also have some poisons.
5. Interaction with traditional medicines
It isn’t uncommon for patients to decide to treat a disease using conventional and alternative medicine at the same time. This poses a number of risks, as the latter can inhibit the effectiveness of traditional medications.
This happens mainly with herbal medicine for the reasons we’ve already explained. If you start a herbal treatment for hypertension and at the same time take antihypertensive drugs, for example, there can be negative sequelae due to the interaction between their compounds. For this reason, doctors recommend abandoning these options you’re following traditional treatment.
As for homeopathy, there’s no evidence that it interacts with conventional medicine treatment. This is due to the reasons we explained regarding the absence of active compounds in the final process (or at least their infinitesimal presence).
As you can see, there are many differences between homeopathy and herbal medicine. They don’t operate under identical principles, and, for that reason, we can’t consider them to be synonymous. Of course, there are other distinctions we can make, although these five are the main ones. We could also mention that homeopathic treatment is usually more expensive than ones based on herbal medicine.
Does homeopathy work?
The consensus among medical specialists is unanimous: there’s no substantial evidence to support homeopathy as being effective in any way. There are hundreds of studies and research that disprove the alleged properties of homeopathic medicines.
Evidence suggests that the placebo effect plays a leading role in many alleged drug-based cures. Although, from some contexts, people proclaim that homeopathy is more effective than a placebo, in reality, researchers point out that many of these studies have rather precarious methodological support.
In summary, there’s no conclusive evidence on the effectiveness of these treatments. Despite this, it’s an industry that generates millions of dollars every year, and its growth has continued to increase. The propaganda around the method and the closer doctor-patient relationship has led many people to consider it among their treatment alternatives.
Does herbal medicine work?
It is estimated that between 65% and 80% of patients living in developing countries turn to herbal medicine as the first line of defense to treat a disease. Unlike homeopathy, there is evidence to support the use of some herbs to counteract the effects of a condition.
To cite just a few examples, its effectiveness in treating kidney stones, inflammatory lung diseases , periodontal disease, coughs, allergic rhinitis, psoriasis, and benign prostatic hyperplasia have been studied. This doesn’t mean that they cure these conditions, but, rather, that patients report some improvement after use.
Specialists always recommend resorting to this option with caution. The doses aren’t always respected when following treatment, and the adverse effects are often similar to those of conventional medicine. And, apart from this, for all these conditions there are scientifically tested, safe and effective drugs.
We hope our article on the differences between homeopathy and herbal medicine has been helpful to you. If you plan to use them, we urge you to discuss it with your specialist if you’re treating an already diagnosed disease.
- Capasso R, Izzo AA, Pinto L, Bifulco T, Vitobello C, Mascolo N. Phytotherapy and quality of herbal medicines. Fitoterapia. 2000 Aug;71 Suppl 1:S58-65.
- Cucherat, M., Haugh, M. C., Gooch, M., & Boissel, J. P. Evidence of clinical efficacy of homeopathy. European journal of clinical pharmacology. 2000; 56(1): 27-33.
- Dantas F, Rampes H. Do homeopathic medicines provoke adverse effects? A systematic review. Br Homeopath J. 2000 Jul;89 Suppl 1:S35-8.
- Del Fante C, Perotti C. Extracorporeal photopheresis for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome after allogeneic stem cell transplant: An emerging therapeutic approach? Transfus Apher Sci. 2017 Feb;56(1):17-19.
- Deng S, May BH, Zhang AL, Lu C, Xue CC. Phytotherapy in the management of psoriasis: a review of the efficacy and safety of oral interventions and the pharmacological actions of the main plants. Arch Dermatol Res. 2014 Apr;306(3):211-29.
- Dreikorn K. The role of phytotherapy in treating lower urinary tract symptoms and benign prostatic hyperplasia. World J Urol. 2002 Apr;19(6):426-35.
- Emiliani E, Jara A, Kanashiro AK. Phytotherapy and Herbal Medicines for Kidney Stones. Curr Drug Targets. 2021;22(1):22-30.
- Franova, S., Nosalova, G., & Mokry, J. Phytotherapy of cough. Advances in phytomedicine. 2006; 2: 111-131.
- Frye, J. C. Herbal and homeopathic medicine: understanding the difference. In Seminars in Integrative Medicine. 2003; 1 (3): 158-166.
- Grams, N. Homeopathy—where is the science? A current inventory on a pre‐scientific artifact. EMBO reports. 2019; 20(3): e47761.
- Mathie RT. Controlled clinical studies of homeopathy. Homeopathy. 2015 Oct;104(4):328-32.
- Moro MG, Silveira Souto ML, Franco GCN, Holzhausen M, Pannuti CM. Efficacy of local phytotherapy in the nonsurgical treatment of periodontal disease: A systematic review. J Periodontal Res. 2018 Jun;53(3):288-297.
- Reisman S, Balboul M, Jones T. P-curve accurately rejects evidence for homeopathic ultramolecular dilutions. PeerJ. 2019 Jan 23;7:e6318.
- Shirwaikar, A., Verma, R., Lobo, R., & Shirwaikar, A. Phytotherapy–Safety aspects. 2009.
- Teixeira, M. Z., Guedes, C. H., Barreto, P. V., & Martins, M. A. The placebo effect and homeopathy. Homeopathy. 2010; 99(02): 119-129.
- TOMASZEWSKI, M., KULCZYŃSKI, M., TERLECKA, P., MARCINIEC, M., & SAPKO, K. Phytotherapy of rhinitis and rhinosinusitis–overview of recent research. Biologically active compounds of plant origin in medicine, 100.
- Waisse, S. Effects of homeopathic high dilutions on in vitro models: literature review. Revista de Homeopatia. 2017; 80(3/4): 90-103.
