Homeopathy Bottles & Pill Sizes
Comparing options + Some easy-to-use guidelines
Whether you are a beginner to homeopathy, or a seasoned homeopathic practitioner, to see the homeopathic remedies in the forms they come in lined up side-by-side can be very helpful. And to get an idea for how many pills are in the bottles also helps to evaluate cost per dose when deciding which homeopathic pharmacy to order from. Also, for those who want to order from Helios Homeopathy, one of the most common questions I get is what the different bottle sizes are.
So let’s break it down for you!
Natural Health Supply (Medium pills. This is not a common company, but one I inherited some tubes of. It is included here as an example of other pharmacies that, although lesser known, still make good products and are comparable in size.)
HomeopathicRemediesOnline.com (2 dram tube, Small pills)
Urenus (Big pills— even a tiny bit larger than Boiron’s #40. Commonly found on Amazon, this brand is often the quickest and easiest way to buy the ‘nosodes’*, such as Medorrhinum and Carcinosin.)
OHM Pharma (2 dram tube includes 100 #40 size pills= Big pills. Note: Account required to order from them.)
Boiron USA (Includes 80 #40 size pills = Big pills)
Helios Homeopathy 8g bottle (Option to choose Small (No 3) or Big (No 6) pills, see more info below)
Helios Homeopathy 4g bottle (Same as above)
Helios Homeopathy 14g bottle (Same as above)
Helios Homeopathy 28g bottle (Same as above)
Washington Homeopathics (4 dram bottle, includes approximately 900 2.5 mm pills =Medium pills, see below)
I&E Organics Apothecary (2 dram with Small pills)
Hyland’s ‘Cell Salt’ Tablets (Not pills at all, tablet form, only one tablet required per dose)
Here are a couple more photo angles so you can see the tops and diameters better:
The photos and list above compares various homeopathic remedies that I own. It’s not meant to be everything that is out there! The vast majority of my stock is Helios, followed by Boiron, with a mix of the rest.
As you’ll notice, most companies follow a relatively standard tube size. A lot of homeopathic pharmacies refer to tube/bottle sizes in drams— 2 dram and 4 dram being the most common, and sometimes 1 dram as an option. (A dram is a system of measurement.)
Oh, and I just realized that I forgot to include an Ollois tube. (I only own one!) Ollois is much like Boiron, with Big pills. The tube is just a touch fatter and taller.
To simplify for everyone, I’m calling the pills Small, Medium and Big. Homeopathic pills may be referred to as pillules, globules, or pellets. They are all the same thing— tiny round sugar pills which serve as the delivery system for whatever homeopathic remedy is applied to it.
Small = 1-2mm; #20 = 2mm; Helios No 3
Medium = 2-3mm; #30 = 3mm
Big = 4mm+; #40 = 4mm; Helios No 6
(Sorry it’s out of focus, I couldn’t tell until I uploaded it!)
The Small Pill in the photo above is the No 3 size from Helios. (These measure 1.5-2mm, it’s hard to be precise with the little ruler I have— Millimeters are tiny!)
The Medium Pill in the photo above is from Washington Homeopathics (which they say is 2.5mm).
The Big Pill in the photo above is from Boiron (#40 = 4 mm), this is the same size as Helios No 6, OHM’s pills, and other Big pills such as those from Urenus.
Shown above from top to bottom, with caps, Helios No 3, Helios No 6, Boiron, OHM Pharma.
There ARE even tinier pills. Here is a photo of some blank pellets that I have in bulk, in size #10, which means 1mm. (I put a few Big Boiron pills (4mm) in the same cap for comparison.)
Above are true ‘poppy seed’ size pills, and I would use around 8-10 of them as a dose, they are so tiny.
Lastly, above is a single Boiron pill compared to a Hyland’s tablet. When it’s a tablet, a dose it typically just one. (Which makes sense, there’s a lot volume in one tablet, at least 3 pillules worth.)
As for the quantity of pills in the Helios bottles, a friend estimated that a Helios 50g bottle (not pictured) has about 6,000 No 3 (Small) pills in it. I don’t own any of the 50g bottles, but using that ratio (~120 pills per gram), I get the following approximate number of No 3 size pills per Helios bottle size (as shown above):
Helios 4g = 480 pills
Helios 8g = 960 pills (This is the equivalent bottle size to the Boiron tube, which only has 80 #40/4mm pills in it, as a comparison.)
