WHY CHOOSE ACTIVATED CHARCOAL?
Not all activated charcoal supplements are created equal. Our Activated Charcoal is an ultra-fine powder derived from pure coconut shell fibre. It has been steam activated (unlike chemical activation) making it 3-5 times more porous. It has also been medicinally activated using a purification process which empties the carbon molecules completely, further increasing its surface area, which enhances its adsorption and drawing capacity (more than steam activation alone).
Activated charcoal is one of nature’s finest magnetic sponges for adsorbing toxins, pain from burns, poisons, pollutants and bacteria. It may be used without side effects or overdose. Eden Healthfoods Activated Charcoal is 100% natural and does not contain any additives, sweeteners, chemicals, or binders.
Although not an herb, charcoal is invaluable in a number of ways. Activated charcoal will adsorb and render harmless over 3,000 known drug residues, pesticides, insecticides and just about every harmful chemical known. It is pure carbon and will adsorb 29 of the 30 most dangerous poisons, thus neutralising them.
Activated charcoal is pure carbon comprised of millions of tiny micropores which have a large surface area. Just one gram of activated carbon has a surface area in excess of 3,000 m2. This high degree of microporosity makes it extremely effective in binding to vast amounts of organic material. Used for thousands of years for its adsorbing (bonding) properties, it is still the most widely used drawing substance available today. This is why charcoal is found in water filters and used to treat acute poisoning in hospitals around the world as an emergency decontaminant.
Charcoal is produced by slow combustion in the relative absence of oxygen. Burnt toast and charcoal briquettes are NOT charcoal. Treatment with super heated steam produces “activated” charcoal which is capable of a much greater adsorptive effect. This is because more surfaces of the charcoal have been exposed.
Activated charcoal works by undergoing a process known as "adsorption". This is when a solid, or molecule of a gas or liquid adheres or binds to the charcoal atom instead of being filtered into it (ie. absorption). Activated charcoal attracts impurities like a magnet to remove them safely.
Internally, charcoal cannot adsorb all poisons, but it can bind with, and thus neutralise many of them. Here are but a few of the many things it adsorbs:
- Many industrial toxins including DDT and dieldrin, strychnine, malathion, parathion
- Many medical drugs including aspirin, barbiturates cocaine, opium, nicotine, morphine, penicillin and sulphas.
- Many inorganic chemicals including mercury, phosphorous, chlorine, lead, iron and silver.