Naturally occurring carbonated mineral waters have been known for a long time. These effervescent waters exist as a consequence of excess carbon dioxide in an aquifer dissolving under pressure. Although claims for the medicinal properties of these mineral waters have been grossly exaggerated, the presence of carbon dioxide does make aerated waters and soft drinks both more palatable and visuall...

AFrER A LONG period of decline during the Middle Ages, interest in the healing properties of mineral waters revived in England in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The warm springs at Bath and Buxton were already regaining their popularity for bathing by 1570, especially for rheumatism, gout, and skin diseases.2 The baths were also considered to increase fertility, but the drinking of ...

BACKGROUND Non-carbonated natural mineral waters contain microorganisms that regularly grow after bottling despite low concentrations of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Yet, the compositions of bottled water microbiota and organic substrates that fuel microbial activity, and how both change after bottling, are still largely unknown. RESULTS We performed a multifaceted analysis of microbiota a...

Geodiversity is considered as the natural range of geological, geomorphological, and soil features, including their assemblages, relationships, properties, interpretations, and systems. A method developed for the quantitative assessment of geodiversity was applied to Paraná, a Brazilian state with an area of about 200,000 km(2). The method is based on the overlay of a grid over different maps a...

Waters from natural sources of the São Miguel Island in the Azores archipelago have been investigated regarding their corrosive action on metallic materials. The corrosive and encrusting characteristics of the waters have been established in terms of relevant chemical parameters (namely pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), and concentrations of bicarbonate, calcium, magnesium, chlori...

The heterotrophic plate counts of 15 brands of bottled non-carbonated mineral waters were examined and found to be generally high and variable. Four selective or enrichment media for the enumeration of coliforms (m-Endo LES and m-lauryl sulphate agar) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (cetrimide-nalidixic acid agar and malachite green broth) were used to isolate several species of Gram-negative bacter...

Natural mineral water (NMW) is widely used in hydropathic facilities, commonly known as thermae. It represents an important therapeutic resource to treat inflammatory respiratory disorders like asthma, bronchitis and bronchiectasis, as well as muscle-skeletal and rheumatologic conditions, among others. To maintain thermae NMW therapeutic properties, attributed to its stable physicochemical char...

BACKGROUND/AIM Treatment of psoriasis is very complex and there are no still universal, nor unique treatment modalities. Apart from conventional treatment, which includes topical calcipotriol (vitamin D3 analogue), balneotherapy is drawing increased attention worldwide. Being part of climatotherapy, balneotherapy is defined as the use of natural environmental factors in the treatment of health ...

The plant vascular system, composed of the xylem and phloem, is important for the transport of water, mineral nutrients, and photosynthate throughout the plant body. The vasculature is also the primary means by which developmental and stress signals move from one organ to another. Due to practical and technological limitations, proteomics analysis of xylem and phloem sap has been understudied i...

We evaluated the microbiological safety of bottled mineral water products commercially available in Japan. Of 10 bottled mineral water products manufactured in Japan, no bacteria or fungi were detected in 9 (90%), but 1 (10%) contained 1.8x10(3) colony-forming units (cfu)/mL. Of 12 bottled mineral water products manufactured in the EU, 11 (91.7%) contained 23-3.5x10(4) cfu/mL. On the other hand...