Helios 14g = 1,680 pills
Helios 28g = 3,360 pills
Now for the liquid remedies:
Helios Oral Liquid 23% alcohol 10ml
Dr. Reckeweg (looks to be about the same as the 10ml from Helios; this brand is commonly found on eBay and through sellers such as Homeomart.)
Schwabe (looks to be about 1 oz; also commonly found on eBay and through sellers such as Homeomart )
SBL (looks to be about 1 oz; another brand commonly found on eBay and through sellers such as Homeomart)
OHM Pharma 1 oz dropper bottle (Note: Account required to order)
Generic 1 oz dropper bottle included for reference (my wet dose bottles)
Generic 2 oz dropper bottle included for reference (same as above)
Quantity of drops—
The 10ml size will have ~200 drops.
A 1 ounce bottle will contain about ~568 drops.
Think of a drop as a Medium to Big pill.
So, with liquid remedies we use drops instead of pills, that’s the only difference.
How many homeopathic pills should I take?
You can always refer to the manufacturer, but typically they recommend more than is actually needed for the remedy to act.
Remember that a dose is a dose. It doesn’t essentially matter if you take a whole tube of pills at once, one pill (assuming it’s well medicated), or whether you put the pills in water and take a portion of that.
So, we are looking for the balance between value (overkill would be a whole tube as one dose, which would also be expensive!) and the remedies acting (one pill might do it, but what if that was the ONE pill that wasn’t medicated?).
When I make wet dose bottles I want to make absolutely sure there’s a full dose in the water, no matter which company I am buying my homeopathic remedies from, so this is my quick reference guide for dosing:
Small— I use 4-5 pills (unless it’s the tiniest 1mm pills, then I would use 8-10)
Medium— I use 3-4 pills
Big— I use 3 pills
Liquid remedy— I use 4-5 drops
Tablets— One tablet
[I give a range on the Small pills because chasing tiny pills can be very annoying. If I nail it with 4 Small pills the first time, I go with that, if I get 5 then I will go with that. The same with drops, sometimes they come out fast, so don’t stress if you get 6 instead!]
Reminder!— Mother tinctures are different! You must use 5-10 drops in water EVERY single dose. Just like if you bought a liquid zinc vitamin, or tincture of Cat’s Claw, you would have to take a dropper every time you wanted a dose. Mother tincture means the remedy is NOT potentized, so these cannot be made into wet doses.
Of course you can always refer the manufacturer if in any doubt.
Dispensing the pills
How to wrangle the tiny pills…
The twist caps are a wonderful invention, but only a few companies make them: Boiron, OHM, Ollois. They are very handy, especially if taking dry doses, and also for those with poor eyesight and/or fingers that aren’t that nimble.
As much as I love Helios and Washington Homeopathics, and the others, the Medium and Small pills with regular bottles and caps can be a pain. (And very easy to spill!)
People definitely complain about trying to get the pills out. For me, making up wet dose bottles means only dispensing pills to refill them every 2-4 weeks, so it’s not a major issue. But if taking dry doses twice a day, you might want to figure out another hack.
How do I manage dispensing them? I just tip a few pills out into my clean palm and then into my 1 or 2 oz wet dose bottle.
You could also use something like tiny paper cups (or plastic, but the paper would be flexible, making it easier to funnel pills back into bottles, and would also be more biodegradable).
You could get a tiny spoon (or toothpick) to help break up the pills when clumped in the bottle, and with a little spoon you can even select one pill at a time.
Reminder: The pills will NOT be inactivated just by touching something! We just don’t want to rub them or hold them a sweaty palm, or anything that might take off the active substance or dissolve the pellet. Otherwise, they will be fine. I have picked them out of the carpet and used them. I have held them in my hand for a short bit and used them. There are very few instances where I would toss them in the trash— such as if they fell in a puddle or something gross, or in something too hard to pick them back out of again.
And that’s it for today! Now you can use the guide above when ordering your homeopathic medicines and if you have questions about sizes of bottles and pills. Even if you are looking at different company, you’ll be able to compare!
(And I know one question that will arise looking at the different tubes and bottles of remedies will be how to store them. More on that another day!)
*Also more on homeopathic ‘Nosodes’ and ‘Miasms’ coming soon.
Until next time, thank you for reading and subscribing!