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Homeopathy 2017; 106(01): 47-54
DOI: 10.1016/j.homp.2016.12.001
Original Paper
Copyright © The Faculty of Homeopathy 2016

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

Lucietta Betti
1   Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
,
Grazia Trebbi
1   Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
,
Maria Olga Kokornaczyk
2   Society for Cancer Research, Switzerland
,
Daniele Nani
3   Italian National Health System, Lombardy District, “Azienda Sanitaria Locale” Milan, Italy
,
Maurizio Peruzzi
4   Association for Sensitive Crystallization, Andalo Valtellino, Sondrio, Italy
,
Giovanni Dinelli
1   Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
,
Paolo Bellavite
5   Department of Pathology and Diagnostics, University of Verona, Italy
,
Maurizio Brizzi
6   Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Received 14 December 2015
revised 09 November 2016

accepted 04 December 2016

Publication Date:
28 December 2017 (online)

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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.

Keywords

Ultra high dilutions - Succussion number - Isopathic model - Wheat - Germination test - Droplet evaporation method - Crystalline structures

 

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