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Effects of Homeopathic Mother Tinctures on Breath Alcohol Testing
Author(s) -
Boatto Gianpiero,
Trignano Claudia,
Burrai Lucia,
Spanu Andrea,
Nieddu Maria
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.12662
Subject(s) - tincture (heraldry) , maceration (sewage) , alcohol , medicine , breath test , decoction , traditional medicine , ingestion , ethanol , chemistry , biochemistry , materials science , organic chemistry , composite material , helicobacter pylori
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.