NMR relaxation time investigation of highly diluted aqueous solutions of silica-lactose

The aim of the present investigation was to replicate a study published by Demangeat in 2010 in the Journal of Molecular Liquids. We measured 20 MHz longitudinal (T1) and transverse (T2) proton relaxation of H2O in highly diluted silica-lactose (Sil/Lac) solutions in 0.15 M LiCl in water (Sil/Lac C6–C24, range 10−7 M–10−47 M). The samples were prepared by repetitive succussion and centesimal dilution under rigorously controlled laboratory conditions. Lactose solutions in 0.15 M LiCl in water (Lac C6–C24) were identically and simultaneously treated, as controls. Neither for lactose (Lac) nor for Sil/Lac solutions did T1 and T2 relaxation parameters show a significant correlation with increasing dilution level. A cross-correlation analysis of T1 and T2 revealed a significant negative correlation for both Sil/Lac and LiCl samples, which changed to positive after placing the tubes for 10 min in boiling water. These results diverge from those obtained in the study of Demangeat. In our investigation, the process of potentisation (repetitive succussion and dilution) seems to be responsible for the modifications of proton relaxation times, irrespective of the presence of silica. We hypothesise that succussion intensity during dilution is a crucial factor that needs to be investigated in more detail in future investigations.