1) Lithovit is a foliar fertilizer consisting of calcium, magnesium, and carbonate supplemented with micro nutrients. It is produced by milling natural limestone to particles less than 10 micrometers. 2) When sprayed on leaves, lithovit particles enter the intercellular space and leaves surface. It acts as a fertilizer by supplying higher concentrations of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, promoting plant growth and higher yields. 3) The mechanisms of lithovit action include releasing carbon dioxide in the intercellular space and on the leaf surface through chemical reactions between its carbonate groups and protons, water, and carbon dioxide present on the plant and environment.

1. Abstract
Lithovit®, an excellent foliar fertilizer, consists of (Ca,Mg)CO3 supplemented by numerous of
important micro-nutrients. It is produced by milling natural limestone in special mills down to
particle diameter < 10 μ. Spraying the aqueous solution (0.5%) of this very fine, tribodynamic
activated powder, on the foliage, the lithovit particles penetrate partly directly through the
stomata of the leaves into the intercellular compartment. The rest remains as a film on the leaves
surface. The Mechanism of lithovit action as fertilizer is still not totally clear. Very probably it is
due to supplying the plants with CO2 in much higher concentration than that in the atmosphere
and so enabling the photosynthesis to take place with much higher degree leading to a stronger
natural growth and increasing yield. Furthermore, the supplements of the different trace elements
increasing the enzymatic activity should play also a role in this process.
The release of CO2 in the intercellular compartment is probably due to the docking of the lithovit
particles having negative charged surface (as a result of the tribodynamic activation) on the cell
membrane forming a negative electrostatic potential which attracts the protons formed inside the
cell due to the water splitting in the first light reaction of the photosynthesis. The protons pass
the membrane, dock on the negative charged CO3 – groups of the lithovit forming intermediary
H2CO3 which decomposes to CO2 and H2O.
The release of CO2 from the lithovit remaining on the leaves surface is probably due to its
transformation to (Ca,Mg)(HCO3)2 during the night by means of CO2 (produced by the plants in
addition to that in the atmosphere) and H2O (which covers the leaves as dew in addition to that
produced by the plants). During the day the temperature rises gradually, water evaporation
occurs and the (Ca,Mg)(HCO3)2 is back transformed to lithovit giving CO2 on high
concentration directly in the leaves surface. In that way lithovit acts as quasi permanent catalytic
depot.
The observation that perennial plants treated with lithovit only in the first growth period grow
much better and give higher yield also in the second growth period without further treating with
lithovit leads to the assumption that further mechanism such as epigenetic effects could also be
responsible for the lithovit action.
Lithovit consists of Calcium-,Magnesium- Carbonate (Ca,Mg)CO3, supplemented by numerous
important micro-nutrients. It is produced by milling natural limestone in special mills down to
particle diameter < 10μ. Spraying the aqueous suspension (0.5%) of this very fine, tribodynamic
activated2) powder on the foliage, the lithovit particles penetrate in part directly through the
stomata of the leaves into the intercellular compartments. The rest remains on the leaves as a
film. However, lithovit acts as an excellent fertilizer. The mechanism of this action is still not
totally clear. Very probably it is due to supplying the plants with Carbon dioxide (CO2) in much
higher concentration than that in the atmosphere and so enabling the Photosynthesis to take place
with higher degree leading to a stronger natural growth and increasing yield. Furthermore, the
supplements of micro-nutrients increasing the enzymatic activity should play also role in this
process.

2. The following mechanisms are discussed for releasing CO2 from the Lithovit:
1) Release of CO2 from the lithovit in the intercellular compartment:
In the photosynthesis (the lot of reactions are for simplicity not mentioned here) light energy is
converted to chemical energy by means of the light sensitive chlorophyll. Finally CO2 + Water
are converted to carbon hydrates + oxygen. The initial light reaction is the decomposition of
Water, where electrons (negative elementary charges) are taken away from water molecules
converting them to Oxygen and protons (positive charged hydrogen atoms). The lithovit particles
dock with their negative charged surface on the cell membrane producing a negative electric
potential which attracts the protons, that pass the cell membrane and dock on the negative
charged Carbonate groups building intermediary carbonic acid which decomposes to CO2 and
H2O. The equivalent amount of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions partially migrate through the cell
membrane and participate into the metabolism, partially react with water giving (Ca,Mg)(OH)2
and Protons which react again with Carbonate giving CO2 and so on.
2) Release of CO2 from the lithovit particles remaining on the leaves surface:
The pH of the 0.5 % aqueous litovit suspension is 9.8 at 20oC. At this pH value Carbonate (CO3
2-) and Hydrogencarbonate (HCO3 -) as well as (theoretically) Carbonic acid (H2CO3) exist in
equilibrium. Taking the corresponding equilibrium constants K1 = 1.92x1010 of reaction (1) and
K2 = 2x103 of reaction (2)
CO3 2- + H+ « HCO3 - (1)
HCO3 - + H+ « H2CO3 (2)
H2CO3 « CO2 + H2O (3)
into account, the ratios [HCO3-] / [CO3 2-] = 3.05 and [H2CO3] / [HCO3 -] = 2x10-6.8 are
obtained. That means H2CO3 is practically not existing in the suspension. The question is: How
CO2 develops from the lithovit remaining on the leaves surface?
At night the leaves are covered with dew water. At the same time the plants burn in darkness
carbon hydrates to cover their energy need and produce CO2 + H2O. This Carbon dioxide (in
addition to that in the atmosphere) + H2O (from the dew additionally to that produced) converts
the carbonate in lithovit into Hydrogencarbonate according to:
(Ca,Mg)CO3 + H2O + CO2 « (Ca,Mg)(HCO3)2 (4)
During the day the temperature rises gradually and the equilibrium reaction (4) is shifted to the
left hand side (due to evaporation of water) developing CO2 from the Hydrogencarbonat. In that
way lithovit is acting as quasi catalytic depot supplying permanently CO2 at high concentration
right at the leaves surface.
Because of the observation that perennial plants treated with lithovit only in the first growth
period grow much better and give higher yield also in the second growth period without further
treating with lithovit, Munzinger3), therefore, assumes that further mechanisms such as

