Jan Scholten

Jan Scholten was born on 23 December 1951 in Helmond, the Netherlands. He studied chemistry and philosophy before completing his medical studies, graduating in 1983, and then went on to study acupuncture, homeopathy and other forms of alternative medicine. Since 1985 he has maintained a full-time homeopathic practice. In 1987 he co-founded the Homeopathic Doctors Center in Utrecht together with two other homeopathic doctors.

Scholten is known internationally for developing the Element Theory, an analysis of the elements of the periodic table that made a systematic analysis of the whole mineral kingdom possible. His method organises remedies by series (the rows of the periodic table) and stages (the columns), giving practitioners a structured framework of group analysis for understanding mineral remedies. This approach is set out in his two best-known books, Homeopathy and Minerals (1993) and Homeopathy and the Elements (1996), the latter regarded as a standard work analysing the elements of the periodic table.

Scholten's later main field of interest has been the plant kingdom, which he classified in Wonderful Plants on the basis of the APG classification, extending his systematic, classification-driven approach beyond minerals. His Repertory of the Elements first appeared in July 2004, and he has also written on the lanthanides in homeopathy in Secret Lanthanides.

Scholten is listed as a patron of the School of Homeopathy and is described as a homeopathic practitioner from the Netherlands practising since 1985. On 25 April 2014 he was decorated as a Knight in the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau by the Mayor of Utrecht. His official website remains active, with seminars scheduled for 2026.