Bentonite maturation with "Águas De Lindóia" water (Sp)

Abstract

In the therapeutic treatments involving clays, they are used in mud form also called peloids and are obtained by maturation process. Peloid is a natural product consisting of a mixture of solid phase (inorganic and organic materials) with a liquid phase (mineralU medicinal, salt lake or sea water). The maturation process occurs during the interaction of the solid and liquid phases that can vary up to many months. The peloids can be applied to different parts of the body or on the whole body by means of masks and poultices, or even by bathing the body partially or totally, for therapeutic or cosmetic purposes. This study proposes to characterize the elemental composition of the peloids artificially obtained by the maturation process of mixing bentonite with minero-medicinal water from Águas de Lindóia (SP). For this procedure, bentonite samples were left in contact with running water for three months, after this, they were collected, dried, transferred to a mortar, crushed and irradiated in the IEAR1 reactor at IPEN, together with certified reference materials, to be analyzed by neutron activation analysis. The irradiation occurs at a neutron flux of 1012 cm􀀀2 s􀀀1, during 8 hours and the induced activity were measured by gamma spectrometry.