Bizarre Chemical Discovery Gives Homeopathic Hint

By Andy Coghlan  New Scientist  November 7, 2001

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991532

It is a chance discovery so unexpected it defies belief and threatens to reignite debate about whether there is a scientific basis for thinking homeopathic medicines really work. A team in South Korea has discovered a whole new dimension to just about the simplest chemical reaction in the book - what happens when you dissolve a substance in water and then add more water.

Conventional wisdom says that the dissolved molecules simply spread further and further apart as a solution is diluted. But two chemists have found that some do the opposite: they clump together, first as clusters of molecules, then as bigger aggregates of those clusters. Far from drifting apart from their neighbours, they got closer together. The discovery has stunned chemists, and could provide the first scientific insight into how some homeopathic remedies work. Homeopaths repeatedly dilute medications, believing that the higher the dilution, the more potent the remedy becomes. Some dilute to "infinity" until no molecules of the remedy remain. They believe that water holds a memory, or "imprint" of the active ingredient which is more potent than the ingredient itself. But others use less dilute solutions - often diluting a remedy six-fold. The Korean findings might at last go some way to reconciling the potency of these less dilute solutions with orthodox science.

Completely counterintuitive German chemist Kurt Geckeler and his colleague Shashadhar Samal stumbled on the effect while investigating fullerenes at their lab in the Kwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. They found that the football-shaped buckyball molecules kept forming untidy aggregates in solution, and Geckler asked Samal to look for ways to control how these clumps formed. What he discovered was a phenomenon new to chemistry. "When he diluted the solution, the size of the fullerene particles increased," says Geckeler. "It was completely counterintuitive," he says.

Further work showed it was no fluke. To make the otherwise insoluble buckyball dissolve in water, the chemists had mixed it with a circular sugar-like molecule called a cyclodextrin. When they did the same experiments with just cyclodextrin molecules, they found they behaved the same way. So did the organic molecule  sodium guanosine monophosphate, DNA and plain old sodium chloride. Dilution typically made the molecules cluster into aggregates five to 10 times as big as those in the original solutions. The growth was not linear, and it depended on the concentration of the original. "The history of the solution is important. The more dilute it starts, the larger the aggregates," says Geckeler. Also, it only worked in polar solvents like water, in which one end of the molecule has a pronounced positive charge while the other end is negative.

Biologically active

But the finding may provide a mechanism for how some homeopathic medicines work - something that has defied scientific explanation till now. Diluting a remedy may increase the size of the particles to the point when they become biologically active. It also echoes the controversial claims of French immunologist Jacques Benveniste. In 1988, Benveniste claimed in a Nature paper that a solution that had once contained antibodies still activated human white blood cells. Benveniste claimed the solution still worked because it contained ghostly "imprints" in the water structure where the antibodies had been. Other researchers failed to reproduce Benveniste's experiments, but homeopaths still believe he may have been onto something. Benveniste himself does not think the new findings explain his results because the solutions were not dilute enough. "This [phenomenon] cannot apply to high dilution," he says.

Fred Pearce of University College London, who tried to repeat Benveniste's experiments, agrees. But it could offer some clues as to why other less dilute homeopathic remedies work, he says. Large clusters and aggregates might interact more easily with biological tissue. Double-check Chemist Jan Enberts of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands is more cautious. "It's still a totally open question," he says. "To say the phenomenon has biological significance is pure speculation." But he has no doubt Samal and Geckeler have discovered something new. "It's surprising and worrying," he says.

The two chemists were at pains to double-check their astonishing results. Initially they had used the scattering of a laser to reveal the size and distribution of the dissolved particles. To check, they used a scanning electron microscope to photograph films of the solutions spread over slides. This, too, showed that dissolved substances cluster together as dilution increased. "It doesn't prove homeopathy, but it's congruent with what we think and is very encouraging," says Peter Fisher, director of medical research at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. "The whole idea of high-dilution homeopathy hangs on the idea that water has properties which are not understood," he says. "The fact that the new effect happens with a variety of substances suggests it's the solvent that's responsible. It's in line with what many homeopaths say, that you can only make homeopathic medicines in polar solvents."

Geckeler and Samal are now anxious that other researchers follow up their work. "We want people to repeat it," says Geckeler. "If it's confirmed it will be groundbreaking". ------------

FRESH CLUE TO HOMEOPATH MYSTERY

BBC   Wednesday, 7 November, 2001 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1643000/1643364.stm

Many scientists think it is physically impossible for homeopathy to work - but new research suggests how remedies might be having an effect. Many homeopathic treatments take ingredients and then dilute them in water many times over. In some cases, it is believed that the more times a remedy is diluted, the more potent it becomes. This flies in the face of established scientific wisdom, which states that diluting a liquid will weaken its effects. In fact, it has been calculated that some of the degrees of dilution involved in homeopathy mean there is unlikely to be even a single molecule of the original ingredient still present in a dose.

However, research reported in New Scientist magazine claims to have found a curious phenomenon which might challenge this belief. A team of chemists from South Korea found that dissolved molecules do not simply spread out in a regular fashion in the solution. Instead, the team found, they tend to clump together in bigger clusters of molecules - and then as even bigger lumps composed of these clusters. This would suggest that a heavily diluted homeopathic remedy might by chance contain more of the "active" ingredient than expected. German chemist Kurt Geckeler, part of the team at the Kwangju Institute of Science of Technology, said: "We want people to confirm it. "If it's confirmed it will be groundbreaking." The level of dilution tested by the scientists corresponded only to the more "concentrated" solutions used by homeopaths, perhaps diluted only six-fold  rather than to "infinity", as in some preparations. Dr Peter Fisher, the director of medical research at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, said: "The whole idea of high-dilution homeopathy hangs on the idea that water has properties which are not understood. "The fact that the new effect happens with a variety of substances suggests it's the solvent that's responsible. "It doesn't prove homeopathy, but it's congruent with what we think and is very encouraging."

Acid test

However, it is unlikely to convince some of the scientists who are firmly against homeopathy. This is because clinical trials have so far failed to provide clear evidence that homeopathy can work better than simply giving the patient an ingredient-free placebo. Some trials have given homeopathy a slight advantage, while others have shown the reverse. A review of all of these in 1997 slightly favoured homeopathy, but did not find a margin of proof likely to satisfy the majority of doctors that such treatments are worthwhile.

Professor Edward Ernst, an expert in complementary medicine based at the University of Exeter, said that he hoped that large scale clinical trials could be set up to settle the question once and for all. He told BBC News Online: "The evidence in my book - as somebody who tries to be between the two groups - is not convincing. "I think the overall success of homeopathy is comparable with something like non-steroidal anti inflammatory creams - which are sold all over the place. "The size of any effect they produce is very very small."

Other theories

Other teams have attempted in the past to find some scientific reasoning behind the possible effects of homeopathy. One oft-quoted theory is the "memory of water" concept, which suggests that even if a solution is so dilute that it is unlikely a molecule of the original ingredient is present, the water itself may retain an "imprint" of  it. This "imprint" might be able to have a physical effect on the body, it was suggested. This theory was given a little credence by work which suggested that such "imprinting" might take place - although the evidence of this persisted for only a matter of milliseconds. The research reported in New Scientist was also published in the journal

Chemical Communications.

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