No abstract

No abstract

The prospects for homeopathic treatments in agriculture are promising, but much more experimentation is needed, especially at a field level, and on potentisation techniques, effective potency levels and conditions for reproducibility. Phytopathological models may also develop into useful tools to answer pharmaceutical questions.

Both experimental approaches showed increased effectiveness for treatments prepared with a higher number of succussion strokes. These results indicate that succussion may have an important influence on treatment effectiveness, and so highlight the need for further research.

Healthy plant models seem an useful approach to investigate basic research questions about the specificity of homeopathic preparations. More investigations with more advanced methods are recommended, especially in the sectors of potentisation techniques, effective potency levels and conditions for reproducibility. Systematic negative control experiments should become a routine procedure to control the stability of the experimental systems.

This study evaluates the effects of temperature and aging on the efficacy of As2O3 at the 45th decimal potency in a wheat germination model, compared against a control and potentized H2O 45×. Each treatment-temperature combination was tested on seeds (Triticum aestivum L.) of Pandas variety, using six Petri dishes (33 seeds/dish) per trial, performing eight trials. Seeds were pre-treated by poisoning with 0.1% As2O3 solution to reduce germination, to allow a better evaluation of homeopathic treatment effects. The outcome variable was the number of non-germinated seeds after 96 h. Temperature effect was investigated by heating each treatment in a water bath for 30 min (at 20, 40 or 70°C), or for 5 min (at 100°C), and that of aging by dividing experimental data, collected over a period of nearly five months, into two groups: early and late experiments. Results seem to show that the efficacy of As2O3 45× is unaltered at 20 and 40°C, increases at 70°C and decreases at 100°C. As regards aging, a notable difference was found between early trials, with no significant efficacy, and late trials, where As2O3 45× exhibits a repeated significant effect versus control, except at 100°C. A reduction in variability was observed for As2O3 45× at 20°C versus control, confirming the findings of previous work. The main conclusion suggested by this experiment is that the efficacy of As2O3 45× on wheat germination may be influenced by heating degree and seems to have an increasing trend as a function of aging.

No abstract

No abstract