3. epigenetic effects could also responsible for the action of lithovit. In such case the trace elements
contained in lithovit as micronutrients could play an important role.
Considering the mechanism 2), which role plays the tribudynamic activation of lithovit particles?
This should be probably that the highly activated lithovit particles changes the structure of water
and increases its dissociation: In pure water the water dipoles normally exist as units of 9
molecules bound in tetrahedral structure by means of hydrogen bridge bonds. These dipoles dock
with their positive Hydrogen ends on the negative charged Oxygen atoms of the carbonate
groups laying at the surface of lithovit particles. The hydrogen bonds break down due the
resulted electrostatic interaction. The energy needed for that should be supplied by means of
energy fluctuation within the highly active lithovit particles. The electron density inside the O –
H bonds of the water dipoles is shifted toward the O- atoms, so that a dissociation of water
molecules takes increasingly place. The H+ Ions then, dock on the negative charged carbonate
groups of the lithovit forming HCO3 - , The OH- ions react with CO2 forming HCO3 - as well.
Of course the formation of HCO3 - is thermodynamically controlled by means of the equilibrium
constant. However, the barrier of the formation energy is much easier overcome by means of this
mechanism, which could be regarded as catalytic reaction of the Lithovit.
This assumption of increasing dissociation of Water by means of lithovt is based on the
following observation:
At 20oC the pH value of 0.5% aqueous suspension of lithovit is 9.84), while that of 10%
suspension is 9.54). The amount of CaCO3 an well as of MgCO3 in the suspension is in both
cases much higher that the solubility values of the two compounds. In pure water the solubility
values are only dependent on temperature and pressure and should therefore be equal in both
suspensions, if the material should have not been activated before. In such case the same total
concentration of CO3 2- would have been obtained in the suspension. Since the equilibrium
constants of reactions (1) and (2) are (at constant ionic strength) also only dependent of
temperature and pressure, the same pH value should have been obtained in the two suspensions.
The higher [H+] concentration in the 10% suspension indicates clearly the higher dissociation of
water due to its higher degree of electrostatic interaction with the bigger amount of Lithovit.
1) It is the intention of the author to explain this question in such simple way also easily
understandable to non scientific readers.
2) The tribodynamic activation is easily understood when we bear in mind that energy is never
created nor destroyed (first law of thermodynamic). Energy can only be converted from one form
(e.g. light energy, chemical energy, heat energy, electrical energy, magnetic energy, kinetic
energy, potential Energy, mechanical energy) to another. If a system transforms from one state in
which its components have high kinetic energy (system of higher internal energy) to another
state in which the components have less kinetic energy (system of lower internal energy), so the
difference between the internal energies of the two systems will be set free as heat energy That
is, for example, the case when Water vapour is condensed to liquid water (heat of condensation),

4. respectively when liquid water is frozen to ice (heat of freezing). Conversely one has to supply
the same amount of heat (heat of melting) in order to melt ice to liquid water and further the heat
of evaporation in order to transform liquid water to vapour. (Of course the entropy terms which
describe the degree of disorder in the system must also be considered here. To simplify the text,
these are let away). It is very similar in case of crystallisation where the moveable particles in a
solution (system of higher internal energy) get bound in a lattice where they are only vibrating
with very small amplitude (System of lower internal energy). Again the difference between the
internal energies of the systems is released as crystallisation energy in form of heat. If the
particles have electric charge (ions) the difference of the electrostatic and potential energies of
the two systems participates to the crystallisation energy too. A crystal growth to a big solid
body with great number of lattice units (e.g. natural limestone) results a corresponding high
value of crystallisation energy. Conversely when such macro materials are crushed to much
smaller units, for instance by milling, only a part of the mechanical energy is converted to heat
due to the friction, whereby a considerable part is transformed to the obtained particles as
activation energy. The stronger the cracked bonds between the lattice units in the crushed
material, the higher is the activation energy. In case the components building lattice are
electrically charged (ion lattice, e.g. limestone) a corresponding higher activation energy is
obtained due to energy further needed for the separation of the electric charges. Of course the
particles in the whole are electrically neutral, the centres of the positive charges and that of the
negative ones, however, are not located at the same point, but at different sites. In case of lithovit
the oxygen atoms of the carbonate groups show to the surface of the lattice units and so to the
surface of the particles. Due to the high affinity of the oxygen to electrons, the surface of the
lithovit particles is negatively charged. The strong increase of the surface energy, the separation
of the electric charges and the deformation of the lattice units laying directly under the surface
result the high reactivity of Lithovit.
3) Stefan Munzinger, Broschüre Lithovit Grundlagen: 06106, Version 1.0 * 30. September 2006,
Zeovita GmbH, Breite Str. 54, D-37154 Notheim
4) Taken from the analysis sheet dated June 11, 2006 of the Institute of Fertilizers and Seeds
LUFA, Finkenborner Weg 18, D- 31787 Hameln