title: Comparative efficacy of two microdoses of a potentized homoeopathic drug, Cadmium Sulphoricum, in reducing genotoxic effects produced by cadmium chloride in mice: a time course study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cadmium poisoning in the environment has assumed an alarming problem in recent years. Effective antimutagenic agents which can reverse or combat cadmium induced genotoxicity in mice have not yet been reported. Therefore, in the present study, following the homeopathic principle of "like cures like", we tested the efficacy of two potencies of a homeopathic drug, Cadmium Sulphoricum (Cad Sulph), in reducing the genotoxic effects of Cadmium chloride in mice. Another objective was to determine the relative efficacy of three administrative modes, i.e. pre-, post- and combined pre and post-feeding of the homeopathic drugs. For this, healthy mice, Mus musculus, were intraperitoneally injected with 0.008% solution of CdCl2 @ 1 ml/100 gm of body wt (i.e. 0.8 mcg/gm of bw), and assessed for the genotoxic effects through such studies as chromosome aberrations (CA), micronucleated erythrocytes (MNE), mitotic index (MI) and sperm head anomaly (SHA), keeping suitable succussed alcohol fed (positive) and CdCl2 untreated normal (negative) controls. The CdCl2 treated mice were divided into 3 subgroups, which were orally administered with the drug prior to, after and both prior to and after injection of CdCl2 at specific fixation intervals and their genotoxic effects were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  While the CA, MNE and SHA were reduced in the drug fed series as compared to their respective controls, the MI showed an apparent increase. The combined pre- and post-feeding of Cad Sulph showed maximum reduction of the genotoxic effects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both Cad Sulph-30 and 200 were able to combat cadmium induced genotoxic effects in mice and that combined pre- and post-feeding mode of administration was found to be most effective in reducing the genotoxic effect of CdCl2 followed by the post-feeding mode.
authors.affiliation: Cytogenetics Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741 235, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Mallick
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Rahman Khuda-Bukhsh
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000818:Animals; D002104:Cadmium / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019256:Cadmium Chloride / Q000633:toxicity*; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal; D008297:Male; D008419:Materia Medica / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D051379:Mice; D015162:Micronucleus Tests; D008940:Mitotic Index; D009152:Mutagenicity Tests; D013077:Sperm Head / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D008419:Materia Medica; D002104:Cadmium; D019256:Cadmium Chloride