Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Anhalonium lewinii is a homeopathic remedy made from the peyote cactus. Homeopaths give it for mind and mood symptoms, such as odd thoughts, dreamy states and headaches with strange patterns of light.
It is a single remedy, not a mix of several. Its Latin name is Lophophora williamsii. It is also known as peyote.
The remedy is made by diluting the plant again and again, with shaking at each step. At 30C there is no plant matter left in the dose at all. Trials do not show that homeopathic remedies work better than a dummy pill, and long use in a tradition is not proof that something works.
No one has shown a way this remedy could work in the body. Homeopathy rests on two ideas, and only the first has a simple logic to it.
The first idea is that a substance which causes symptoms in a well person can ease the same symptoms in a sick person. The second idea is that shaking and diluting a substance makes it act more strongly.
Basic chemistry does not back the second idea. By 30C, nothing of the cactus is left to act on you. Any change you feel is most likely a placebo effect, which means feeling better because you expect to.
Most people meet it as small sugar pellets. The pellets are soaked in the diluted remedy and left to dry.
You may also see liquid drops in alcohol or water. Common strengths sold are 6C, 12C and 30C.
Low strengths, such as 3X, and the raw tincture are a different matter. They may still hold plant material and mescaline. In many countries these are controlled by law.
The peyote cactus has a long ceremonial history. Indigenous peoples in Mexico and the southern United States have used it in rituals for hundreds of years. That use belongs to those cultures and has nothing to do with homeopathy.
Homeopaths tested the plant in the United States in the 1890s. Healthy volunteers took it and wrote down what they felt, mostly changes in thinking and sense of time.
Those notes became the remedy picture still printed in homeopathic books. Anhalonium has always been a small, rarely used remedy.
Some reactions to Anhalonium lewinii need urgent care. Call your local emergency number or go to an emergency department straight away — do not wait to see whether it passes.
Call emergency services if someone has a racing or uneven heartbeat, chest pain, a fit, a high fever with shaking, or cannot be calmed down.
See a doctor soon if your headaches change, come with sight problems, or keep coming back. Do the same for low mood, panic or sleep problems that last more than two weeks.
Always tell your doctor and pharmacist what you are taking, even a homeopathic pellet.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Anhalonium lewinii is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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