Project Description
Activated charcoal is often found in toothpaste to whiten teeth, in face masks to clear the skin and as a food supplement to remove ‘toxins’ from the gut. My project investigated the effects of activated charcoal on the absorption of medicines by measuring the conductivity and Total Dissolved Solids of solutions. I created solutions of medicines with deionized water; either with or without activated charcoal, filtered the solutions and measured the change in conductivity in order to ascertain if the drugs were still available to be absorbed. My results showed that conductivity and TDS are both reduced after the addition of activated charcoal. This indicates that it is adsorbing medicine particles and removing them from the liquids, thus interfering with their absorption in the body.
