Sistemas dispersos de arcillas especiales en aguas mineromedicinales para su empleo en terapéutica balnearia

Resumen

Clays are frequently used in complementary and alternative medicine, including balneotherapy. Therapeutic muds are used for topical administration of mineral medicinal waters in the treatment of illnesses of the locomotor apparatus, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatologic ailments. Clays are used in muds as vehicles of mineral medicinal water, to obtain inorganic gels with rheological and thermal properties that can be topically applied. Despite their utilization over the years, the use of clays in therapeutic muds requires understanding of the curative attributes. Based on this premise, clay samples currently employed in several thermal centers of southern European/Mediterranean countries were studied with the goal to asses their identity, purity, richness and safety. Two of the studied samples, due to their superior quality, were selected for further analyses. The procedures to prepare therapeutic muds have been transmitted orally since ancient times. It is widely accepted that muds require a ¿maturation¿ process to achieve the desired therapeutic results. As a first step to understand this procedure, this study focused on the influence of ¿maturation¿ on the structure and properties of concentrated suspensions prepared with pharmaceutical grade clays (selected as model materials because of their known quality attributes). Rheological properties of the studied systems were related to aggregation states and networking mechanisms. These behaviour patterns identified during maturation were used in subsequent steps of the thesis. In particular, two clays selected from thermal centers were employed to prepare thermal muds by adding mineral medicinal water from the thermal spring of Graena (Cortes y Graena, Granada, Spain). Muds were matured for three months and sampled over time to characterize the properties considered relevant in view of their topical administration and to determine their possible mechanisms of action. It is given that heat plays a fundamental role in the beneficial effects of thermal mud therapy in tandem with the possible transfer through the skin of chemical elements present in muds. In the studied samples, maturation increased the release of cations from the therapeutic muds but did not improve their thermal properties. Accordingly, the therapeutic effects associated with thermophysical mechanisms do not require mud maturation. Maturation, therefore, is only relevant when improving the chemical effects of the muds.