Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Kali chloricum is a homeopathic single remedy. It is made from potassium chlorate, a white salt once used in mouth washes, gargles and match heads. Homeopaths have given it mainly for a raw, sore mouth and for sore, bleeding gums.
The remedy is made by diluting the salt over and over. At common strengths such as 30C, none of the starting salt is left. Trials have not shown that homeopathic remedies work better than a dummy pill (placebo).
So this page gives you two separate things. One is what people have long done with the remedy. The other is what tests in people show, which here is very little.
There is no known way this remedy could act in your body once it is fully diluted.
Homeopathy works from an old idea called "like cures like". The idea is that a substance which causes symptoms in a well person can ease the same symptoms when given in a tiny, shaken-down dose. Each step dilutes the salt and shakes the liquid hard.
After about 12 rounds of this, no molecules of the salt remain. At 30C there is nothing left to measure. Any change you feel is most likely placebo effect, or your body getting better on its own.
You will mostly see these forms: - Small sugar pellets or pillules that melt under the tongue - Liquid drops in water and alcohol - Tablets that dissolve in the mouth
Common strengths sold to the public are 6C, 12C and 30C. Low strengths such as 3X and 6X are also made; these are the ones that may still hold traces of the raw salt. Homeopaths sometimes use a very dilute mouth rinse, but plain salt-water rinses are far better studied for a sore mouth.
Potassium chlorate was first made by the French chemist Claude Berthollet in the late 1780s. Doctors of the 1800s used it as a mouth wash and gargle for mouth sores. Reports of poisoning, kidney damage and deaths ended that use.
Homeopaths tested the salt in the 1800s and wrote it up in their reference books, such as Clarke's Dictionary. They listed it for a raw mouth, for mouth sores linked to old mercury medicines, and for kidney trouble. It has always been a minor remedy, not a first-choice one.
Some reactions to Kali chloricum need urgent care. Call your local emergency number or go to an emergency department straight away — do not wait to see whether it passes.
See a doctor or dentist if your mouth sores, gum bleeding or sore throat last more than about 3 days, or keep coming back.
Go sooner if you have a fever, a swollen neck, trouble swallowing or trouble opening your mouth. Also go if a mouth ulcer is large, very painful, or has not healed in 3 weeks.
Get emergency help at once if anyone swallows raw potassium chlorate, or if skin or lips turn blue-grey or brown, breathing gets hard, or urine turns dark brown. Take the container with you.
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 Kali chloricum 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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