Biofield Treatment: A Potential Strategy for Modification of Physical and Thermal Properties of Indole

What is it about?

Indole compounds are important class of therapeutic molecules, which have excellent pharmaceutical applications. The objective of present research was to investigate the influence of biofield treatment on physical and thermal properties of indole. The study was performed in two groups (control and treated). The control group remained as untreated, and biofield treatment was given to treated group. The control and treated samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. XRD study demonstrated the increase in crystalline nature of treated indole as compared to control. Additionally, the treated indole showed increase in crystallite size by 2.53% as compared to control. DSC analysis of treated indole (54.45ºC) showed no significant change in melting temperature (Tm) in comparison with control sample (54.76ºC). A significant increase in latent heat of fusion (ΔH) by 30.86% was observed in treated indole with respect to control. Derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) of treated indole showed elevation in maximum thermal decomposition temperature (Tmax) 166.49ºC as compared to control (163.37ºC). This was due to increase in thermal stability of indole after biofield treatment. FT-IR analysis of treated indole showed increase in frequency of N-H stretching vibrational peak by 6 cm-1 as compared to control sample. UV spectroscopy analysis showed no alteration in absorption wavelength (λmax) of treated indole with respect to control. The present study showed that biofield has substantially affected the physical and thermal nature of indole.

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Why is it important?

The theoretical basis of medicinal chemistry has become much more sophisticated, but is naive to suppose that the discovery of drugs is merely a matter of structure-activity relationships. Indole is organic compound which is parent substance for a large number of important molecules occurring in nature [1]. The indole based compounds are important class of therapeutic molecules which can replace many existing pharmaceuticals in near future. Indole is colourless crystalline solid with a range of odours; naphthalene like in case of indole to fecal in case of skatole (3-methylindole). Tryptophan is an indole derivative which is one of the important amino acids. Especially, serotonin an important indole derivative which is a vasoconstrictor hormone plays an interesting role in conducting impulses to brain [2]. Moreover, some indole alkaloids show significant impact on muscle contraction while toxiferenes act as muscle relaxants. Additionally, 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors an derivative of indole have been used for synthesis of sumatriptan [3] for the treatment of migraine, ondasetran [4] used in chemotherapy, and alosetron [5] for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. Delavirdine and inhibitor of cytochrome P450 isozyme CYP3A4, is a drug which has been designed for HIV treatment [6]. Further, indole-3-carbinol (I3C) is a natural indole derivative found commonly in cruciferous vegetables which has been indicated as a promising agent in preventing breast cancer development and progression [7]. Since, indole is used as an intermediate for synthesis of these pharmaceutical compounds, where its rate of reaction plays a pivotal role. In a previous research study it was shown that rate of reaction of an organic compound can be accelerated by increasing its crystallite size [8]. Hence, by considering the above excellent applications of indole, herein an attempt was made to use an approach that could be beneficial in order to modify the physical and thermal properties of indole. A physicist, William Tiller proposed the existence of a new force related to human body, in addition to four well known fundamental forces of physics: gravitational force, strong force, weak force, and electromagnetic force. Fritz-Albert, a biophysicist proposed that human physiology shows a high degree of order and stability due to their coherent dynamic states [9-12]. Thus, the human body emits the electromagnetic waves in form of bio-photons, which surrounds the body and it is commonly known as biofield. Therefore, the biofield consists of electromagnetic field, being generated by moving electrically charged particles (ions, cell, molecule etc.) inside the human body. Furthermore, a human has ability to harness the energy from environment/universe and can transmit into any object (living or non-living) around the Globe. The object(s) always receive the energy and respond into useful way that is called biofield energy and this process is known as biofield treatment (The Trivedi Effect®). Mr. Trivedi’s biofield treatment is known to alter the characteristics of many things in several research fields such as, material science [13-17], agriculture [18-20] and biotechnology [21]. Biofield treatment has shown excellent results in improving the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern, and alteration of biochemical reactions, as well as induced alterations in characteristics of pathogenic microbes [22,23]. Exposure to biofield treatment caused paramount increase in medicinal property, growth, and anatomical characteristics of ashwagandha [24]. By considering the above mentioned excellent outcome from biofield treatment and pharmaceutical significance of indole, this study was undertaken to investigate the impact of biofield on its physical and thermal properties.

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