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Use of Biophoton Signal in the determination of food quality

R.P.Bajpai

Institute of Self Organising Systems and Biophysics

North Eastern Hill University, Shillong 793022, India

rpbajpai@yahoo.com

and

International Institute of BioPhysics, IIB e.V.

Raketenstation, Hombroich, D41472, Neuss Germany

Quality is an abstract attribute and has many perspectives, so will be the quality of food. Still, people claim to measure the quality of food in many different ways. Each way has its own perspective and scale to measure some property of food materials. The various scales do not match, which shows that the scales are based on partial information and are subjective. One wonder if it is possible to integrate all different perspectives in an attribute whose measurement can provide an objective scale of the quality of food. The desired attribute is likely to be associated with some universal property of living systems because the primary sources and consumers of food are living systems. Biophoton emission is such a property; it is suitable for measuring various qualities of living systems. A biophoton signal faithfully portrays various nuances of a system through its sensitivity to many factors. Both signal and its sensitivity to a factor can be used for identifying and grading living systems in their respective scales. The adjective vitality will be used with all biophoton based scales so as to highlight the connection of the scale to life and living system. The vitality scales are simple reliable and tamper proof. If a vitality scale has commercial relevance then it becomes a scale to measure some quality. The commercial relevance of vitality scales is not restricted to food industry only but extends to many other industries such as cosmetic, health care, hygiene, flower decoration etc. In fact, any commercial activity that involves a living or dying system whether beneficial and harmful will upgrade some vitality scales into quality scales. Our ignorance of the phenomenon of biophoton emission is a major problem in the use of vitality scales; we do not even know the relevant parameters of its signal. Different groups use different procedures to extract parameters for defining useful vitality scales. Our goal is slightly different; we are interested in finding stable features of biophoton emission, in ascertaining that these features contain signatures of vitality, and in perfecting an appropriate procedure to determine quality.

Biophoton emission depends on many factors. The dependence is shown explicitly by expressing N, the photo counts detected in a small interval D t around a time t as N(D t, t, l exc, I, t , l , e ,T,.....), where l exc, I, and t are wavelength, intensity and duration of excitation, l and e are wavelength and polarisation state of emission, T is the temperature, and dots indicate the presence of a few still unknown factors. Each value of N reflects the strength of biophoton emission; some values are able to detect changes in the state of a system. Each discriminating value of N provides a vitality scale to identify and grade living systems. All these vitality scales will be based on one point identification. The necessary prerequisite for the success of these identifications is the stability of the factors affecting biophoton emission. There are many factors, so that requirement of their stability increases the cost of measuring equipment. The dependence on t is very sensitive; the signal is intense at small values of t and then decays rapidly to an ultra weak strength. So that the measurements at smaller values of t and D t will be more reliable and discriminatory. The IIB has been using NB1- the value of N with D t=100ms and t=50ms after excitation- for a long time. We believe that the use of N0, the value of N extrapolated to t=0, will be better for point identification. The extrapolation takes the values of many neighbouring points into account, which reduces the error of measurement.

Point identification uses only a small portion of the discriminatory capability of biophoton emission; its substantial portion remains unused. Identification based on a set of points will use higher portion of the capability. If a set is specified by the variation of a single factor then the set will give the dependence of N on that factor. The dependence can be expressed as a curve that has strength and shape. Both can be used for identification. The curves N(l exc) and N(t) are easily measurable. The shape of the curve N(l exc) shows a few maxima and minima. The position strength and width of the extrema are useful parameters to identify a living system. These parameters, however, do not provide scales to grade different systems. The cost of its measuring equipment is an additional handicap in the routine applications. The curve N(t) is more suitable and does not suffer from this handicap. It can be expressed as .

, where t0,B0, B1, and B2 are parameters. These parameters represent the discrimination capability of the entire curve and can be used for identification in various combinations. The parameter t0 depends on the system and equipment and is not very sensitive to various factors. The parameter B0 characterises the structure less portion of the signal, is poorly determined and is also not very sensitive to various factors. The parameters B1, and B2 characterise the decaying portion of a signal, are well determined and are very sensitive to any factor. The parameters B1, and B2 are therefore more suitable for identification. Any one of them or their combination can be used for measuring strength and their ratio for measuring shape. Shape is much more sensitive to changes in various factors than strength. It contains the detailed signatures of vitality. The sensitivity can be tamed down by defining the logarithm of the ratio ln( B2/B1) as a measure of shape. Even this shape defining parameter is more sensitive than any strength defining parameters. The sensitivity makes the vitality scale based on the shape parameter much more discriminating. We have found a strong correlation between shape parameter and germination capacity in tomato seeds, and between shape parameter and storage time in samples of milk. The intensive nature of the shape parameter confers another advantage to this vitality scale; its values of this scale are independent of measuring equipment. The scale is not only tamper proof but is also universal. It can be used in association with the strength parameter. The pair (N0, ln(B2/B1) ) will be a better identifier of a living system. Variation of other parameters can provide still more signatures of vitality, e.g. the temperature variation of the pair provides two additional measurable signatures of intensive nature. Only experiments can ascertain how much information are contained in different signatures. However, the very existence of measurable signatures of vitality and their perceived relationship with quality raise many conceptual questions. Some of these questions along with their relevance are given below:

  1. Should one identify the quality of food with some vitality-related attribute? The food is usually consumed after some processing (cooking or even digestion) which changes the vitality and hence the quality: Perhaps, the residual quality retained after processing is more significance and not the initial quality. This argument requires the concept of remnant vitality and a grey zone between living and not dead matter.
  2. Whether quality is a universal and objective concept or a local and subjective concept? If it is a universal and objective concept, then it must have withstood evolutionary pressures and may have some genetic linkages. If it is it a local and subjective concept, then it has to withstand political and economic pressures and may require matching of biophoton profiles of consumed object and consumer.
  3. Is it possible to determine the dose of biophoton required by a living system and whether biophoton intake is additive? The question is of commercial relevance and is related to the efficacy of quality food for the growth and health of cells, plants and animals.
  4. Can a biophoton signal of a good quality object trigger macroscopic processes in other living systems? The motivations for the question are the famous onion root experiment and various speculations about optical communication. Perhaps, quality is an euphemism of tuning and information processing.
  5. Is it possible to induce an improvement in the quality through stimulation? The question expresses a universal desire for a capability to modify the quality of food and to improve the health of a living system. The claims of colour therapy, bio-ceramic substances, persons with heightened consciousness etc. depend upon the existence of such a possibility.
  6. Does a biophoton signal contain still more signatures of vitality (say in spontaneous emission)and how to find them and their suitability for various perspectives (physical, physiological, genetic, emergent, holistic.) ?

Talk presented at the Inauguration Festivities of the International Institute of Biophysics on September 4,2000

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