Application of Bentonite Clay for Human Use

Clay minerals can be beneficial to human health by serving as active principles or excipients in pharmaceutical preparations, in spas, and in beauty therapy medicine. Since prehistoric times, man used the clay in nutrition and therapeutic purposes. The use of medicinal earths in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt has also been proven. The use of Nubian earth as an anti-inflammatory or the use of mud materials for mummification of cadavers can be cited as examples [2, 22]. In the Ancient Greek period, mud materials (Lemnos Earth) were used as antiseptic cataplasms to cure skin afflictions, as cicatrisers or as a cure for snake bites. Both Hippocrates and Aristotle, among others, produced classifications of medicinal earths. Most of these materials are clays, given different names depending on their origins or on the differences in their mineralogical composition and properties. Some poorly known implications of clay uses are mentioned, such as the effects of organic compounds in the transdermal migration of elements and the effective simulation of the digestion, that is in balance between chemical leaching and adsorptive effect of clays. From the standpoint of thermodynamics, the exchange of minerals in the body whether it is oral or transdermal process, define the character of the wearer. This is as emulsions, gels, suspensions or heterogeneous systems. Clay materials have emulsifying power, ion exchange, adsorption, gelation, which is typical of its living matter. It should be noted electrical properties of clay. It usually negatively charged very effectively bind metal cations positive charges or protein. Historically in most developed civilizations demonstrated activity alumino silicate clay in the exchange minerals and trace elements in the body [16].