Microstructural and Microbiological Properties of Peloids and Clay Materials from Lixouri (Kefalonia Island, Greece) Used in Pelotherapy

Autor: Paraskevi Lampropoulou, Petros Petrounias, Aikaterini Rogkala, Panagiota P. Giannakopoulou, Eleni Gianni, Spiridon Mantzoukas, Ioannis Lagogiannis, Nikolaos Koukouzas, Sophia Hatziantoniou, Dimitrios Papoulis
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Applied Sciences, Vol 13, Iss 9, p 5772 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2076-3417
DOI: 10.3390/app13095772
Popis: Clays have been applied for centuries by people for many uses. From pottery to medicine, clays and clay minerals constitute part of individuals’ daily routines. Natural fine-grained earth material, commonly found at Xi beach coastal area of Lixouri in Kefalonia island, was used during the last few decades by local people as well as from tourists for pelotherapy, even though this material has never been examined for its suitability for this use. This work was conducted aiming to characterize this material and determine if it is harmless and beneficial for therapeutic purposes or skin care. Field work revealed that the material is not homogenous and, therefore, some of its parts could be characterized as suitable, non-suitable or even harmful. The collected samples from Kefalonia were characterized according to their petrographic and chemical features using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Moreover, the microbial burden of the material was assessed analyzing the bacterial and fungi load. This study indicates that this geomaterial can be suitable for natural mud/peloid applications, but only in some parts of this area.
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