Effects of Arsenic-Alba on some Morphological Parameters on plant Mirabilis Jalapa
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1994 Mar / Apr Vol III No 2.
Jana.
Materia Medica.
` Ars.
Introduction:
Arsenic is a deadly poison. Every year millions of people of West Bengal (24 blocks of 7 districts) suffer from Arsenic poisoning and some of them die due to drinking water containing Arsenic. It is a know homicidal and suicidal agent. There is a widespread use of Arsenicals in pesticides and herbicides, as residues on foodstuffs, as food additives and inorganic and organic arsenicals in tonics, antianaemics, amoebicides, spirocheticides and the chief source is human contact. The arsenicals are released into air and water as chief effluents form the nonferrous metal smelters of coal burning furnaces. However in recent years several American scientists have questioned the widely held conclusion that the arsenicals are definite human carcinogens for skin (Neuburger, 1947) and respiratory tract cancer.
Newman et al (1976) have observed that women residing near smelter operations revealed a greater incidence of respiratory cancers.
Epidermiological studies have suggested that Arsenic in drinking water may be related to an increased risk of skin cancer.
From ancient times it is used as a medicine and it has been used in China and India for cutaneous affection, neuralgias, cholera, and chorea. Dr. Hahnemann (1833) has demonstrated that with the gradual quantitative diminution of a drug the latent dynamic curative force of a medicine is aroused into increasing activity. This phenomenon has given us a homoeopathic medicine Arsenic alba (white arsenious As2O3) which is great polychrest remedy for various disorders. In view of the above background, the present investigation was undertaken to assess the validity of the very concept of homoeopathic dilution by evaluating the quantitative and qualitative differences in the effect of different potencies of a particular homoeopathic medicine on the morphological parameters on test plant systems where there was no visible or appreciable existence of the medicinal substances. Here we also try to investigate whether the homoeopathic medicine has any mutagenic effect or not and is there any possibility to use homoeopathic medicine in plant improvement programme in agricultural field like other mutagenic agents.
Materials and Methods:
The dry seeds of Mirabilis-jalapa (10 in each set) were soaked in 50 ml of distilled water containing different potencies of Arsenic-alb, 5 drops in each set for 24 hours. The potencies were 1X, 30, 200, 1M, 10M, CM. Two sets of control were kept. One in distilled water and the other in a solution prepared by adding 5 drops of a solvent in 50ml of distilled water. After 24 hours the seeds were washed in distilled water and sowing was done. Then the observations were recorded at intervals of 15 days i.e. on 15th, 30th and 45th days and then at the time of maturity i.e. after initiation of flowering (in 10M, CM). (see table)
Table of Results: Plant length (in Cms)
15 days 30 days 45 days 150 days
Control 3.10 7.25 16.55 77.00
Arsenic-alba 1X 4.00 13.33 24.00 90.00
Arsenic-alb 200 5.22 16.88 23.30 87.00
Arsenic-alb 10M 9.66 24.66 36.00 110.66
Arsenic-alb CM 4.55 15.00 25.50 121.00
Sexual Parameters-
Pollen fertility was examined and seeds obtained in M1 generation were sown to raise the M2 generation. Mutants were isolated and tested for their genetic nature. 10 seeds of M1 generation of each set were weighed. Data which was recorded was subjected to statistical analysis.
Discussion:
With the treatment with Arsenic-alb in all potencies, an overall increase in plant growth is seen. It exhibits a remarkable enhancement of different morphological parameters surpassing the control set. This indicates that the drug which is nothing but an alcoholic potentisation of the crude substance has a pronounced effect on enhancement of plant growth. This effect is however selective for a particular potency as because every potency shows different results. It also confirms the homoeopathic concepts of potentisation that higher the potency, slower is the action but steady and for a longer time.
The physiological status of a plant is distinctly affected. Late flowering is observed which may be due to excessive vegetative growth or due to changes in the hormone concentration of the plant. Seeds are smaller in size and of less weight than the control.
So, from the above discussion we can conclude that Arsenic-alb shows distinct effects on plant morphology; whether the changes are transitory or due to genetic effect cannot be concluded.
