Coffee charcoal

Coffee charcoal (Latin: Coffeae carbo) is a black-brown to brown-black medium-fine powder obtained from the seeds of various types of Coffea . It smells and tastes like burnt coffee, has an adsorbing (absorbent) and astringent (astringent) effect. In medicine, coffee charcoal is used to treat unspecific acute diarrheal diseases and locally for mild inflammation of the oral and pharyngeal mucosa. It is used as a powder or compressed in tablet form.

Description, occurrence

Coffee charcoal is obtained through a special roasting of the outer seeds of green, dried fruits of various types of coffee. This creates a powder with a greatly enlarged surface. In contrast to medical charcoal , which is produced by a "complete" charring e.g. B. the coconut shell is created, the coffee charcoal is only roasted to a certain degree. In this way, components are still contained that can also be found in coffee, which gives the coffee charcoal its versatile effect.

history

Many indigenous peoples knew and used the intoxicating and healing properties of coffee beans early on . In Arabic folk medicine , the medicinal effects of very strongly burnt coffee have been known for centuries. In Chile, raw, crushed coffee beans used to be brewed and drunk when there were problems with the bile and liver. In Germany, the antiseptic effect of coffee charcoal was first mentioned in a medical journal in 1885 by the doctor Oppler from Strasbourg. However, the diverse medical effects were not made known until 1937 and 1938 by the doctor and naturopath August Heisler , who described the use of coffee charcoal for a variety of diseased mucous membranes, from the nose to the intestine, for example for various intestinal disorders and diseases of the mouth , Throat and tonsils. He explained the effect of the coffee charcoal as follows: detoxification by the charcoal (binds microorganisms and bacterial toxins), disinfection by the phenols , increased blood supply at the source of inflammation by caffeine , healing nutrition by the vitamins it contains . In a medical journal, he also recommended that his colleagues detox with coffee charcoal in cases of unclear infections instead of removing tonsils or teeth. The example cases presented by him suggested that tonsillitis , for example, is often just an attempt by the organism to detoxify itself, but that the primary source of the disease is in the intestine.

Since there was no industrially produced coffee charcoal available, he recommended making it yourself: Green coffee beans should be roasted over an open fire for about 35 minutes until they start to turn black. Then the coffee should either be ground in a Turkish coffee grinder or finely grated with a mortar. For internal use, he recommended a heaped teaspoon, the application on the pharynx should be done with a cotton brush, the rubbing of the gums with a previously moistened finger.

Ingredients and properties

The effect of coffee charcoal is due to its adsorption capacity and the ingredients it contains: caffeine, histobases, choline-like bodies, trigonelline (B2 complex), chlorogenic and caffeic acid . The medicinal drug has astringent (contracting), absorbing (sucking up), antibacterial, analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Due to the large surface of the coffee carbon, harmful substances, toxins , fermentation products of the intestine and also excess fluid can be bound and excreted. The content of chlorogenic and caffeic acids causes the outer layers of the mucous membrane to contract and thus also leads to reduced fluid secretion in the intestine. Studies by the University of Leipzig show that the coffee carbon also contains anti-inflammatory ingredients, with chlorogenic acid having the strongest anti-inflammatory effect. The local application of coffee charcoal accelerates wound healing and has analgesic effects.

Use in medicine

As early as 1937 and 1938, the doctor August Heisler reported in various medical journals about the successful use of coffee charcoal for diarrhea , various intestinal disorders and diseases of other mucous membranes such as runny nose , angina , chronic tonsillitis , scarlet fever , diphtheria , bleeding gums and aphthae in the mouth. According to Heisler, coffee charcoal has also been used successfully for severe hemorrhoids , food allergies or food poisoning and migraines , if these are related to a disturbed bowel function. Because of his positive experience, the coffee charcoal was also used in the children's clinic in Erlangen from May 1938 on for various gastrointestinal disorders (internally used) as well as angina, diphtheria and eczema (by dusting). Gustav Link, the doctor at the children's clinic, described numerous patient cases successfully treated in this way in Hippocrates 1939.

Today, according to the recommendation of Commission E , coffee charcoal is used for the treatment of unspecific acute diarrheal diseases and locally for mild inflammation of the oral and pharyngeal mucosa. In the pharmacy there is coffee charcoal as a powder or combined with myrrh and chamomile as tablets. They are used for the supportive treatment of gastrointestinal disorders with unspecific diarrhea, accompanied by slight cramps and flatulence.

It should be noted that coffee charcoal may reduce the absorption and effectiveness of other drugs because it binds them in the gut. Accordingly, an interval of approx. 3 hours is recommended between taking coffee charcoal and other medication. No undesirable effects are known to date.

literature

• Thomas W. Baumann, Renate Seitz: Coffeae carbo (coffee charcoal). In: Hager's Encyclopedia of Drugs and Drugs (data as of April 22, 2014, accessed on September 16, 2019)
• August Heisler : Still a country doctor. 5th, revised and expanded edition. Max Heitner Verlag, Munich 1950.
• Heinz Schilcher (Ed.): Guide to phytotherapy. Urban & Fischer Verlag, Munich 2016, p. 172f.

Web links

• Monograph of Commission E , Federal Gazette, May 5, 1988

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Coffee Coal: Supplementary Book 6 to the German Pharmacopoeia 1941, p. 67
2. ↑ Coffeae carbo (coffee coal): Hagers Handbuch der Pharmazeutischen Industrie, 5th edition 1992, p. 928
3. ↑ Georg Mylius: To the history of the coffee coal. Pharmazie 5: 407-408 (1950)
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Hildegard Willms-Beyard: Coffee charcoal, a medicinal powder not only for the intestines. In: Nature & Healing 5: 30–35 (2011)
5. ^ Fritz Lickint: On the history of the coffee coal therapy. Pharmacy 4: 479 (1949)
6. ↑ ^{a b c} August Heisler: Country doctor and naturopathic treatment. Hippocrates 50: 1247 ff. (1937)
7. ↑ ^{a b} August Heisler: From special tasks of the country doctor. The Medical World: 765 ff. (1938)
8. ↑ ^{a b c} August Heisler: Supplementary experiences about coffee charcoal. Hippocrates 2:39, 40 (1939)
9. ↑ August Heisler: Successful treatment of creeping infections with coffee charcoal. Hippocrates 43: 1114 ff. (1939)
10. ↑ August Heisler: About the therapeutic use of coffee charcoal. Hippocrates 3: 63, 64 (1938)
11. ↑ A. Kuhn, G. Schäfer: On the knowledge of the chemistry of Heisler's coffee coal. German Medical Weekly 23: 922, 923 (1939) doi : 10.1055 / s-0028-1120548
12. ↑ Laura Weber et al .: Plant compounds of coffee charcoal inhibit chemokine / cytokine release from activated human macrophages. Poster, 4th International Phyto Congress, Vienna (2018)
13. ↑ M. Pilgramm et al .: Coffee charcoal to promote wound healing. Use after tonsillectomy. Magazine f. General med. 62: 375-378 (1986)
14. ^ Gustav Link: Treatment with coffee charcoal according to Heisler. Hippocrates 1: 3 ff. (1939)

This article is about a health issue. It is not used for self-diagnosis and does not replace a diagnosis by a doctor. Please note the information on health issues !