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Effects of Homeopathic Mother Tinctures on Breath Alcohol Testing |
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| Authors: | Gianpiero Boatto MD Claudia Trignano MD Lucia Burrai MD Andrea Spanu MD Maria Nieddu PhD |
| Affiliation: | 1. Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Sassari, Via Muroni 23/a, 07100 Sassari, Italy;2. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Università di Sassari, Via Matteotti 60, 07100 Sassari, Italy;3. Questura di Nuoro, Viale Europa 3, 08100 Nuoro, Italy;4. Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Sassari, Via Muroni 23/a, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Additional information and reprint requests: Maria Nieddu, Ph.D. Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia Università di Sassari Via Muroni 23/a 07100 Sassari Italy E-mail: marvi@uniss.it |
| Abstract: | In some countries, it is illegal to drive with any detectable amount of alcohol in blood; in others, the legal limit is 0.5 g/L or lower. Recently, some defendants charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and have claimed that positive breath alcohol test results were due to the ingestion of homeopathic mother tinctures. These preparations are obtained by maceration, digestion, infusion, or decoction of herbal material in hydroalcoholic solvent. A series of tests were conducted to evaluate the alcoholic content of three homeopathic mother tinctures and their ability to produce inaccurate breath alcohol results. Nine of 30 subjects gave positive results (0.11–0.82 g/L) when tests were taken within 1 min after drinking mother tincture. All tests taken at least 15 min after the mother tincture consumption and resulted in alcohol-free readings. An observation period of 15–20 min prior to breath alcohol testing eliminates the possibility of false-positive results. |
| Keywords: | forensic science homeopathic mother tinctures breath analyzer blood alcohol content breath ethanol concentration Dräger Alcotest 7110 MKIII |
