Deuterium - depleted water. Achievements and perspectives

Deuterium - depleted water represents water that has an isotopic content lower than 145 ppm D/(D+H) which is the natural isotopic content of water. The research conducted at ICSI Ramnicu Valcea, regarding deuterium - depleted water were completed by the following patents: - technique and installation for deuterium - depleted water production; - distilled water with low deuterium content; - technique and installation for the production of distilled water with low deuterium content; - mineralized water with low deuterium content and technique to produce it. The gold and silver medals won at international salons for inventions confirmed the novelty of these inventions. Knowing that deuterium content of water has a big influence on living organisms, beginning with 1996, the ICSI Ramnicu Valcea, deuterium - depleted water producer, co-operated with Romanian specialized institutes for biological effects' evaluation of deuterium - depleted water. The role of natural deuterium in living organisms was examined by using deuterium - depleted water instead of natural water. These investigations led to the following conclusions: 1. deuterium - depleted water caused a tendency towards the increase of the basal tone, accompanied by the intensification of the vasoconstrictor effects of phenylefrine, noradrenaline and angiotensin; the increase of the basal tone and vascular reactivity produced by the deuterium - depleted water persists after the removal of the vascular endothelium; -2. animals treated with deuterium - depleted water showed an increase of the resistance both to sublethal and to lethal gamma radiation doses, suggesting a radioprotective action by the stimulation of non-specific immune defence mechanism; 3, deuterium - depleted water stimulates immune defence reactions, represented by the opsonic, bactericidal and phagocyte capacity of the immune system, together with increase in the numbers of polymorphonuclear neutrophils; 4. investigations regarding artificial reproduction of fish with deuterium - depleted water fecundated solutions confirmed favourable influence in embryo growth stage and resistance in next growth stages; 5. it was studied germination, growth and quantitative character's variability in plants; one can remark the favourable influence of deuterium - depleted water on biological process in plants in various ontogenetic stages; 6. the deuterium depletion in seawater produces the diminution of the water spectral energy related to an increased metabolism of Tetraselmis suecica. Although the results obtained in Romania have a special scientific value, the application of these researches is in progress. We have to mention that at present all the amount of deuterium - depleted water produced at Rm. Valcea is exported to Hungary were it is used to produce drugs for the prevention and the treatment of cancer. (authors)