What is Ammonium carbonicum?

Ammonium carbonicum is a homeopathic remedy. It is made from ammonium carbonate. That is the white salt once sold as sal volatile, or smelling salts.

Homeopaths pick it for people with a stuffy nose and a tight chest. The person often feels weak, cold and short of breath. Some also give it for nosebleeds and heavy periods.

The salt is diluted over and over, with hard shaking at each step. At the usual 30C strength, almost none of the starting salt is left. A pellet is mostly sugar; the liquid drops are mostly water and alcohol.

Trials have not shown that it works better than a placebo (a dummy pill). Long use in one tradition is not proof that a thing works. This page gives you both sides: what homeopaths use it for, and what the evidence shows.

How does Ammonium carbonicum work?

There is no known way for this remedy to act on the body at common strengths. That is the plain answer.

Homeopathy rests on two old ideas. The first is "like cures like": a substance that causes a symptom in a well person is said to ease that symptom in a sick one. Raw ammonium carbonate stings the nose and airways, so the remedy is matched to blocked, wheezy breathing.

The second idea is that shaking a dilution makes it stronger, not weaker. Chemistry does not support this. By 30C the salt has been diluted so far that a dose is very unlikely to hold even one molecule of it.

When people feel better after taking it, the likely reasons are the placebo effect, the natural fading of a cold, and the long, careful chat with a homeopath. Those effects are real and can feel helpful. They are not the same as the remedy acting on your lungs.

What forms does Ammonium carbonicum come in?

Sugar pellets are the most common form. They are small, sweet and dissolve under the tongue.

You may also see soft tablets, granules in a single-dose tube, and liquid drops in dilute alcohol.

Strengths are written as 6C, 30C and 200C, or as 3X, 6X and 12X. The higher the number, the more dilution steps were used and the less of the starting salt is present. Combination cold and cough products sometimes list Ammonium carbonicum among several ingredients.

Where it comes from:

Ammonium carbonate has a long life outside homeopathy. It was the sal volatile of the 1700s and 1800s, sniffed to rouse someone who had fainted. Bakers still use it as baker's ammonia in some crisp European biscuits.

As a homeopathic remedy it dates to the early 1800s. It was tested and written up by Samuel Hahnemann and his circle in Germany, then carried into the standard homeopathic materia medica (the reference books that list each remedy and its picture).

It has stayed in those books ever since, which makes it a settled part of one tradition rather than a shared classical remedy.

What does Ammonium carbonicum help with?

• Chest colds with rattling, tight breathing: This is the classic homeopathic picture for the remedy. The person wheezes, cannot get a full breath, and feels worse in a warm room and around 3am. No trial has tested Ammonium carbonicum for chest symptoms. If breathing is hard, that needs a doctor, not a home remedy.
• A blocked nose, worse at night: Homeopaths reach for it when the nose blocks up completely at night and the person has to breathe through the mouth. A runny, sore upper lip is part of the picture. There is no trial evidence for this use. Most head colds clear on their own in about a week.
• Sore throat with swollen glands: Old texts describe a burning throat with swollen tonsils and glands in the neck. The remedy is matched to that picture, not to any test result. No human study supports it. A sore throat with high fever, drooling or trouble swallowing needs to be seen the same day.
• Nosebleeds: Homeopathic books list nosebleeds that come on after washing, or in the morning. This is traditional practice only. No trial has looked at it. Pinch the soft part of the nose and lean forward; get help if bleeding will not stop after 20 minutes.
• Heavy or early periods: The remedy picture includes periods that come early and run heavy, with tiredness and cold hands. It is a long-standing use in homeopathic practice. No published trial supports it. Heavy bleeding can have causes worth checking, so see a doctor rather than self-treating over months.
• Feeling weak, cold and heavy-limbed during an illness: Homeopaths describe an Ammonium carbonicum patient as sluggish, chilly and easily tired out. This general state is often what guides the choice. There is no evidence the remedy changes it. Lasting tiredness deserves a proper check for causes such as low iron or thyroid problems.

Which foods are rich in Ammonium carbonicum?

1. Springerle, speculoos and other crisp European biscuits: baked with ammonium carbonate, sold as baker's ammonia or hartshorn
2. Some Scandinavian flatbreads and crackers: the same raising agent is used

Practical Tips:

The baking amounts are tiny and the gas bakes off; eating these biscuits has nothing to do with taking the homeopathic remedy.

What are the side effects of Ammonium carbonicum?

• Nothing at all, most often, at 30C and similar strengths
• A short flare of your symptoms, which homeopaths call an aggravation
• Mild stomach upset or wind from the sugar in the pellets
• Mouth or throat irritation from very low strengths such as 1X to 3X
• A reaction in people who are allergic to milk sugar (lactose) in the pellets
• Problems from the alcohol in liquid drops, for some people

Good to know:

Direct harm from a 30C pellet is very unlikely. There is almost nothing in it but sugar.

The real risks sit elsewhere. Raw ammonium carbonate is caustic, so very low strengths and any undiluted salt can irritate the mouth, throat, eyes and airways.

The bigger risk is delay. Using pellets while a chest infection or asthma attack gets worse can cost you time you cannot get back.

How much Ammonium carbonicum should you take?

• Recommended daily: No dose is set by evidence, because no trial has found an effect to dose for. Homeopathic labels usually suggest 3 to 5 pellets of 6C or 30C, up to three times a day, allowed to melt under the tongue. Higher strengths such as 200C are normally given once, then left alone. Follow the label on the pack you bought, or the advice of a trained homeopath. Do not take more in the hope of a bigger effect.
• Best time of day: Any time of day. Homeopaths often suggest a dose at bedtime when a blocked nose or cough is worse at night.
• With or without food: Homeopathic custom is a clean mouth: nothing to eat, drink, smoke or brush with for about 15 minutes before and after a dose. This is a tradition rule, not a tested one. It does no harm to follow it.
• Time to effect: Homeopaths expect a change within hours to a couple of days in a short illness. No study backs that timing. If you do feel better, bear in mind that colds and sore throats usually fade on their own in a few days.
• How long to take it: Keep it short. Most people use it for a few days during a cold, not for weeks. Stop and rethink if you are no better after 3 days, or if you get worse at any point. Ongoing chest or period problems need a doctor's opinion rather than a longer course of pellets.