The History of Activated Charcoal

Charcoal has played a role in a variety of applications throughout history with the earliest recorded use dating back to 3750 b.c. It was utilized by the Egyptians and Sumerians in the manufacturing process of bronze, as well as a preservative.granular activated charcoal Even in construction projects along the River Nile, Egyptians used fire to char posts in order to prevent rot once they were implanted into the wet soil. After discovering the preservative powers of charcoal, the Egyptians began using the substance in their process of preserving the corpses of the dead. Once wrapped in cloth, the bodies of those who had passed would be buried under layers of sand and charcoal for preservation purposes. The Egyptians incorporated charcoal in their embalming processes as well.

In 450 b.c., the charring of wooden barrels was a common practice to prepare for the safe transport of potable water on long journeys at sea. In addition to water, a number of other foods and organic materials were transported using the charred carriers. This practice led to the fine-tuning of charcoal in water preservation and purification that has evolved into the effective filtration and processing procedures we use today.

The awareness that charcoal could be used for preservation or purification led to the medicinal uses that became popular during the times of Hippocrates and Pliny between 400 b.c. and a.d. 50. Once it was determined that charcoal had health-improving powers, the substance was used in the treatment of everything from epilepsy and severe anemia to vertigo and anthrax. Around a.d. 78, Pliny even wrote in Natural History (volume 36), “It is only when ignited and quenched that charcoal itself acquires its characteristic powers, and only when it seems to have perished that it becomes endowed with great virtue.”

Following Pliny’s documentation of charcoal as a medicinal staple, Claudius Galen, the most famous physician within the Roman Empire, researched and experimented with the substance, producing nearly 500 medical texts that detailed successful charcoal treatments for a wide range of diseases.www.yrdcarbon.com

After the charcoal activation process was discovered and perfected between 1870 and 1920, reports of the successful medicinal use of activated charcoal became increasingly popular in published scientific journals around the world. Now regarded as a “safe and effective” application by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), activated charcoal is commonly used in a wide variety of treatments in homes, hospitals, and clinics throughout the world. Available at a variety of locations and effective in countless applications, activated charcoal is taking the holistic healing community by storm.