Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Acidum carbolicum is a homeopathic single remedy. It is made from carbolic acid, also called phenol. In raw form phenol is a strong poison that burns skin.
The remedy is made by diluting phenol over and over. Each step shakes it and cuts the strength again. At 30C there is no phenol left in the pill at all.
Homeopaths give it for sharp pains that come and go fast, sick stomach with foul breath, and a tight band feeling round the head. Tests do not show that it works better than a dummy pill (placebo). Long use in a tradition is not proof that a remedy works, and that holds for this one.
There is no known way for this remedy to act on the body. At 30C no phenol is left to act.
Homeopathy rests on the idea of "like cures like". The raw drug causes signs in a well person. The same drug, made very weak, is then given for those same signs.
Homeopaths say the shaking leaves a trace or "imprint" in the water. Chemists have not found such a trace. Trials do not show an effect beyond placebo.
You will most often see it as small sugar pellets or pills. Liquid drops in water and alcohol are also sold.
Labels give a strength such as 6C, 30C or 200C. The higher the number, the more times it was diluted. Never use raw carbolic acid or phenol from a lab or a cleaning product in its place.
Phenol came into use in the 1860s as a germ killer for wounds and surgery. Joseph Lister made it famous in British hospitals.
Homeopaths tested it on healthy people later in the 1800s. They wrote down the signs it caused and added it to their books. It has stayed a small, second-rank remedy in that one tradition ever since.
See a doctor if your symptoms do not start to ease within three to five days, or if they get worse at any point. Get urgent help for a sudden very bad headache, vomiting that will not stop, yellow skin or eyes, much less urine than normal, or a fit. Call an ambulance if someone swallows raw carbolic acid, or if a sting causes swelling of the face or throat, trouble breathing, or fainting.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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