Number of succussion strokes affects effectiveness of ultra-high-diluted arsenic on in vitro wheat germination and polycrystalline structures obtained by droplet evaporation method.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate whether the number of succussion strokes applied after each dilution step when preparing the homeopathic treatments influences the effectiveness of ultra-high-diluted (UHD) arsenic trioxide at the 45th decimal dilution/dynamization (As2O3 45x). DESIGN: Wheat seeds, previously stressed with ponderal As2O3, were treated with: As2O3 45x, H2O 45x (dynamized control), or pure water (negative control). The succussion was done manually, and various succussion durations (numbers of strokes) were tested for each treatment. Treatment effectiveness was tested blind using the in vitro germination test and the droplet evaporation method (DEM). Data were processed by the Poisson test (germination test) and by two-way analysis of variance (DEM). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We evaluated both the in vitro germination rate, by counting the non-germinated seeds, and the complexity of polycrystalline structures (PCS) (local connected fractal dimension (LCFD)) obtained by evaporating leakage droplets from stressed seeds that had been watered with the different treatments. RESULTS: We observed a highly significant increase in germination rate when the number of strokes (NS) was ≥32 for both As2O3 45x and H2O 45x, and a significant increase in the LCFD of PCS for As2O3 45x when the NS was ≥32 and for H2O 45x when it was 70. CONCLUSIONS: Both experimental approaches showed increased effectiveness for treatments prepared with a higher number of succussion strokes. These results indicate that succussion may have an important influence on treatment effectiveness, and so highlight the need for further research.

Transcriptome Profiling of Wheat Seedlings following Treatment with Ultrahigh Diluted Arsenic Trioxide.

Plant systems are useful research tools to address basic questions in homeopathy as they make it possible to overcome some of the drawbacks encountered in clinical trials (placebo effect, ethical issues, duration of the experiment, and high costs). The objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis whether 7-day-old wheat seedlings, grown from seeds either poisoned with a sublethal dose of As2O3 or unpoisoned, showed different significant gene expression profiles after the application of ultrahigh diluted As2O3 (beyond Avogadro's limit) compared to water (control). The results provided evidence for a strong gene modulating effect of ultrahigh diluted As2O3 in seedlings grown from poisoned seeds: a massive reduction of gene expression levels to values comparable to those of the control group was observed for several functional classes of genes. A plausible hypothesis is that ultrahigh diluted As2O3 treatment induced a reequilibration of those genes that were upregulated during the oxidative stress by bringing the expression levels closer to the basal levels normally occurring in the control plants.