Medicinal clay

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German medicinal clay (Luvos Heilerde) consisting of loess, i.e., a mixture of sand, clay, and silt Luvos Heilerde.jpg
German medicinal clay (Luvos Heilerde) consisting of loess, i.e., a mixture of sand, clay, and silt

The use of medicinal clay in folk medicine goes back to prehistoric times. Indigenous peoples around the world still use clay widely, which is related to geophagy. The first recorded use of medicinal clay goes back to ancient Mesopotamia.

Contents

A wide variety of clays are used for medicinal purposes—primarily for external applications, such as the clay baths in health spas (mud therapy). Among the clays most commonly used are kaolin and the smectite clays such as bentonite, montmorillonite, and Fuller's earth. However, their use is declining, and modern evidence-based medicine has ended the use of many types.

History

Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

The first recorded use of medicinal clay is on Mesopotamian clay tablets around 2500 BC. Also, ancient Egyptians used clay. The Pharaohs’ physicians used the material as anti-inflammatory agents and antiseptics. It was used as a preservative for making mummies and is also reported that Cleopatra used clays to preserve her complexion. [1] [2]

The Ebers Papyrus of about 1550 BC (but containing the tradition going back many centuries earlier) is an important medical text from ancient Egypt. It describes the use of ochre for a wide variety of ailments, including for intestinal problems. [3]

Classical times

Lemnian clay

This was a clay used in Classical Antiquity. It was mined on the island of Lemnos. Its use continued until the 19th century, as it was still listed in an important pharmacopoeia in 1848 [4] (the deposits may have been exhausted by then).

Pliny reports about the Lemnian earth: [5]

if rubbed under the eyes, it moderates pain and watering from the same, and prevents the flow from the lachrymal ducts. In cases of haemorrhage it should be administered with vinegar. It is used against complaints of the spleen and kidneys, copious menstruation, also against poisons, and wounds caused by serpents.

Lemnian clay was shaped into tablets, or little cakes, and then distinctive seals were stamped into them, giving rise to its name terra sigillata —Latin for 'sealed earth'. Dioscorides also commented upon the use of terra sigillata. [4]

Another physician famous in antiquity, Galen, recorded numerous cases of the internal and external uses of this clay in his treatise on clay therapy.

Galen... used as one of his means for curing injuries, festering wounds, and inflammations terra sigillata, a medicinal red clay compressed into round cakes and stamped with the image of the goddess Diana. This clay, which came from the island of Lemnos, was known throughout the classical world. [6]

Clay was prescribed by the Roman obstetrician, gynecologist, and pediatrician Soranus of Ephesus, who practiced medicine around 100–140 AD. [7]

Other clays used in classical times

The other types of clay that were famous in antiquity were as follows.

  • Terra chia, Terra cymolia (Cimolean earth): these were both white earths and considered of great value.
  • Samian earth: Pliny in c. 50 AD (Nat. Hist.) details two distinct varieties, colyrium - an eye salve, and aster, which was used as a soap as well as in medicines.
  • Terra sigillata strigoniensis (Strigian earth, derived from Silesia) - this clay, yellow in colour, appears to have been famous later in medieval times.

All the above seem to have been bentonitic clays.

  • The earth which did not stain the hands was known as rubrica.

Medieval times

In medieval Persia, Avicenna (980–1037 CE), the 'Prince of Doctors', wrote about clay therapy in his numerous treatises.

Ibn al-Baitar (1197–1248), a Muslim scholar born at Malaga, Spain, and author of a famous work on pharmacology, discusses eight kinds of medicinal earth. [notes 1] The eight kinds are:

  1. the terra sigillata,
  2. Egyptian earth,
  3. Samian earth,
  4. earth of Chios,
  5. Cimolean earth or pure clay (cimolite), soft earth, called al-hurr, green in color like verdigris, is smoked together with almond bark to serve as food when it will turn red and assume a good flavor; it is but rarely eaten without being smoked—also called 'Argentiera',
  6. earth of vines called ampelitis (Pliny XXXV, 56) or pharmakitis from Seleucia in Syria,
  7. Armenian earth (also known as the Armenian bole), salutary in cases of bubonic plague, being administered both externally and internally,
  8. earth of Nishapur. [8]

Renaissance period

A French naturalist Pierre Belon (1517–1564) was interested in investigating the mystery of the Lemnian clay. In 1543, he visited Constantinople where, after making enquiries, he encountered 18 types of different products marketed as Lemnian Earth (he was concerned about possible counterfeits).

