Source : The Times of India 16 dec 2010
Mumbai: Six months after the British Medical Association wrote off homoeopathy as “witchcraft’’ that had no scientific basis, we may now have an irrefutable answer to what makes this ancient form of medicine click.
Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) have established that the sweet white pills work on the principle of nanotechnology.
Homeopathic pills—made of naturally occurring metals such as gold and copper-—retain their potency even when diluted to a nanometre or one-billionth of a metre, states the IIT-B research published in the latest issue of Homoeopathy, a peer-reviewed journal published by the reputed Elsevier. IIT-B’s chemical engineering department bought commonly available homoeopathic pills from neigbourhood shops, prepared highly diluted solutions and checked under powerful electron microscopes to find nanoparticles of the original metal.
“Our paper showed that certain highly diluted homoeopathic remedies made from metals still contain measurable amounts of the starting material, even at extreme dilutions of 1 part in 10 raised to 400 (200C),’’ said Dr Jayesh Bellare. His student, Prashant Chikramane, presented the paper ‘Extreme homoeopathic dilutions retain starting materials: A nanoparticulate perspective’, as part of his doctoral thesis. IIT theory proves what some homoeopaths have always known.
Homoeopathy was established in the late 18th century by German physician Samuel Hahnemann. While it is widely popular in certain countries, especially India, the British Medical Association and the British parliament have in recent times questioned homoeopathy’s potency. Around four years ago, British research papers rubbished homoeopathy as a mere “placebo’’
.“Homoeopathy has been a conundrum for modern medicine. Its practitioners maintained that homeopathic pills got more potent on dilution, but they could never explain the mechanism scientifically enough for the modern scientists,’’ said Bellare. For instance, if an ink-filler loaded with red ink is introduced into the Powai lake, Bellare said, there would be no chance of ever tracing it. “But the fact is that homoeopathic pills have worked in extreme dilutions and its practitioners have been able to cure tough medical conditions,” he added.
“We had analyzed ayurvedic bhasmas a few years ago and found nanoparticles to be the powering agent ,” the team members said. For the first time, scientists used equipment like transmission electron microscope, electron diffraction and emission spectroscopy to map physical entities in extremely dilution. They could measure nanoparticles of gold and copper (the original metal used in the medicines).
The theory is that nanobubbles form on the surface of the highly diluted mixtures and float to the surface, retaining the original potency. “We believe we have cracked the homoeopathy conundrum,’’ said Bellare. According to homoeopath Dr Farokh J Master, the IIT theory has proven something what practitioners have always known..
