Ayda Hosseinkhani, Hashem Montaseri, Abdolali Mohagheghzadeh, Hassan Seradj, Manouchehr Sodaifi
The medical use of earths and minerals is probably as old as the history of mankind. Particular types of clays and earths are still being used worldwide as therapeutic agents in the folk medicine of different countries. From the 19th century, the medicaments included in countries' pharmacopeias whose exact pharmacological activity or the chemistry of their active components was not known gradually decreased in number, despite their popularity among patients. With today's analytical armamentarium it may be time to reconsider returning some of those compounds to pharmacopeias...
December 2014: Pharmaceutical Historian