Nuclear magnetic resonance: let's consolidate the ground before getting excited!

Homeopathy has been continuously faced with the problem of explaining the therapeutic action of medicines diluted beyond the theoretical Avogadro limit of molecular presence. This paradox has lent weight to the hypothesis of solvent as a likely support of therapeutic action. Way back in 1941, Boyd (1) put forward the notion of physical modifications induced in the solvent, a notion which, in late sixties, was to evolve into the ‘imprint theory’, and which is based on water polymer formation. Imprint theories are still considered nowadays, involving electromagnetic interactions, water clusters, isotopic effects or coherent states. Whatever the hypothesis, the study of the chemicophysical properties of solvents remains a major path to follow in conventional research in this field. In this respect, proton NMR appears as a choice method: whether in alcoholic or aqueous diluted solutions, water protons (H2O) or ethanol protons (CH3CH2OH) are to be found in quasi-constant maximal quantities, thereby yielding an optimal signal to noise ratio.