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There is plenty of archeological evidence to suggest that clay has been consumed and used medicinally since the beginning of time by both humans and a wide range of animal species. But we have yet to fully unlock the secrets of its nearly global health-restoration power.

The National Institutes of Health has funded research currently ongoing at Arizona State University into the antibacterial properties of clay and its use as an alternative treatment for Buruli ulcer. ASU’s geochemist Lynda Williams is the first to admit how rare it is for the NIH to award grant money to a geochemist. Together with fellow researcher and microbiologist Shelley Haydel, Williams hopes to elevate clay to its rightful place alongside fellow antibacterial giants like penicillin.

In their research thus far, Williams and Haydel found clay to actually be superior to antibiotics in fighting the methicillin-resistant bacterial strains known as super bugs. Because clay has always been a part of the environment, the use of it to combat bacteria doesn’t pose the environmental risks that antibiotics do. No new super bug will ever spring into existence as a result of clay usage, nor will clay packaging ever warn the user that he or she must complete a full series of treatments even if health is restored beforehand.

Williams and Haydel are generating a considerable amount of press as a result of their discovery, a sampling of which can be seen here:

Separate research on NASA astronauts and the calcium loss their bones undergo during prolonged periods of weightlessness found that calcium supplementation alone couldn’t get at the problem. Dr. Benjamin H. Ershoff’s research began in 1964 as part of a NASA-sponsored research into the severely accelerated osteoporosis that occurs during space flights. According to doctors advising NASA, weightless conditions on flights lasting several months or more weaken the body and increase its chances of developing kidney stones. When the calcium supplements failed to perform as hoped, Ershoff eventually turned to a calcium- and mineral-rich red desert clay, now known to be calcium montmorillonite. The test subjects were fed the clay in tablet form and closely monitored for bone deterioration and kidney stones. The results Ersgiff reported after testing were impressive. The calcium montmorillonite clay tablets promoted bone growth and prevented bone disorders from developing in all of the subjects tested.