He then made a special journey to Lemnos, where he continued his investigation, and tried to find the source of the clay. He discovered that it was extracted only once a year (on 6 August) under the supervision of Christian monks and Turkish officials.

In 1588 the English ethnographer and translator Thomas Harriot wrote in A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia that Algonquians of the mid–Atlantic region of North America treated various sores and wounds with wapeih, "very like to terra sigillata" that English surgeons and physicians found to be of the same kind "of vertue and more effectuall" than the contemporary European sort. [9]

Preparation of clay

Clay gathered from its original source deposit is refined and processed in various ways by manufacturers. This can include heating or baking the clay, since the raw clay tends to contain a variety of microorganisms. [notes 2]

Too much processing, likewise, may reduce the clay's therapeutic potential. In particular, Mascolo et al. studied 'pharmaceutical grade clay' versus 'the natural and the commercial herbalist clay', and found an appreciable depletion of trace elements in the pharmaceutical grade clay. [11] On the other hand, certain clays are typically heated or cooked before use. [notes 3]

Medicinal clay is typically available in health food stores as a dry powder, or in jars in its liquid hydrated state – which is convenient for internal use. For external use, the clay may be added to the bath, or prepared in wet packs or poultices for application to specific parts of the body.

Often, warm packs are prepared; the heat opens up the pores of the skin, and helps the interaction of the clay with the body. [notes 4]

In the European health spas, the clay is prepared for use in a multitude of ways – depending on the traditions of a particular spa; typically it is mixed with peat and matured in special pools for a few months or even up to two years.

"The majority of spas … use artificial ponds where the natural ("virgin") clay is mixed with mineral, thermo-mineral, or sea water that issues in the vicinity of the spas or inside the spa buildings." [13]

Trace minerals

Clays contain large amounts of trace minerals. It is common to see as many as 75 different trace minerals in Montmorillonite clays. [14] Specific trace minerals that various clays possess vary very widely. Also, the amount of any particular trace mineral in any specific clay varies a lot among clays from different locations. For example, the amount of iron in various bentonite clays can vary from 2.5 to 3%. [15]

Uses

Skin conditions

Many types of skin conditions have been treated by the application of medicinal clay. Montmorillonite has shown its effectiveness in this area. [16] [17] [18] [19] It has also been used as a base ingredient for tissue engineering. [20] Clay is used in many dermatological over-the-counter remedies, such as in acne treatments (this information may not be mentioned on the label specifically).

Internal use

There are many over-the-counter remedies for internal (oral) use that contained clay before discontinuation. Examples included Kaopectate (Upjohn), Rheaban (Leeming Div., Pfizer), and Diar-Aid (Thompson Medical Co.). The labels on all of these showed the active ingredient to be Attapulgite, each tablet containing 600 (or 750 mg) of this component along with inert materials or adjuvants. [21] However, since April 2003, attapulgite medication was discontinued due to lack of evidence according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. [22]

Kaolin was also used to treat cholera around the start of the 20th century. An early proponent was German physician Julius Stumpf. [23]

Heavy metal chelation

It has been used as a scientifically unsupported chelation treatment for heart disease and autism. [24] [25]

Aflatoxicosis

Bentonite has the ability to reduce the adverse effects of aflatoxicosis. [26]

A mountain of clay -- Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. The white bands represent pure bentonite clay. Sedimentary-clay-mountain.jpg
A mountain of clay — Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. The white bands represent pure bentonite clay.

