“All diseases known to man have their likeness in the Materia Medica, and the physician must become so conversant with this art that he may perceive this likeness.”
J. T. Kent
A Materia Medica is a reference work that contains the collected body of knowledge about the medicinal properties of various substances. Borrowed from the title of an ancient illustrated manuscript compiled by Pedanius Dioscorides, a Greek physician in the 1st century AD, the Latin term means “medical matter.’ Dioscorides’ five-volume composition entitled, De Materia Medica, is an extensive pharmacopeia or reference work that contains descriptions and instructions on the making of medicines from therapeutically useful plants, animals, and mineral substances. This important work was translated into many languages and was the principal pharmacopeia for over 1,500 years. As the prime historical source of information about ancient Greek and Roman medicines, De materia medica was the precursor of modern pharmacology.
In homeopathy, a materia medica contains lists of homeopathic remedies and their therapeutic actions on different parts of the body. Information recorded in a materia medica comes from homeopathic ‘provings.’ A proving (from the German word ‘prufung,’ to test or examine) is the testing of a substance on healthy volunteers in order to determine what symptoms are produced. Physical symptoms are recorded, as well as mental and emotional symptoms. Clinical observations are also included. Today, there are many classical and contemporary homeopathic materia medica reference books available.
The first homeopathic materia medica was Samuel Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura which contains the original provings conducted by Hahnemann on himself and 37 provers. Symptoms were recorded in the language of the prover. The two-volume third edition, published in the early 1830s, contains the pathogenesis of 64 homeopathic medicines and is the precursor of modern homeopathic materia medicas. To date, there have been over 6000 provings* of homeopathic remedies, many of which have been published in a variety of materia medicas. Homeopaths study materia medica in order to match the action of a remedy as closely as possible with an individual’s symptoms. Thus, a Materia Medica is an essential resource used by homeopaths.
* https://provings.info/en/index.html
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