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Gastro Intestinal Health- activated charcoal

Gastro Intestinal Health- activated charcoal

Before the invention of electricity, humans relied on charcoal as a main source of fuel and energy. Charcoal was later found to have various other industrial and medicinal uses, making it one of the most amazing creations of Nature ever!

Activated charcoal as a medicinal treatment was so effective that Professor Touery, a scientist with the French Academy of Medicine, drank a lethal dose of poison in 1831 together with activated charcoal to prove how potent charcoal is as a decontaminant.

Long before he did so, activated charcoal had already been used by medicinal practitioners for various conditions ranging from food poisoning to burns to haemorrhage to bad breath. With the advent of modern medicine, activated charcoal became less popular in retail, but in hospitals and medical healthcare facilities, its presence remained just as strong.

Today, activated charcoal is still an effective treatment for gastrointestinal discomfort such as diarrheoa and food poisoning, and as a disinfectant. What’s new is that it is now available in easy to take tablets, unlike the brackish powdered water prescribed to patients in the past.

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The history of medicinal charcoal

How does charcoal work?

The history of medicinal charcoal

According to Charcoal Remedies, a well-recognised book on the use of medicinal charcoal and its applications, charcoal has been used for medicinal purposes since 1500 BC in Egypt. Initial use had been to absorb the unpleasant smells from putrefying wounds and from the intestinal tract. Hippocrates and Pliny, ancient physicians, are known to use charcoal to treat epilepsy, vertigo, severe anaemia and anthrax.

By the 1700s, activated charcoal was already widely used for excessive bile excretion and control of odours from gangrenous ulcers. Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786) discovered in 1773 that charcoal absorbs gases. In 1785, the pharmacist and chemist Johann Tobias Lowitz (1757-1804) publicised the observation from the 15th century stating that charcoal or carbo ligni has the ability to decolorise dyed solutions. Special incineration and pulverisation procedures were used for pharmaceutical purposes.

One century later, charcoal was being used in all naval, military, and civil hospitals around Britain for severe haemorrhage, open wounds, bleeding noses, dysentery, gangrene, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, gastrointestinal problems and more. Pulverized charcoal were sprinkled on wounds to cleanse septic wounds, stops tissue destruction, and promote granulation at wound surfaces.

In the 20th century, there were already many written records of using activated charcoal for medicinal purposes, whether externally or internally. The British Pharmaceutical Codex, a handbook written by pharmacists for the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, noted that charcoal was used internally in obstetrics and gynaecology, for intestinal disorders and as an antiseptic, and as a deodorant and absorbent for wounds externally. Clinicians also observed that charcoal was an excellent antidote for food poisoning.

By then, charcoal was available not just in the form of powders but also as lozenges and charcoal biscuits. Charcoal tooth powders were also available, for use against bad breath.

Even in the 21st century, activated charcoal continues to be extensively researched for more pharmaceutical and medical benefits. It is now indispensable in every modern hospital, being used in various applications ranging from charcoal masks, air scrubbers, liver and kidney dialysis machines, breast cancer markers, drug poisoning, wound dressings for burn victims and more.

How does activated charcoal work?

Despite its wide usage, most healthcare practitioners in the early days had no idea how and why charcoal worked so well even when other treatments have failed. Scientists later discovered that the secret lies in the adsorption properties of charcoal.

Adsorption is a process where toxic substances such as solids, liquids or gases pass through fine charcoal particles. As charcoal is not digestible or absorbable into the bloodstream, it stays in the gastrointestinal tract and is removed together with the toxin when the person has a bowel movement.

Charcoal is said to be ‘activated’ when it is ground to a very fine particle size to increase its adsorptive capacity. This process increases its overall surface area, increasing efficacy with minute amounts.

Activated charcoal does not bind to certain substance, such as lithium, strong acids and bases, metals, alcohol, inorganic minerals (sodium, iron, lead, arsenic, iodine, fluorine, boric acid) and hydrocarbons.

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