Number of successions - wheat - droplet evaporation

Research papers and other publications which do not fit comfortably into the above headings but inform the subject.
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Number of successions - wheat - droplet evaporation

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Effectiveness of ultra high diluted arsenic as a function of succussion number as evidenced by wheat germination test and droplet evaporation method.

Betti L, Trebbi G, Kokornaczyk MO, Nani D, Peruzzi M, Brizzi M.

Abstract
Background
: In the preparation of ultra high dilutions (UHD) each dilution step is
followed by a succussion. Whereas the physical basis of succussion have been well
studied [1], there are only few papers regarding the effects of succussion number
(NS) [2]. In previous studies [3, 4] we showed that arsenic at UHD applied on arsenic
stressed wheat seeds stimulates the germination rate.
Aims: Investigate whether NS applied between the dilution-steps influences the UHD
effectiveness.

Methodology:
Plant material and stress treatment: Wheat seeds (Triticum aestivum L.) of cv.
Pandas were stressed by 30min of poisoning with 5mM As2O3 aqueous solution [3,
4].

Classes of treatment: Undiluted and unsuccussed H2O (C), H2O and As2O3 both at
the 45th decimal dilution/succussion (W45x and As45x, respectively). The
succussion was handmade and NS differed for each treatment (NS= 4, 8, 16, 32, 40,
70, 100).

Biological model: In each Petri dish 36 seeds were placed and watered with 20ml of
treatment. After 96 hours non-germinated seeds were counted. The experiment was
repeated twice and each one consisted in 6 Petri dishes per treatment and 6 trials.
The results were analyzed by Poisson test [3].

Droplet evaporation method: The droplet patterns [5] were prepared out of the
stressed wheat samples treated either with As45x, W45x (NS=8, 32, 70) or C. The
experiment was performed in a 3 day repetition, 3 replicates per day, 5 droplets per
replicate. The patterns were evaluated by means of the ImageJ software for their
local connected fractal dimension (LCFD) values. The data was analyzed by means
of the analysis of variance. Multiple mean comparison was carried out by Turkey’s
HSD test.

Results: NS strongly influenced both the biological effectiveness of the treatment (i)
and the LCFD of the DEM patterns (ii). In particular: (i) the rate of germinated seeds
significantly increased vs. C following treatments with NS≥32 for both As45x and
W45x; (ii) all As45x (NS=8, 32, 70) and W45x with NS=70 significantly increased the
LCFD of DEM patterns vs. C. Both approaches showed that UHD effects increase
with the growing NS, even if there was a non complete correspondence of the
significance levels.

Conclusions: Our results show that NS is an important parameter influencing the
UHD effectiveness.