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London, May 16 (ANI): An arnica product has become the homeopathic remedy to receive a first licence nod from the British medicines regulator under controversial new rules.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has granted Nelsons Arnicare Arnica 30c pillules permission to make medicinal claims.

Manufacturers of homeopathic remedies were in the past prohibited from giving a therapeutic indication due to a lack of evidence questioning its effectiveness, reports the Times Online.

But under the new granted license, the packet of 84 pillules would bear the explanation: “A homeopathic medicinal product used within the homeopathic tradition for symptomatic relief of sprains, muscular aches and bruising or swelling after contusions.”

Robert Wilson, chairman of Nelsons, said that the inclusion of therapeutic indications on the packaging could “not only opens the practice of homeopathy up to new users but also gives it added credibility as a safe and natural complement to conventional medicine”.

But experts have cast a shadow of doubt over the decision, dubbing it a “cynical mockery of evidence-based medicine”.

Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, argued the arnica-based homeopathic product had zero active ingredients.

He said: “This is a huge rip-off and the label now makes false and misleading claims. There is no biological plausibility for this to work - it makes a cynical mockery of evidence-based medicine.

“Arnica is actually poisonous if you swallow it, so these pills contain essentially zero active ingredient.” (ANI)