Side effects of ingestion

Substances discontinued such as kaolin and attapulgite were formerly considered gastric demulcents and diarrhea medication, until official studies by the USFDA disproved these views. Clays are classified as excipients and their main side-effects are that of neutral excipients, which is to impair and slow down absorption of antibiotics, hormones and heart medication amongst others by coating the digestive tract [27] and this slowed down absorption can lead to increased toxicity of some medication (e.g. citrate salts) which can become toxic if not metabolized quickly enough, which is one contraindication of attapulgite. [28] Usual mild side-effects are nausea, slowed down absorption of nutrients from food (in excess dosage of medicinal clay) and constipation. It has been found that prolonged exposure to bentonite in humans can actually have harmful effects. [29]

Common medicinal clays

See also

Notes

  1. For further discussion see:
    • Leclerc, L (1881). Traite des Simples (in French). Vol. II. pp. 421–7.
    • Baron Carra de Vaux (1921). Les Penseurs de L'islam (in French). Vol. II. pp.  289–96.
      Cited in Laufer (1930)
  2. "Soil, including kaolinitic and montmorillonitic clays, contains considerable amounts of organic material, including many live microorganisms." [10]
  3. An example of this is the medieval 'Argentiera' clay, mentioned in this article.
  4. "Hot application is recommended in geotherapy, pelotherapy or paramuds in beauty therapy..." [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaolinite</span> Phyllosilicate clay mineral

Kaolinite ( KAY-ə-lə-nyte, -⁠lih-; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica (SiO4) linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina (AlO6).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clay</span> Fine grained soil

Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, Al2Si2O5(OH)4). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impurities, such as a reddish or brownish colour from small amounts of iron oxide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pica (disorder)</span> Compulsive eating of non-food items

Pica is the eating or craving of things that are not food. It is classified as an eating disorder but can also be the result of an existing mental disorder. The ingested or craved substance may be biological, natural or manmade. The term was drawn directly from the medieval Latin word for magpie, a bird subject to much folklore regarding its opportunistic feeding behaviors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bentonite</span> Rock type or absorbent swelling clay

Bentonite is an absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelling capacity than Ca-montmorillonite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pain management</span> Interdisciplinary approach for easing pain

Pain management is an aspect of medicine and health care involving relief of pain in various dimensions, from acute and simple to chronic and challenging. Most physicians and other health professionals provide some pain control in the normal course of their practice, and for the more complex instances of pain, they also call on additional help from a specific medical specialty devoted to pain, which is called pain medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrochlorothiazide</span> Diuretic medication

Hydrochlorothiazide, sold under the brand name Hydrodiuril among others, is a diuretic medication used to treat hypertension and swelling due to fluid build-up. Other uses include treating diabetes insipidus and renal tubular acidosis and to decrease the risk of kidney stones in those with a high calcium level in the urine. Hydrochlorothiazide is taken by mouth and may be combined with other blood pressure medications as a single pill to increase effectiveness. Hydrochlorothiazide is a thiazide medication which inhibits reabsorption of sodium and chloride ions from the distal convoluted tubules of the kidneys, causing a natriuresis. This initially increases urine volume and lowers blood volume. It is believed to reduce peripheral vascular resistance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fuller's earth</span> Any clay material that can decolorise oil or other liquids

Fuller's earth is a term for various clays used as an absorbent, filter, or bleaching agent. Products labeled fuller's earth typically consist of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite. Primary modern uses include as absorbents for oil, grease, and animal waste, and as a carrier for pesticides and fertilizers. Minor uses include filtering, clarifying, and decolorizing; as an active and inactive ingredient in beauty products; and as a filler in paint, plaster, adhesives, and pharmaceuticals. It also has a number of uses in the film industry and on stage.

Kaopectate is an orally taken medication from Arcadia Consumer Healthcare for the treatment of mild diarrhea. It is also sometimes used to treat indigestion, nausea, and stomach ulcers. The active ingredients have varied over time, and are different between the United States and Canada. The original active ingredients were kaolinite and pectin. In the US, the active ingredient is now bismuth subsalicylate. In Switzerland, attapulgite is used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geophagia</span> Practice of eating earth or soil-like substrates such as clay or chalk

