Nano Particles: Does it really resolve the riddles in homeopathy?

High dilution researches negating Avogadro’s law 

Dr Arif Hussain T M
The greatest wonder in this universe would be HOMEOPATHY as it is the only therapeutic branch that is known to exist with hundreds of millions of users worldwide as their choice of treatment without knowing how actually is it working..!

The present scientific machinery has not succeeded in providing a convincing explanation that conforms to the existing scientific knowledge. Despite the huge number of benefits and experiences getting out of its use, the skeptics is calling it by the name of pseudoscience and as placebo effect.

The proponents of homeopathy goes behind every science reports with some hope to get an answer to this unresolved riddle. And the skeptics is waiting to get every other chance to ridicule it to stop it from entering into the next century as a therapeutic system. More and more countries are making their drug laws stringent to regulate practice of homeopathy and prevent the ‘damages’ caused by it.

So, the clock is ticking away. We are in the final hours to find a suitable and viable scientific explanation of what the “Biological mechanism of action is”, and to prevent ourselves from extinction as a medical field.

Recently the homeopathic community witnessed two major events, among which one was a heartbreaking news and the other one was a rejoicing discovery.

The Australian NHMRC report was the former one which after analyzing various clinical conditions treated using homeopathic medicines concluded that “There is no sufficient evidence to support homeopathy is effective in treating those conditions and it is dangerous to delay conventional treatment”. This was received with awe and serious discussions were held world over to save homeopathy.

The later event was a report about a discovery done by two prominent homeopaths in India, who repeated the IIT-Mumbai experiments and succeeded in finding out NANO PARTICLES of the starting original material and QUANTUM DOTS in the ultra high dilutions of homeopathic metal drugs. Now the whole buzz is about this NANO PARTICLES and is claiming that – “Atleast we have found something material in our potencies”, which for them it is really a moment to rejoice.

In this wake, I would like to examine some facts, based on fundamental science, regarding the exclamatory claims made in this reports.

Nano Particles in Organic sources of our drugs:
Do you know that our biochemical processes do not require to identify an element by its name? For example:

In the biochemical process of Thyroid Hormone synthesis, it requires electrons to form T3 and T4. We cal it as Tri-iodo-thyronine and tetra-iodo-thyronine. But the body choose to get its electrons from Iodine, which is the weaker element in the Halogen group – Fl-Cl-Br-I-At. Astatine is a rare radioactive element and is similar to Iodine in its properties.

Due to the heavy contamination of our food, water and air with the halogens group, there occurs more readily available electrons in abundance from Fluorine, Bromine and Chlorine, which overtakes the electron affinity of Iodine with thyronine molecule to take part in the T3 and T4 formation. The T3 and T4 molecules formed from highly reactive electrons of Fl and Br etc wont be biologically available in further Vital reactions. That is the reason why even though we are supplying Iodine in abundance, the body cannot take up it in presence of Fluorine and chlorine and leads to thyroid dysfunctions of various nature.

So it is clear that, body recognizes the elements by its electron affinity, reactivity and FUNCTIONAL GROUPS, not by its alphabets as we use.

Now comes the question of Nano particles.
It is obvious that the scientists have found out certain Nano particles of metal elements in our dilutions. But the rest of the story is not touched by them.

We know that, the majority drugs we use in our practice is from the plant kingdom – which comes to about 80% – 85%. If the nano particles is searched in these complex organic substances, how are they going to find the PARTICLES?

The properties a plant manifests is due to its nature of the ALKALOIDS and the FUNCTIONAL GROUPS present in them. If we study the structure of alkaloids we can see that – 4 ELEMENTS are common to all of them – viz., NITROGEN, CARBON, HYDROGEN, OXYGEN. Apart from these, trace amounts of other elements too may occur in the chemical structures, but in trace amounts.

So the question is, how can we find out NANOPARTICLES of GASEOUS ELEMENTS like NITROGEN, HYDROGEN, OXYGEN.

Is it possible to identify Nanoparticle of the alkaloid as such? If not and is only identifiable as individual elements – then what is the use of using all these different drugs? Just use these individual elements as medicines and save time and money?

Even though all the alkaloids have the same elements in its structure, the chemical and physical properties of the alkaloid structure is the deciding factor for the biological action. The alkaloids take part in vital reactions to affect the hormones, neurotransmitters, and enzymes to produce good and bad symptoms. All what happen inside is the electron and proton transport and ionic exchanges.

So the biggest question unanswered by this Nanoparticle theory is – How is it possible to explain the Active principle involved in homeopathic drug proving, Cure and the Biological Mechanism of Action of these NANOPARTICLES.

I fear those homeopaths who are over- enthused over the ‘nanoparticle discovery’ in homeopathic potencies, and sincerely believe that the ‘discovery’ has finally settled all questions of ‘scientific proof’ for homeopathy, have not carefully read the paper published by IIT-B team.

A PARAGRAPH FROM IIT-B PAPER:
“Another question that arises from our observations is how in spite of such huge dilutions the particles of the starting materials are retained even at 200c potency? 

The answer to this question could lie in the manufacturing process itself. We perceive that during the succussion process, the pounding of solutions against a rubber stop generates numerous nanobubbles as a result of entrapment of air and cavitation due to generation of ultra-sound waves. 

