Measurable result.

The Allium test (onion test) is a method for examining genotoxicity – the ability of a substance to damage genetic material. The onion (Allium cepa) is used for three reasons: it has only 16 chromosomes, which are large and easily visible under a microscope, its root cells multiply quickly, and plant cells show excellent correlation with mammalian tests when exposed to the same chemical agents.

The test was recommended as a standard by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science (1973) and the U.S. GENE-TOX program (1982) – meaning the methodology is more than half a century old, well understood, and internationally recognized.

The main advantage: it allows the level of genotoxicity to be assessed without knowing exactly what is in the water. This is crucial for testing tap water or bowl water, which contains hundreds of chemical compounds, most of which cannot be measured individually by analytical methods.

Excellent question.

The MOLECULE water bowl does not change the chemical composition of water – drinking water remains a solution consisting mainly of H₂O molecules with dissolved minerals in the form of salts, most commonly calcium bicarbonate (Ca(HCO₃)₂) and magnesium bicarbonate (Mg(HCO₃)₂), as well as chloride, sulfate, sodium and potassium ions, and traces of silicon dioxide and nitrogen compounds, which by their nature are diamagnetic.

Using the H2Q device, the MOLECULE water bowl generates changes in the physical properties of water, in terms of reducing surface tension and reducing Redox and Z (zeta) potential. The end result of all this is improved biological properties of water and easier performance of physiological processes in the body, from hydration, biochemical processes, and cellular exchange to maintaining transpiration processes.

The H2Q device in the MOLECULE bowl treats water with a plastoferrite magnetic surface that generates an alternating magnetic field with an appropriate frequency pattern, enabling the required screen polarization of water.

The MOLECULE water bowl promotes so-called microclustering – meaning it prevents the formation of large clusters of water molecules and impurities. Instead, it conditions the formation of smaller molecular structures that participate more easily in physiological processes.

These microgroups of water molecules are the most important carriers of physiological processes in a pet’s body and easily organize to carry nutrients into the cell and remove from the cell what it does not need (detoxification).

The MOLECULE water bowl provides low mutagenicity and genotoxicity of treated water, which means it “protects” your pet’s DNA and helps maintain its stability and function.

Thanks to this, water becomes biologically higher quality and more effective, passes more easily through cell membranes (better osmosis), which helps hydration and the overall condition of your pet’s body.

Genotoxicity is a measure of the ability of a chemical agent to cause damage to genetic material (DNA). The effects can be direct or indirect, temporary or permanent.

The difference from “mutagenicity”: mutagenic substances cause heritable changes that are passed on to the next generation. Genotoxic effects are a broader term – they also include temporary damage that the organism can repair.

In practice, when a report says that a water sample has “10% genotoxicity”, it means that 10% of the analysed cells showed some form of chromosomal damage after exposure to that water. The lower the number, the biologically safer the water.

MMS – methyl methanesulfonate – is a laboratory standard, a known mutagen used for decades in genotoxicology studies worldwide (designation SIGMA M-4016).

It is not used because we “want” something to damage DNA, but because its effect is predictable and consistent – at a precisely defined concentration it gives a precisely defined level of damage. This makes it a “positive control” – the reference maximum value against which all other samples are measured.

Without a positive control, the laboratory would have no way to confirm whether the test worked at all in that experimental series, or whether the results are comparable with other laboratories worldwide.

The MOLECULE water bowl was developed by local experts in cooperation with scientists who have been researching water structure for several decades.

The bowl was tested at the Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, and all results and data are publicly available because we believe in transparency and the scientific foundation of what we do.

The MOLECULE water bowl promotes so-called microclustering – meaning it prevents the formation of large clusters of water molecules and impurities. Instead, it conditions the formation of smaller molecular structures that participate more easily in physiological processes.

These microgroups of water molecules are the most important carriers of physiological processes in a pet’s body and easily organize to carry nutrients into the cell and remove from the cell what it does not need (detoxification).

The MOLECULE water bowl provides low mutagenicity and genotoxicity of treated water, which means it “protects” your pet’s DNA and helps maintain its stability and function.

Thanks to this, water becomes biologically higher quality and more effective, passes more easily through cell membranes (better osmosis), which helps hydration and the overall condition of your pet’s body.

“p” denotes the probability that the difference we measure arose purely by chance, rather than because of a real effect.

“p < 0.05” means: there is less than a 5% chance that the difference between two samples arose by chance. By global scientific convention, this is the threshold beyond which a result is considered statistically significant.

In the MOLECULE tests:

• IBISS (Belgrade, 2022): p = 0.002 – less than a 0.2% chance of randomness. That is a 25 times stricter standard than the minimum.
• Firbas (Domžale, 2018): p = 0.0153 – less than a 1.5% chance. Also far below the threshold.

In practice: both results are statistically seriously confirmed. This is not a random fluctuation or a “maybe yes, maybe no” situation.

Yes – and the reason is biologically fundamental: the genetic code is universal across all living organisms. The DNA of an onion and the DNA of a dog, cat or human work according to the same basic principles: replication, cell division, transfer of information.

In 1985, scientist Geirid Fiskesjö showed in the journal Hereditas (102:99-112) that the Allium test has excellent correlation with mammalian tests under in vivo conditions. This means: if water damages onion chromosomes, it is very likely to affect mammalian cells as well – including your pet’s.

So why not use mammalian tests directly? For two reasons – ethical (less animal testing) and practical (the onion is faster and cheaper, and gives results in 7 days instead of weeks).

The Allium test has two main variants, and we passed both – which is an important point, not a technical detail.

• Metaphase protocol (Firbas, Domžale 2018) – analyses cells in the metaphase stage of division, when chromosomes are most visible and individual chromosomal breaks can be counted.
• Anaphase-telophase protocol (IBISS, Belgrade 2022) – analyses cells in the anaphase and telophase stages, where specific types of damage are sought: chromosomal bridges, fragments, c-mitoses, multipolar spindles.

Both are internationally recognized; they simply observe different phases of the same cell division and look for different types of damage.

The fact that for MOLECULE both tests showed the same direction of results (reduced genotoxicity, statistically significant) – is an important confirmation. It means the effect is not an artefact of one protocol or one laboratory. Independent replication through two methods in two countries is what science calls a “robust finding” – a result that is not easily overturned.

Both reports are publicly available in their full PDF format:

• IBISS, Belgrade, 19.12.2022. — Results of testing with the Allium anaphase-telophase test (3 pages, 0.4 MB)
• Firbas Laboratory, Domžale, 15.08.2018. — Allium metaphase genotoxicity test (7 pages, 0.9 MB)

If you want to verify the results independently, you can contact the institutions directly: IBISS via www.ibiss.bg.ac.rs, protocol number 04-2605.

The current results are certified laboratory reports – signed by certified scientific advisers (Dr Jelena Blagojević and Dr Mirjana Mihailović for IBISS; Peter Firbas for the Slovenian laboratory), with an official protocol number and institutional seal.

The methodology itself – the Allium test – is widely peer-reviewed; it has been used in hundreds of published scientific papers since the 1970s (Fiskesjö 1985, Grant 1982, Rank & Nielsen 1994). Dr Peter Firbas has published several papers specifically on the Allium test, including studies in the journals Caryologia (2014) and Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation (2013).

The specific MOLECULE results have not yet been published in peer-reviewed format, but they have been independently confirmed through two separate tests in two countries, which in practice serves the same function of independent verification.