[Terrapreta] Cows/animals - farts/burping-charcoal and/or parsley?

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Kurt

You raise an interesting question... what is the mechanism by which 
charcoal works when taken as a "medicine?"

As you note, it could work in (at least) the two following possible ways:

1: It could absorb the gas, reducing intestine pressure
2: It could absorb the toxins, or kill bacteria, or create conditions 
unfavourable for their survival

Would anyone know the volume of a gas that a given volume of charcoal 
could absorb? If the volume was relatively small, then the mechanism 
must be more along the lines of curing the basic problem.

Understanding how charcoal works in relieving intestinal distress might 
give some insight into how Terra Preta works.

Best wishes,

Kevin

rukurt at westnet.com.au wrote:
> Michael Bailes wrote:
>   
>> I am reading a detective story at the moment by Gerald Hammond "Dead 
>> Letters".
>> One character is a dog who farts.
>> The owner feeds her charcoal and parsley to stop the farting.
>>     
> Ideally it should be activated charcoal, but plain charcoal will do. 
> I've used it myself, when far from medical assistance ( in deepest 
> tropical New Guinea) when I had severe stomach pains, caused by gas. 
> Just grabbed a lump of charcoal out of a cold fire, chewed it up and 
> swallowed it. It worked quite well within half an hour the pains had 
> subsided.
>
> Where did I get the idea? Well, as a small kid, back in Germany, I 
> remember my mother giving me charcoal pills for belly aches.
>
> The charcoal not only adsorbs gas, but also toxins of various kinds. How 
> does it know what to adsorb and what to leave alone?? No idea.
>
>
> Kurt
> no idea about the parsley by the way
>
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