Homoeopathica September 2003

by B. P. Singh, Girish Gupta and K. M. Srivastava

The control of plant virus diseases by homoeopathic drugs has been tried by a few workers in the past, so in view of the encouraging results obtained against tobacco mosaic and papaya mosaic viruses, a few more drugs were tried in the present investigation.

Arsenicum album, Thyroidinum and Uranium nitricum of 3x potency were raised to 7x potency and converted into liquid base using distilled water. Sulphur100c, Carcinosin 1M, Morgan 30c,Dolichos 6c, X-ray 30c, Influenzinum 200c and Vaccininum 30c were raised to the next potency by adding 99 ml of distilled water in 1 ml of the drug.

Culture of tobacco mosaic virus was maintained on Nicotiana tabacum var. White Burley, but the experiments were carried out on Nicotiana glutinosa, a hypersensitive host of TMV. Sulphur, Carcinosin, Morgan, Dolichos, Thyroidinum, Arsenicum and Uranium nitricum were sprayed on the plants after 15 minutes and 24 hours of virus inoculation while Influenzinum, X-ray andVaccininum were sprayed twice (48 hours and 24 hours) before virus inoculation.

Inoculum of TMV was prepared by macerating young infected leaf tissue in a pestle and mortar with equal amount of pH 7 phosphate buffer. The slurry was centrifuged at 5000 rpm for 17 minutes and the supernatant thus obtained was used as inoculum. Inoculations were made by rubbing on leaves dusted with carborundum powder. Lesions were counted on fourth day of virus inoculation and per cent inhibition was calculated by comparing with check plants.

Influenzinum, Vaccininum and X-ray when sprayed before virus inoculation on N. glutinosa plants did not exert any kind of protection. Instead, the number of lesions were enhanced in treated plants as compared to controls.
Out of seven drugs tried from therapeutical point of view, Arsenicum, Thyroidinum and Uranium nitricum were found to be more effective in decreasing the number of local lesions as compared to Morgan. Sprays of Dolichos, Sulphur and Carcinocin, however, had no marked effect in reducing the number of local lesions.

TABLE
Effect of post-inoculation sprays of some drugs on number of local lesions produced on N. glutinosa by tobacco mosaic virus.

The search for inhibitors of plant virus multiplication has not been very successful in spite of continued efforts during the past several decades. Our investigations as well as previous records have yielded enough encouraging results to explore the use of homoeopathic drugs for prevention and control of plant virus diseases.

It is obvious that systematic approach towards control of viral maladies of the plants through homoeopathic drugs might yield some reliable and concrete data. It would be worth while to work on two lines:
(i) to prepare drugs from infected plant tissue in accordance with the theory of homoeopathic nosodes and observing their prophylactic effects against plant viruses,
(ii) to screen various available drugs on healthy plants for development of virus like symptoms (proving) with a view to select the drugs for controlling different viral diseases. Such approach in future might make headway towards control of plant viruses which otherwise are difficult to manage.

REFERENCES

Abidi, S. M. H., Srivastava, K. M., Gupta, R. P., Singh, B. P. (1977): Effect of Some Medicinal Drugs on Distortion Ring Spot Virus of Papaya, New Botanist, IV: 13-14.
Khurana, S. M. P. (1971): Effect of Homoeopathic Drugs Against Plant viruses, Planta Medica, 20: 142.
Verma, H. N., Verma, G. S., Verma, V. K., Ram Krishna and Srivastava, K. M. (1969): Homoeopathic and Pharmacopoeial Drugs as Inhibitors of Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Indian Phytopathology, 12: 188.

This research was conducted at the Plant Virology Laboratory, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India, in 1979