The particles of the starting material instantaneously get adsorbed on the surface of these bubbles and cavitations. This phenomenon could be similar to the mechanism of formation of Pickering emulsions, wherein the emulsified phase viz. air bubbles or liquid droplets are stabilized by a layer of particles. 

This nanoparticle-nanobubble complex rises to the surface and can be within a monolayer once the total metal concentrations are well below 1 ppm. It is this 1% of the top layer of the solution which is collected and added to the next vessel, into 99 parts of fresh solvent and the succussion process is repeated. This transfer of the top 1% layer in each step will ensure that once we reach below a certain concentration i.e. well within a monolayer, the entire starting material continues to go from one dilution to the next, resulting in an asymptote beyond 6c.”

The main points to be noted in the research are:

1. during the succussion process, the pounding of solutions against a rubber stop generates numerous nanobubbles as a result of entrapment of air and cavitation due to generation of ultra-sound waves
2. The particles of the starting material instantaneously get adsorbed on the surface of these bubbles and cavitations.
3. This nanoparticle-nanobubble complex rises to the surface and can be within a monolayer once the total metal concentrations are well below 1 ppm.
4. It is this 1% of the top layer of the solution which is collected and added to the next vessel, into 99 parts of fresh solvent and the succussion process is repeated. 

This observation and the doubt arisen of how the starting material remained in the high dilutions in spite of the ultra high dilution happening is worth noting. This doesn’t in any manner prove that avagadro law is false, but is hinting at other possible chances of how this happens. The scientists behind this study have given us a possible mechanism of how this can be retained. There also they haven’t made any hasty conclusion like “this retained particles are the active principle of homeopathic medicines”. But what did the homeopathic community chose to do?

If the observation is true, as per the IITB researchers, , then a few questions arises which are conveniently unaddressed by them and the homeopathic community alike. It is well proved that, the starting material is retained in the 1% upper layer of each advancing potency solutions. But it is a fact that, we as homeopaths is not using just the 1% top layer of the potency we purchase. But we even use the last drop of it in the bottle with immense results. Do you think the 99% solution remaining after transfer of “1% top layer” are discarded by the manufacturers? So the observations made is right, but the hastiness in drawing conclusions has brought unwanted confusions and controversies.

So if the findings of this IIT-B team is true, then we will have to admit that, our homoepathic drugs cannot be further called as SIDE EFFECT FREE, because if the potencies contain the above said NANO PARTICLES, then the question of NANOTOXICITY will have to be answered by these drug manufacturers and they will be bound to get certified as “CONTAINS NO NANOPARTICLES OF HARMFUL ELEMENTS AND IS FREE FROM NANO TOXICITY”.

Or else, if they are true, we will have to admit that, these GMP Certified drug manufacturers are not following the guidelines in potentisation and these particles are detected as CONTAMINANTS.

QUANTUM DOTS – is it worth finding?
The second finding in these studies are the presence of QUANTUM DOTS. They are trying to theorize that homeopathic drugs act by the power of these ‘quantum dots’ by  influencing genetic material.

1. What exactly are these things called ‘quantum dots’?
2. Why it is present in potentized drugs?
3. Where from these quantum dots come in homeopathic drugs?
4. What is the difference between molecules, nanoparticles and quantum dots?
5. How these quantum dots are expected to retain the biological and medicinal properties of complex drug substances prepared from plant or animal sources, consisting of diverse types of chemical molecules?

‘Quantum dots’ are tiny particles or nanocrystals of a semiconducting material with diameters in the range of 2-10 nanometers (10-50 atoms). That means, quantum dots are nothing but ‘very small’ nanoparticles. (size of nanoparticles is 10-100 nanometers, and that of quantum dots is 2-10 nanometers). Quantum dots were discovered by Alexey Ekimov at first in 1981 in a glass matrix.

Although some pure elements and many compounds display semiconductor properties, silicon, germanium, and compounds of gallium are the most widely used in electronic devices. Elements near the so-called “metalloid staircase”, where the metalloids are located on the periodic table, are usually used as semiconductors.

What our ‘researchers’ detected in ultra-dilutions as QUANTUM DOTS are actually the SILICON particles detaching from mortars during trituration, and from glass vials during dilution and succussion . They will be most probably present in all homeopathic drugs. It is absurd to theorize that these SILICA particles or QUANTUM DOTS are the active principles of potentized drugs.

Homeopaths should understand, by saying homeopathic potencies contain “quantum dots” that can “influence genetic material”, they are opening doors for our skeptics to attack homeopathy by labeling it as a dangerous thing. Any drug that can “influence genetic material” will be looked upon by people as unsafe things to be used as medicines.

At the end, we can find that, neither the NANOPARTICLES nor the QUANTUM DOTS are not going to help homeopathy in any manner except bringing some serious MATERIAL DAMAGE to our long held position of being SIDE EFFECT FREE.

So let us do some homework in fundamental science and consult the science experts before hastily making any claims about scientificity of homeopathy.  The AIM of the researches done should be rewritten from just “FINDING SOMETHING MATERIAL”, because it is in the wrong direction by negating the very fundamental Avogadro’s law.