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Schwabe News Volume 2 | Issue 2 | April 2011

Research news

Development of a Test System for Homoeopathic Preparations Using Impaired Duckweed (Lemna gibba L.)

In this new research, a bioassay with arsenic-stressed duckweed (Lemna gibba L.) was developed to study potentially regulative effects of homoeopathic preparations. Researchers had compared potentized substances (nine different potency levels between 17x and 33x) with two controls (unsuccussed and succussed water) regarding their influence on number- and area-related growth rate and colour of fronds (leaves). Screening included 11 potentised substances: Arsenicum album, gibberellic acid, nosode, arsenic (V), phosphorus, Conchae, Acidum picrinicum, Argentum nitricum, Crotalus horridus, Hepar sulfuris, and Mercurius vivus naturalis. Duckweed was stressed with arsenic (V) for 48 hours. Afterwards, plants grew in either potentised substances or water controls for 6 days. Growth rate and color of fronds were determined with a computerised image analysis system for different time intervals (days 0–2, 2–6, 0–6). A systematic negative control experiment with unsuccussed water was used to investigate the stability of the bioassay. All experiments were randomized and blinded. Results showed that Arsenicum album and nosode potencies increased frond number–related growth rate compared to controls (succussed water controls or pooled water controls [succussed and unsuccussed], p<0.05, t test). Regarding colour classification, no effects were observed. From this study researchers had concluded that the experimental setup with L. gibba stressed by arsenic (V) provides a valuable tool to investigate regulative effects of potentised substances. In order to verify the effects of Arsenicum album and nosode potencies, further independent replication experiments are necessary.

Reference:

• Tim Jäger, Claudia Scherr, Meinhard Simon, Peter Heusser, Stephan Baumgartner. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. April 2011, 17(4): 315-323

Remedy Selection based on Artificial Intelligent Methods

It is a new paper suggesting new method of computer repertorisation. Homoeopathy decision is a decision under uncertainty and an essential activity for accurate treatment. Computer expert systems have long history of application in medical diagnosis. In this paper the researchers have studied the application of Fuzzy Expert System (it is a logic system that uses collection of function and rules to reason a data) and decision tree for selection of suitable remedy in homoeopathy. A decision made by homoeopath is highly dependent on the quality of selected rubrics. The rubrics are collected during case taking and generally contains expressions that might be considered fuzzy, such as ‘never’, ‘sometimes’, ‘always’, and so on, making it difficult to model them with conventional computational methods. In this context, fuzzy set theory in expert systems is an interesting tool to deal with the representation of inaccurate medical entities. Hence, the researchers suggest that we can go from natural language (linguistic variables) to numerical variables when repertorising in the computer which are more convenient to handle in a computer. The proposed method reduces sensitivity of system to homoeopath mistakes and increase security of system.

Reference:

• S. S. Sadidpour, S. S. Ghidary, Remedy Selection based on Artificial Intelligent Methods, International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887, Volume 19– No.9, April 2011

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