Pepsinum
Made from pepsin — the stomach's own protein-digesting enzyme, extracted and given back as medicine in the old digestive pharmacy.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a stomach that cannot begin its work: food sits like a stone, fermenting and souring, because the first chemical step of digestion is missing — the enzyme that unravels protein. A weak digestion from enzyme failure: that is Pepsinum.
The substance, in plain words
Pepsin is the stomach's principal protein-digesting enzyme, discovered in the nineteenth century and quickly manufactured as a digestive medicine — the era's answer to 'dyspepsia of atony'. The remedy is the enzyme itself, one of the library's most literal source substances.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Despondency of the dyspeptic. Low spirits that lift and fall with the stomach; the books paint the worried eater.
- Anxiety after eating. Dread of the consequences of every meal.
- Irritability. Crossness as the food lies undigested.
The body
- Food lies undigested. The keynote: a sensation that food simply sits, hours after the meal, souring and heavy.
- Sour fermentation. Sour eructations, acid taste, heartburn — the stomach's chemistry gone idle.
- Weakness of digestion. Even light meals exhaust; the books pair it with the atonic stomach of the convalescent and the aged.
- Worse milk and farinaceous food. Milk, porridge and bread sit worst — the foods that should be easiest.
- Thirstlessness. Little thirst with the sour, heavy state.
- Better for rest after food. Lying down and resting the stomach after meals eases the heaviness.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| milk and starchy food; eating too much; lying | rest after meals; warmth to the stomach; small meals. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
Stomach and digestion, nutrition, general vitality.
Where the classical picture comes from
Pepsin's isolation made the remedy possible: the enzyme that digests protein, given to stomachs that could not start. The picture is pure physiology — a chemical step missing, and the meal paying for it.
The substance in real medicine Pharmacology
What this section is: the pharmacology and toxicology of the source substance. It is not clinical evidence that a homeopathic preparation of it treats any condition. What controlled trials do and do not show is set out on the Evidence page.
Pepsin belongs to the real digestive-enzyme pharmacy of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, replaced by a better understanding of acid and enzyme physiology and by modern dyspepsia care. Digestive enzymes remain genuine drugs in pancreatic insufficiency — the chemistry of this page is textbook physiology still.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Nux vomica | Weak digestion, irritability | Nux is fiery and spasmodic; Pepsin is simply idle chemistry with a sour heaviness. |
| Robinia pseudacacia | Acid indigestion | Robinia is the heartburn-with-acid-vomiting remedy; Pepsin the atonic, non-acid one. |
| Hydrastis canadensis | Weak stomach | Hydrastis is ropy and torpid with debility; Pepsin purely the enzyme-weak, sour-sitting meal. |
| Calcarea carbonica | Sour digestion | Calcarea is sour and sour-sweating with chilliness; Pepsin is the specific enzyme failure. |