Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 481
Significant in-vitro results suggest the capability of high homoeopathic potencies of mercuric chloride (Merc-c) to influence the enzyme activity of hydrolases (e.g. Boyd and Brit, 1954). The aim of this study was to get a better insight into this biochemical model, including a close reproduction of the historical experiments.
Merc-c was potentised to C2, C6, C8, C10, C12, C26, C27, C28 and C30 and compared with succussed and diluted H2O. According to a repeated complete block design the activity of (1) ‘malt-diastase’, ‘an aqueous extract of yeast’, and (2) α-amylase was quantified using the iodine–starch reaction. Extinction was measured photometrically at 650 nm.
In contrast to the results of Boyd and Brit, Merc-c C6 showed a minor stimulation (–0.07, 95% CI –0.19 to 0.05, P = 0.24) but no higher potency affected the activity of malt-diastase (all P > 0.2). Merc-c C2 inhibited the activity of α-amylase (difference 0.16, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.24, P < 0.001), and again all higher potencies had no effect (all P > 0.6).
There was no evidence for the activity of high potencies of mercuric chloride in our experiments. The reproduction of Boyd and Brit’s results possibly failed because of two reasons: (1) Boyd and Brit neither randomises nor use succussed controls; (2) the historic malt-diastase could not be exactly reproduced.
