Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry

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

Abstract

Mahendra Kumar T, Rama Mohan T, Alice Branton, Dahryn Trivedi, Gopal Nayak, Rakesh KM, and Snehasis Jana

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.