Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Track Bacillinum with reminders and record whether it helped, in the app.
Bacillinum is a homeopathic remedy. It is made from sputum, the mucus coughed up from the lungs. The sputum came from a person with tuberculosis (a serious lung infection).
The material is sterilised. It is then watered down again and again. At the usual 30C strength, none of it is left in the pill.
Homeopaths give it for long-running coughs, skin rashes and swollen glands. Trials have not shown it to beat a dummy pill (placebo). Long use in a tradition is not proof that a remedy works.
Homeopathy rests on two ideas. The first is that 'like cures like'. The second is that water can hold a trace of what was once in it.
Neither idea fits what we know about the body. After 30 dilution steps, not one molecule of the source is left. So there is no known way for this remedy to act on you.
Any change you notice most likely comes from other things. One is the placebo effect, which means feeling better because you expect to. Time, rest and a long talk with a kind practitioner also play a part.
Bacillinum comes as small sugar pills. Liquid drops in alcohol and water are also sold.
Common strengths are 30C, 200C, 1M and 10M. A higher number means more dilution steps, not more material. Homeopaths often give one dose, then wait weeks.
An English homeopath, James Compton Burnett, brought in the remedy in the 1880s. He made it from tuberculous sputum. He used it for skin and chest problems.
Bacillinum belongs to a group called the nosodes. These are remedies made from diseased matter. It is still listed in homeopathic books, but it has never been a first-choice remedy.
See a doctor if a cough lasts more than three weeks, or if you cough up blood. Get checked for a fever that will not settle, drenching night sweats, or weight loss you cannot explain. Lumps in the neck that stay swollen for more than two weeks also need looking at.
Go to hospital or call emergency services if you cannot catch your breath, your chest hurts badly, or your lips look blue. Do the same for a child who is struggling to breathe.
Tell your doctor that you are using a homeopathic remedy, even though it holds no drug. It helps them see the whole picture.
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 Bacillinum 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.
One email with the summary. We'll also send a short weekly evidence update — unsubscribe any time.
