EXPERIMENTS FOR DETECTING DIFFERING EFFECTS OF POTENCY AND EQUALLY CONCENTRATED DILUTION

Introduction: Acid phosphatase from potato catalyzes the formation of p-nitrophenol by splitting off the anorganic phosphate residue from p- nitrophenylphosphate. This dephosphorylation reaction was analyzed in the presence of two test substances Objective: The main target of thes e investigations was to ascertain differences in the effects of homoeo pathic potency and equally concentrated conventional dilution on the a ctivity of this enzyme by Variation of assay conditions. Methods: As t est substances cAMP and ubiquinone in the potency D8 and the dilution 10(-8) were used. In the presence of these preparations the catalytic activity of acid phosphatase was determined by a spectrophotometric as say. Results: 1. When analyzing enzyme-catalyzed dephosphorylation rea ction under standard conditions (time of incubation 5 min at 30 degree s C) in the presence of cAMP and ubiquinone, respectively, it was foun d that both substances inhibited the catalytic activity of acid phosph atase. 2. While differing effects of homoeopathic potency and equally concentrated dilution of the rest substance ubiquinone could be detect ed, in the case of cAMP such a difference - even when the time of incu bation was varied - was not found. 3. After modification of the assay conditions (pre-incubation of the enzyme together with the agent for 2 0 min at 30 degrees C) the homoeopathic potency D8 and the dilution 10 (-8) of cAMP differed in their impact upon enzyme-catalyzed substrate dephosphorylation. In the case of ubiquinone the difference already fo und under standard conditions could be enhanced. Conclusions: 1. With the help of a cell-free system it is possible to detect differing effe cts of potency and equally concentrated dilution. Thereby it is not on ly important to combine the 'right' enzyme system with the 'appropriat e' agent, but to vary and modify the conditions of the assay system. 2 . As the results show, parts of the basic research in homoeopathy can be presented independently of an intact organism.