High dilutions

Objective: To find a useful model of biological systems or a method, based on standard physical and biochemical analytical procedures, for investigating the effects of diluted low-molecular-weight substances on living organisms.

Method: In the experiments, fungal and bacterial material from laboratory cultures was used as a source of the common phenoloxidases laccase, peroxidase and O-demethylase, together with the previously described (1–5) pure plant peroxidase. Further dilutions of low-molecular-weight phenolic metabolites suitable for the study of enzymic systems were prepared in our laboratory. They were prepared in 75% ethanol at a ratio of 1:100 (centesimal) and dynamised by succussion according to homeopathic principles.
The bacteria, fungi and plant peroxidases were incubated together with successive dilutions of a phenolic effector. Various analytical methods were used for these experiments, including gel (PAGE) (4) and capillary electrophoresis (MEKCE) (5), spectral and colorimetric methods (1, 2, 3), and electron microscopy (5).

Results: According to the data available (1–5), incubation of biological material with diluted phenolic effectors induced various effects on the enzyme activity tested. With a gradual increase in the dilution level of the effectors tested, activity changed in a sinusoidal manner, which was clearly visible on the plot, where the number of dilutions was plotted on the x-axis and biological activity on the y-axis.
Exemplary results of these experiments are presented below. For the enzymes tested—laccase, peroxidase and O-demethylase—the spacing of the peaks of enzymatic activity, when plotted as a sine curve, recurred more frequently than every 10 successive centesimal dilutions. Along with an increase in incubation time, shifts of the maximum and minimum points on the curve were observed, indicating the dynamic aspect of the phenomenon under study.

Conclusion: Due to their widespread presence in our environment, fungi and bacteria appear to be a very suitable material for studying the effects of diluted metabolites on enzymic systems.
The results of all experiments confirmed the consistency of the observations mentioned above. Since other authors using human (6,7) and plant materials (8,9) obtained similar results, the described relationships appear to be common in nature.
The therapeutic effect of homeopathic remedies may be based on the mechanism described above, and it is highly likely that this leads to a normalisation of disturbed enzyme systems in living organisms.

Photo:
Petri dish © attem - www.shutterstock.com
Ethanol © monticello - www.shutterstock.com