Nanoparticles and membrane anisotropy

Sir,

In our work using Aconitum napellus, we predicted that after repeated dilution the aggregates of drug molecules reduce in size and approach the range of nanodimensions.[ ¹ ] We showed for the first time the effect of this size reduction due to dilution on membrane anisotropy. At high dilutions, when the size of the drug cluster is in the nanorange, membrane anisotropy increases with increasing dilution, indicating that more drug molecules have entered in the membrane moiety.

To summarise, repeated succussion used to dilute the drug also reduces the size of the drug cluster and it becomes more potent as more drug enters in the membrane.

In May 2010, a paper using metal-derived homeopathic medicine was published in Homeopathy where a similar idea is suggested.[ ² ] The authors of this paper hypothesize that succussion results in high temperature resulting in clustering due to melting of the metal surface and the associated high pressures reduce the aggregate size.

Our observations on this work are as follows:

• A) If the temperature rises to such high value such that the metal surface melts, (no reference given as to how this temperature has been estimated) in association with vibration of large magnitude then

  • The water cavity should evaporate at such high temperature.

  • The vibration would break up the clusters, rather than forming them.

• B) The aggregation of nanoparticles would become equivalent to the initial starting material indicating that the succussion process has no impact, which is contrary to the observed result.

• C) The authors have used several methods (TEM and SAED) to determine the size, morphology and confirm the elemental composition of the nanoparticles. But in all these methods, the solvent has been totally evaporated and hence the situation is in no way equivalent to the actual case where the solvent plays an important role.

• D) The authors did not detect any major potency-dependent difference in the size distribution of nanoparticles as the dilution was increased from 30c to 200c. What then is the role of dilution?

• References

• 1 International conference on radiation physics and its application (ICRPA 2010). Burdwan, India: University of Burdwan; 16–17 January 2010.
• 2 Chikramane P.S., Suresh A.K., Bellare J.R., Kane S.G. Extreme homeopathic dilutions retain starting materials: a nanoparticulate perspective. Homeopathy 2010; 99: 231-242.