[SymphonicHealth] Bizzare Chemical Discovery Gives Homoeopathic Hint (fwd)

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Bizzare Chemical Discovery Gives Homoeopathic Hint

Journal reference: Chemical Communications (2001, p 2224)

Source: http://www.quantumbalancing.com/homeopathy_news.htm

It is a chance discovery so unexpected it defies belief and threatens to

re-ignite debate about whether there is a scientific basis for thinking

homeopathic medicines really work. A team in South Korea has discovered a

whole new dimension to just about the simplest chemical reaction in the

book - what happens when you dissolve a substance in water and then add

more water.

Conventional wisdom says that the dissolved molecules simply spread

further and further apart as a solution is diluted. But two chemists have

found that some do the opposite: they clump together, first as clusters

of molecules, then as bigger aggregates of those clusters. Far from

drifting apart from their neighbors, they got closer together. The

discovery has stunned chemists, and could provide the first scientific

insight into how some homeopathic remedies work. Homeopaths repeatedly

dilute medications, believing that the higher the dilution, the more

potent the remedy becomes.

Some dilute to " infinity " until no molecules of the remedy remain. They

believe that water holds a memory, or " imprint " of the active ingredient

which is more potent than the ingredient itself. But others use less

dilute solutions - often diluting a remedy six-fold. The Korean findings

might at last go some way to reconciling the potency of these less dilute

solutions with orthodox science.

German chemist Kurt Geckeler and his colleague Shashadhar Samal stumbled

on the effect while investigating fullerenes at their lab in the Kwangju

Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. They found that the

football-shaped buckyball molecules kept forming untidy aggregates in

solution, and Geckler asked Samal to look for ways to control how these

clumps formed. What he discovered was a phenomenon new to chemistry.

" When he diluted the solution, the size of the fullerene particles

increased, " says Geckeler. " It was completely counterintuitive, " he says.

Further work showed it was no fluke. To make the otherwise insoluble

buckyball dissolve in water, the chemists had mixed it with a circular

sugar-like molecule called a cyclodextrin. When they did the same

experiments with just cyclodextrin molecules, they found they behaved the

same way. So did the organic molecule sodium guanosine monophosphate, DNA

and plain old sodium chloride. Dilution typically made the molecules

cluster into aggregates five to 10 times as big as those in the original

solutions. The growth was not linear, and it depended on the

concentration of the original.

" The history of the solution is important. The more dilute it starts, the

larger the aggregates, " says Geckeler. Also, it only worked in polar

solvents like water, in which one end of the molecule has a pronounced

positive charge while the other end is negative. But the finding may

provide a mechanism for how some homeopathic medicines work - something

that has defied scientific explanation till now. Diluting a remedy may

increase the size of the particles to the point when they become

biologically active.

It also echoes the controversial claims of French immunologist Jacques

Benveniste. In 1988, Benveniste claimed in a Nature paper that a solution

that had once contained antibodies still activated human white blood

cells. Benveniste claimed the solution still worked because it contained

ghostly " imprints " in the water structure where the antibodies had been.

Other researchers failed to reproduce Benveniste's experiments, but

homeopaths still believe he may have been onto something. Benveniste

himself does not think the new findings explain his results because the

solutions were not dilute enough. " This [phenomenon] cannot apply to high

dilution, " he says.

Fred Pearce of University College London, who tried to repeat

Benveniste's experiments, agrees. But it could offer some clues as to why

other less dilute homeopathic remedies work, he says. Large clusters and

aggregates might interact more easily with biological tissue.

Chemist Jan Enberts of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands is

more cautious. " It's still a totally open question, " he says. " To say the

phenomenon has biological significance is pure speculation. " But he has

no doubt Samal and Geckeler have discovered something new. " It's

surprising and worrying, " he says. The two chemists were at pains to

double-check their astonishing results. Initially they had used the

scattering of a laser to reveal the size and distribution of the

dissolved particles. To check, they used a scanning electron microscope

to photograph films of the solutions spread over slides. This, too,

showed that dissolved substances cluster together as dilution increased.

" It doesn't prove homeopathy, but it's congruent with what we think and

is very encouraging, " says Fisher, director of medical research at

the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. " The whole idea of high-dilution

homeopathy hangs on the idea that water has properties which are not

understood, " he says. " The fact that the new effect happens with a

variety of substances suggests it's the solvent that's responsible. It's

in line with what many homeopaths say, that you can only make homeopathic

medicines in polar solvents. "

Geckeler and Samal are now anxious that other researchers follow up their

work. " We want people to repeat it, " says Geckeler. " If it's confirmed it

will be groundbreaking " .

Journal reference: Chemical Communications (2001, p 2224)

Source: http://www.quantumbalancing.com/homeopathy_news.htm

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