Is It Real, Or Is It 'Cluster Water?'

When La Jolla Diagnostics, Inc. (La Jolla, Calif.) announced late in January that a patent issued on a breakthrough technology, ClusterWater, it got this former pharmaceutical chemist thinking about other permanently structured waters (PSW), including "polywater" and Kurt Vonnegut's "ice nine." Ice Nine was the ultimate PSW, crystallizing for all eternity any body of water in which it came into contact. As I recall from Vonnegut's book, a person could commit suicide by touching his tongue to an ice nine crystal. Ouch!

La Jolla uses ClusterWater to produce nasal sprays, diagnostic tests, and other products, including "Living Water Eye Lotion," which is trademarked (sorry if your company was thinking of using the name).

Instead of summarizing what ClusterWater is, let me quote from La Jolla Diagnostics' web page:

ClusterWater^TM is similar to naturally occurring water clusters, which are groups of water molecules and hydrogen bonded to each other.

ClusterWater^TM is a unique form of water cluster produced by a Microcluster Template Induction Process for which a patent is being issued. [Editor's note: The patent has issued! Details below]. The process subjects extremely pure water to laser excitation, and fluctuations in temperature, pressure and electromagnetic fields.

ClusterWater^TM consists of homogeneous hexamers of water in which each molecule in the structure serves as both a donor and an acceptor of hydrogen bonds. The structures have been shown to have long term rather than short term existence, and as opposed to naturally occurring water clusters, will remain stable for times ranging from several months to several years under the proper conditions.

While the liquid crytalline [sic] structure of ClusterWater^TM remains chemically identical with unprocessed water, it is a structurally stabilizing factor and plays a role in energy transduction and amplification, even at extreme dilutions. When exposed to active biological molecules, ClusterWater^TM forms new polywater complexes which take on the structural and electronic "signature" of biomolecules, and enhances the biological effectiveness of the solution.

The properties of ClusterWater^TM allow it to enhance the absortion [sic] and bioavailability of pharmacceutical [double sic] compounds such as opthalmic [one more sic], nasal, sprays, injectibles [oops!], parenteral, inhalation and oral medications.

Of course many serious technical articles deal with water structure. Papers by Liu et al and Cruzan et al on this topic recently appeared in the prestigious journal Science, and La Jolla Diagnostics cites the Liu paper in its promotional literature for ClusterWater. Judging from the fast spectroscopic techniques used to study water clusters it should be obvious that the species are fleeting, short-lived, and anything but permanent. Yet every decade or so, it seems, someone comes up with a new form of PSW, one that retains its shape under the harshest conditions and imparts mystical properties to any formulation made from it.

La Jolla isn't the only company interested in clustered water. The Wiegand Internet Village (http://www.wiv.com/cluster.html) offers two products, "Clustered Water Energy Time" (see figure) and "Emerald Evening," both of which contain clustered water as their main ingredient. For just $34.95 you can purchase a full four ounces of these products ("a 30-day supply").

I can picture you getting uncomfortable reading this. But before you rush to conclusions about structured water, take a look at the abstract of the patent on which the medical products mentioned here are based:

• US Patent 5,711,950. Jan. 27, 1998. Process for preparing microclustered water. Inventor: Lee H. Lorenzen, P.O. Box 405, Trabuco Canyon, CA 92678.

  Abstract: A method for preparing microclustered water comprising boiling water to produce steam includes passing the steam across a magnetic field, exposing the steam to light having a wavelength of between 610 nm and 1 mm, condensing the steam at a temperature greater than 0 deg. C., adding at least one stabilizer comprising a metasilicate salt to the condensed steam, adding yeast cells or an antiviral pharmaceutical agent at a concentration of 1 percent or less to the condensed steam, exposing the condensed steam to a pressure greater than one atmosphere, and depressurizing the condensed steam. The method is useful in the preparation of medicaments, catalysts, agricultural products and other products. 15 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures.

So now you know the recipe for clustered water: Vaporization, magnetic fields, laser light, condensation, a pinch of metasilicate, yeast, or an antiviral compound -- any one, I suppose, will do.

What do you think? Can water at standard temperature and pressure take on a permanent supramolecular structure and retain that structure? If so, what are the implications for pharmaceutical manufacturing? If not, how crazy is this idea?

I'm looking forward to your comments. Email me at: adepalma@bioprocessonline.com.

Angelo DePalma
Managing Editor, Bioprocess Online