Homeopathy 2024; 113(01): A1-A26
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1779792
Presentation Abstracts
Poster Abstracts

Patterns from Dried Droplets as a Tool to Study Combinations of Plant and Inorganic Homeopathic Preparations in Low-dilution Range

Johannes Fahrentrapp
1   Society for Cancer Research, Arlesheim, Switzerland
2   Institute of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
,
Stephan Baumgartner
1   Society for Cancer Research, Arlesheim, Switzerland
2   Institute of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
3   Institute for Integrative Medicine, University of Witten/Herdecke, Herdecke, Germany
,
Sandra Würtenberger
4   Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Hevert-Arzneimittel GmbH & Co. KG, Nussbaum, Germany
,
Maria Olga Kokornaczyk
1   Society for Cancer Research, Arlesheim, Switzerland
2   Institute of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
› Author Affiliations
› Further Information
 

Background: Patterns from dried droplets were used to characterize homeopathic preparations of different origin in low-potency levels, and the impact of different succussion modalities on homeopathic preparations. Here we studied the potential of this approach to investigate mixtures of plant extracts and salts in 2x and 3x and to determine which influence the plant and salt components have on the pattern.

Methods: We tested either in 2x and 3x five salt solutions and seven plant extracts, and their 1/1 combinations. 28 drops of each mixture were evaporated and photographed with a dark field microscope in 25x and 100x magnifications. The images were qualitatively characterized and quantitatively analyzed by means of the computer program ImageJ for their texture parameters. Data were statistically evaluated.

Results: Patterns of 2x potencies showed more structures than those of 3x potencies. Patterns of plant-salt mixtures contained more structures than those of plant extracts and salt solutions separately. The addition of salt solutions to plant extracts increased sample discrimination for the plant extracts, particularly for KNO3, NaCl, and CuCl2. Qualitatively, the mixtures showed new kinds of patterns that were distinct from the patterns of the components analyzed separately.

Conclusions: This pilot study pointed at a good potential to use the patterns from evaporated droplets to study mixtures of homeopathic preparations in low-dilution ranges. Discrimination of plant extracts might be improved by using other ratios than the applied 1:1 ratio or different potency combinations. Further research is needed to elucidate the method’s potential for homeopathy basic research and analytics based on a pattern formation process.

Keywords: Droplet evaporation method, method development, combination remedies, basic research, low-dilution range



Publication History

Article published online:
30 January 2024

© 2024. Faculty of Homeopathy. This article is published by Thieme.

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