Geophagia, also known as geophagy, is the intentional practice of eating earth or soil-like substances such as clay, chalk, or termite mounds. It is a behavioural adaptation that occurs in many non-human animals and has been documented in more than 100 primate species. Geophagy in non-human primates is primarily used for protection from parasites, to provide mineral supplements and to help metabolize toxic compounds from leaves. Geophagy also occurs in humans and is most commonly reported among children and pregnant women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Budesonide/formoterol</span> Medication for asthma & chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Budesonide/formoterol, sold under the brand name Symbicort among others, is a fixed-dose combination medication used in the management of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It contains budesonide, a steroid and formoterol, a long-acting β2-agonist (LABA). The product monograph does not support its use for sudden worsening or treatment of active bronchospasm. However, a 2020 review of the literature does support such use. It is used by breathing in the medication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montmorillonite</span> Phyllosilicate group of minerals

Montmorillonite is a very soft phyllosilicate group of minerals that form when they precipitate from water solution as microscopic crystals, known as clay. It is named after Montmorillon in France. Montmorillonite, a member of the smectite group, is a 2:1 clay, meaning that it has two tetrahedral sheets of silica sandwiching a central octahedral sheet of alumina. The particles are plate-shaped with an average diameter around 1 μm and a thickness of 0.96 nm; magnification of about 25,000 times, using an electron microscope, is required to resolve individual clay particles. Members of this group include saponite, nontronite, beidellite, and hectorite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palygorskite</span> Magnesium aluminium phyllosilicate mineral

Palygorskite or attapulgite is a magnesium aluminium phyllosilicate with the chemical formula (Mg,Al)2Si4O10(OH)·4(H2O) that occurs in a type of clay soil common to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the types of fuller's earth. Some smaller deposits of this mineral can be found in Mexico, where its use is tied to the manufacture of Maya blue in pre-Columbian times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smectite</span> Mineral mixture of phyllosilicates

A smectite is a mineral mixture of various swelling sheet silicates (phyllosilicates), which have a three-layer 2:1 (TOT) structure and belong to the clay minerals. Smectites mainly consist of montmorillonite, but can often contain secondary minerals such as quartz and calcite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balneotherapy</span> Method of treating diseases by bathing

Balneotherapy is a method of treating diseases by bathing, a traditional medicine technique usually practiced at spas. Since ancient times, humans have used hot springs, public baths and thermal medicine for therapeutic effects. While it is considered distinct from hydrotherapy, there are some overlaps in practice and in underlying principles. Balneotherapy may involve hot or cold water, massage through moving water, relaxation, or stimulation. Many mineral waters at spas are rich in particular minerals such as silica, sulfur, selenium, and radium. Medicinal clays are also widely used, a practice known as 'fangotherapy'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoopharmacognosy</span> Self-medication by animals

Zoopharmacognosy is a behaviour in which non-human animals self-medicate by selecting and ingesting or topically applying plants, soils and insects with medicinal properties, to prevent or reduce the harmful effects of pathogens, toxins, and even other animals. The term derives from Greek roots zoo ("animal"), pharmacon, and gnosy ("knowing").

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raltegravir</span> Chemical compound

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diosmectite</span> Silicate of aluminium and magnesium

Diosmectite is a natural silicate of aluminium and magnesium used as an intestinal adsorbent in the treatment of several gastrointestinal diseases, including infectious and non-infectious acute and chronic diarrhoea, including irritable bowel syndrome diarrhea subtype. Other uses include: chronic diarrhea caused by radiation-induced, chemotherapy-induced, and HIV/AIDS-associated chronic diarrhea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tezepelumab</span> Monoclonal antibody

Tezepelumab, sold under the brand name Tezspire, is a human monoclonal antibody used for the treatment of asthma. Tezepelumab blocks thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), an epithelial cytokine that has been suggested to be critical in the initiation and persistence of airway inflammation.

Sutimlimab, sold under the brand name Enjaymo, is a monoclonal antibody that is used to treat adults with cold agglutinin disease (CAD). It is given by intravenous infusion. Sutimlimab prevents complement-enhanced activation of autoimmune human B cells in vitro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deucravacitinib</span> Chemical compound

Deucravacitinib, sold under the brand name Sotyktu, is medication used for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. It is a tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor and it is taken by mouth. It was developed by Bristol Myers Squibb.

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Further reading