![Luvos Heilerde](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Luvos_Heilerde.jpg)
The use of medicinal clay in
folk medicine goes back to prehistoric times. Indigenous peoples around the world still use
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
widely, which is related to
geophagy
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 ...
. The first recorded use of medicinal clay goes back to ancient
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
.
A wide variety of clays are used for medicinal purposes—primarily for external applications, such as the clay baths in health spas (
mud therapy
A mud bath is a bath of mud, commonly found in areas where hot spring water can combine with volcanic ash. Mud baths have a long history that dates back thousands of years. Mud baths are conceived as public bathing spaces created in open areas ...
). Among the clays most commonly used are
kaolin
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
and the
smectite clays such as
bentonite,
montmorillonite, and
Fuller's earth
Fuller's earth is any clay material that has the capability to decolorize oil or other liquids without the use of harsh chemical treatment. Fuller's earth typically consists of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite.
Modern uses of fuller's ea ...
.
History
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
The first recorded use of medicinal clay is on Mesopotamian clay tablets around 2500 B.C. 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.
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
Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...
for a wide variety of ailments, including for intestinal problems, as well as for various eye ailments.
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
(the deposits may have been exhausted by then).
Pliny reports about the Lemnian earth:
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
Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red Ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface slips made in specific areas of t ...
''—Latin for 'sealed earth'.
Dioscorides
Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of ''De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vol ...
also commented upon the use of ''terra sigillata''.
Another physician famous in antiquity,
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...
, 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.
Clay was prescribed by the Roman obstetrician, gynecologist, and pediatrician
Soranus of Ephesus, who practiced medicine around 100-140 AD.
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
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
) - 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
Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...
(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. The eight kinds are:
# the ''terra sigillata'',
# Egyptian earth,
# Samian earth,
# earth of Chios,
# 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',
# earth of vines called ''ampelitis'' (Pliny XXXV, 56) or ''pharmakitis'' from Seleucia in Syria,
# Armenian earth (also known as the
Armenian bole), salutary in cases of bubonic plague, being administered both externally and internally,
# earth of Nishapur.
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.
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.
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. On the other hand, certain clays are typically heated or cooked before use.
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.
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."
Trace minerals
Clays contain large amounts of trace minerals. It is common to see as many as 75 different trace minerals in Montmorillonite clays. 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
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
in various bentonite clays can vary from well below 1%, and up to 10%.
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. It has also been used as a base ingredient for
tissue engineering
Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of Cell (biology), cells, engineering, Materials science, materials methods, and suitable biochemistry, biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintai ...
. 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 use that contained clay before discontinuation. Examples include
Kaopectate
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 differ ...
(Upjohn), Rheaban (Leeming Div., Pfizer), and Diar-Aid (Thompson Medical Co.). The labels on all of these showed the active ingredient to be
Attapulgite
Palygorskite or attapulgite is a magnesium aluminium phyllosilicate with the chemical formula ) 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 ...
, each tablet containing 600 (or 750 mg) of this component along with inert materials or adjuvants.
However, since April 2003, attapulgite medication was discontinued due to lack of evidence according to the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...
.
Numerous medicines also use
Kaolinite
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
clay, which has long been a traditional remedy to soothe an upset stomach. Also, Kaolin is or has been used as the active substance in liquid anti-diarrhea medicines such as Kaomagma. Such medicines were changed away from aluminium substances due to a scare over
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
, but have since changed back to compounds containing aluminum as they are most effective.
Kaolin was also used to treat
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
around the start of the 20th century. An early proponent was German physician
Julius Stumpf.
Heavy metal chelation
It has been used as a scientifically unsupported
chelation treatment for heart disease and autism.
Aflatoxicosis
Bentonite has the ability to reduce the adverse effects of aflatoxicosis.
Use by the NASA space program
The effects of weightlessness on human body were studied by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
in the 1960s. Experiments demonstrated that weightlessness leads to a rapid bone depletion, so various remedies were sought to counter that. A number of pharmaceutical companies were asked to develop calcium supplements, but apparently none of them were as effective as clay. The special clay that was used in this case was Terramin, a reddish clay found in California. Benjamin Ershoff of the California Polytechnic Institute demonstrated that the consumption of clay counters the effects of weightlessness. He reported that "the calcium in clay ...is absorbed more efficiently ...
lay
Lay may refer to:
Places
*Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada
*Lay, Loire, a French commune
*Lay (river), France
*Lay, Iran, a village
*Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community
People
* Lay (surname)
* ...
contains some factor or factors other than calcium which promotes improved calcium utilization and/or bone formation." He added, "Little or no benefit was noted when calcium alone was added to the diet."
Side effects of ingestion
Substances discontinued such as
kaolin
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
and
attapulgite
Palygorskite or attapulgite is a magnesium aluminium phyllosilicate with the chemical formula ) 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 ...
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 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.
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.
Common medicinal clays
*
Bentonite-type clay has been used to treat infections, indigestion, and other medical problems by both applying wet clay topically to the skin as a
poultice, and by ingesting it. Bentonite has been prescribed as a bulk laxative, and it is also used as a base for many dermatologic formulas. Dermatologically, it is used as part of a treatment for
pruritus. Bentonite itself is not classified as a
carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...
, but some bentonite may contain variable amounts of respirable crystalline silica, a human carcinogen.
*
Montmorillonite is the main constituent of bentonite and ''Heilerde'' loess. A medical preparation is called
diosmectite
Diosmectite (brand names Smecta, Smecdral) 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 ...
.
*
Palygorskite or attapulgite is a very absorbent clay, somewhat similar to bentonite. When used in medicine, it physically binds to acids and toxic substances in the stomach and digestive tract. For this reason, it has been used in several anti-diarrheal medications, but studies of such have since been rejected by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...
as insufficient.
*
Kaolin
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
is not as absorbent as most clays used medicinally (it has a low
shrink-swell capacity). Also, it has a low
cation exchange capacity. This clay is also known as 'white cosmetic clay'. Clay, in the form of kaolin, was a common ingredient in western medicines such as
Kaopectate
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 differ ...
,
Rolaids
Rolaids is an American brand of calcium and magnesium-based antacid produced by Chattem. It was invented by American chemist Irvine W. Grote in the late 1920s, and originated with manufacturing in Chattanooga, Tennessee, under one of Chattem's ...
and
Maalox, but is no longer present in them nor in similar preparations, as it is considered ineffective by the USFDA.
See also
*
Diatomaceous earth
Diatomaceous earth (), diatomite (), or kieselgur/kieselguhr is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging from more than 3 μm to le ...
*
Peloid
Peloid is mud, or clay used therapeutically, as part of balneotherapy, or therapeutic bathing. Peloids consist of humus and minerals formed over many years by geological and biological, chemical and physical processes.
Numerous peloids are avai ...
*
Zeolite
Zeolites are microporous, crystalline aluminosilicate materials commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts. They mainly consist of silicon, aluminium, oxygen, and have the general formula ・y where is either a metal ion or H+. These pos ...
*
Fuller's earth
Fuller's earth is any clay material that has the capability to decolorize oil or other liquids without the use of harsh chemical treatment. Fuller's earth typically consists of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite.
Modern uses of fuller's ea ...
Notes
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Medicinal Clay
Phyllosilicates
Dietary supplements
Alternative detoxification
Biologically-based therapies
History of ancient medicine
Traditional medicine