What does DIY stand for?
DIY is an acronym and stands for “Do It Yourself” (“do it yourself”). DIY medicines are usually made by private individuals. They can be laymen as well as professionals. Some examples are shown below.
Teas and tea blends
Medicinal plants such as the peppermint, chamomile or marigold can be planted in the garden or in a pot. The corresponding parts of the plant are dried or processed fresh. Tinctures or extracts can also be made from the medicinal drugs with alcohol. When making your own, care must be taken to ensure that no toxic ingredients – such as the deadly ricin from castor bean seeds – get into the product. Medicinal drugs can also be obtained from drugstores and pharmacies or collected in nature.
Creams and ointments
Creams, ointments and gels are relatively easy to mix with a grating bowl and pestle or whisk. As a rule, this requires only a few ingredients such as shea butter, beeswax, jojoba wax, cellulose or lanolin. Active ingredients and plant extracts can also be incorporated into the agents. Lip balms can be prepared by pouring the melted ingredients into an empty lipstick tube (see under Homemade Lip Balm). Making your own hand creams is also popular.
Tablets and capsules
Making tablets and capsules is more challenging. Empty hard capsules are available in pharmacies. A capsule filler can be used for filling. Surprisingly, even home production of tablets is possible. Manual tablet presses are available for this purpose and can be purchased commercially. It should be noted that the active ingredients cannot be tableted directly. In most cases, additional excipients are required. From our point of view, the in-house production of tablets and capsules should only be carried out by experts. We therefore strongly advise against self-manufacture.
Active ingredients
Pure active ingredients are usually available to order in pharmacies. Dispensing prescription-only active ingredients to customers is not allowed due to legal requirements. Synthesizing active ingredients themselves is an option reserved for professionals such as chemists.
Consulting
Pharmacists are experts in medicines. Pharmacies can provide advice on the manufacture of medicines. Raw materials, containers, supplies and medicinal drugs are available at pharmacies.
Advantages
DIY medicines are unique, customized and can be less expensive than ready-made drugs. They can be made with high-quality ingredients, without preservatives, dyes, and other potentially problematic additives. Products that are not commercially available can also be prepared.
Problem areas with DIY medicines
There are also risks associated with DIY manufacturing. The following list highlights some potential problems:
- Hygiene
- Legal requirements / narcotics
- Patents
- Abuse / narcotic production / clandestine production.
- Know-how
- Raw material prices / availability of substances
- Lack of equipment / facility
- Impurities / contamination (including the environment) / microorganisms.
- Correct dosage / weighing
- Stability / incompatibilities
- Decay
- Confusion
- Containers
- Overdoses / toxicity
- Passing on to third parties
- Fire hazard
- Proper use
- Disposal