A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, have demonstrated the presence of physical entities in extremely high homeopathic dilutions, in the form of nanoparticles of the starting materials and their aggregates.
Homeopathy is controversial because medicines in high potencies such as 30c and 200c involve huge dilution factors which are many orders of magnitude greater than Avogadro’s number, so that theoretically there should be no measurable remnants of the starting materials. No hypothesis which predicts the retention of properties of starting materials has been proposed nor has any physical entity been shown to exist in these high potency medicines.
Using market samples of metal-derived medicines from reputable manufacturers, the researchers have demonstrated for the first time by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction and chemical analysis by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES), the presence of physical entities in these extreme dilutions, in the form of nanoparticles of the starting metals and their aggregates.
The confirmed presence of nanoparticles challenges current thinking about the role of dilution in homeopathic medicines. Concrete evidence of the presence of particles as found by this team could help take the research in homeopathy a step forward in understanding these potentised medicines and also help to positively change the perception of the scientific community towards this mode of treatment.
Reference:
Chikramane PS, Suresh AK, Bellare JR, Kane SG (2010). Extreme homeopathic dilutions retain starting materials: A nanoparticulate perspective. Homeopathy, 99: 231-242
PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20970092
