Some pills include a little baking soda and powdered food acid (citric acid, but could be cream of tartar if you're doing it at home) to allow them to dissolve completely. This used to only be Alka-Seltzer, but lately I saw a generic Tylenol capsule with a little aperture in the side, which fizzed gently into oblivion over the
course of a minute or so.
A pill press, of the sort herbalists use, seems to be a viable option for home processing of remedies.
I've also seen people make pills using kneaded, unleavened wheat dough, by stretching a thin membrane around the remedy, keeping it compressed in a little ball, and letting it dry. This latter is sort of like a gelatin capsule, but more of a gluten capsule: it might be more appropriate for vegetarans, but of course less appropriate if a person suffers from celiac disease.
"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.
