Homoeopathica February 2004

In 1982 Raynor L. Jones and Michael D. Jenkins told the 35th Congress of the Liga Medicorum Homœopathica Internationalis of their experiments with potencies of Pulsatilla to observe effects on the sprouting of wheat and the growth of yeast.

Wheat

Centesimal potencies, 1 to 13, of Pulsatilla were freshly made for each experiment; dilution from Mother Tincture was with distilled water, with hand succussion in between, 30 sharp impacts of the container at about two per second, with 3-minute intervals of rest between one dilution and the next. These were used as the growing media. Distilled water was used for the controls.
Wheat seeds of the variety “Bounty”, weight range 40-60mg, were soaked for one hour at 4 degrees C in each growing medium. Crystallization dishes, 9.5cm diameter, were used for each set of 50 seeds. Each treatment was in quadruplicate. Four layers of 9cm circles of filter paper were placed in each dish and the soaked seeds arranged evenly on the filter paper, with the groove side of the seed downwards. The dishes were set out in a wooden light-proof box and 20ml of each medium pipetted into each dish without disturbing the seeds. A cover, a rimmed 600ml plastic beaker, was placed on each dish to maintain even local humidity. The wooden boxes were then closed and kept in a darkroom at 21 degrees C for six days. After such incubation the shoots (coleoptile length) were measured using a millimetre rule. The values were plotted as a graph against potency number. The mean values of controls (distilled water) were normalized at 100. This allows percentage differences to be easily noted. A statistical analysis of variance was carried out for the individual measurements and the results considered acceptable at or better than the 5% confidence level.

Yeast

The growing medium was 2% glucose with 0.2% malt extract powder in distilled water, sterilized by a short period of autoclaving.
The initial seeding culture was made up as follows: 0.05g of dried baker’s yeast (granular) was added to 12ml of medium and kept at 30C for one hour. The test tube container was put on a vortex mixer (15 seconds at 6000 rpm) and returned to the incubator at 30 degrees C for further 23 hours. Sterile test tubes were set up in racks, in duplicate, for each treatment. Using sterile precautions, 10ml of medium and 0.5ml of potentized remedy were added to each of the tubes. Aliquots of 0.5ml of distilled water were used in the controls. Finally, the culture, after 15 seconds of vortex mixing, was added in 0.5ml aliquots to each in the series. Incubation was at 30 degrees C for 24 hours without mechanical agitation.
Measurement of yeast growth was by cell count, using an Improved Neubauer Chamber. The undiluted suspension of cells, thoroughly vortex-mixed, was loaded into the chamber, in duplicate, by means of a suitable fine-tipped pipette. A binocular microscope was used for viewing and counts made for each treatment of the number of yeast cells in 25 sets of the 16 small squares. This gave something of the order of 1750 cells per sample. Mean counts were normalized against controls (100) and plotted graphically against potency number.

Results

Graph 1 shows graphically the variation of growth against potency number for wheat coleoptiles for Pulsatilla 2-13c (the alcohol in 1c spoilt germination). Graph 2 shows the growth effect of the same remedy, potencies 1-13c, on yeast cultures. Looking at the two graphs as a pair, one’s attention is first drawn to the comparable rise and fall in the variation about the control values as the potency number changes. It should be noted that this is so despite the fact that the coordinate for growth in the yeast series is five times greater than that for the wheat. Secondly, the peaks and troughs in the two graphs occur at the same potency number.

Discussion

Results show that there is good correlation between the two methods. The curve following of the yeast versus wheat as to potency number is consistent especially in the position of peaks and troughs in the graphs and in the direction of change with respect to the controls. However, the yeast method is very much more sensitive. Furthermore, the yeast test may be completed in one day, while six days are required for the wheat coleoptile measurements. We believe the yeast method to be a significant advance in the search for methods of studying the in vitro effect of homœopathic potencies and the process of potentization. The main drawback in practical terms with the yeast method used in this experiment was the direct measurement of cell numbers by microscopy. We have studied methods using optical density (spectroscopy and nephelometry) but found them unsatisfactory in their reproducibility. We suspect this is probably due to scatter, there being an uneven distribution of particle size of the budding yeast cells.

[Similar experiments with yeast measured the amounts of carbon dioxide produced, which is much easier than cell counting. – Editor]

Condensed from the British Homœopathic Journal, July 1983.

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ONE COMMENT ON “WHEAT AND YEAST AS MODELS FOR INVESTIGATING MEDICINES”

Marie Buchler says:

October 21, 2008 at 6:59 pm

To the editor:
I am interested to know whether the Raynor L Jones one of the coauthors of this article is the same person who was connected with the Bio Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association both in the UK and in NZ. He did experiments in NZ on the effects of the biodynamic preparations on plant growth.

Kind regards,

Marie Buchler
PS I am compiling some of the biodynamic agricutural history in NZ.