Authors:
Guido Meyer, Dierk Michaelis, Hans Joosten, Renate Klöcking
Book:
Proceedings of the 14th International Peat Congress
Venue:
Stockholm
Keywords:
humic-acids, organohalogen-compounds, palaeoecological-analysis, peat-formation
Documentfile:
Meyer et al 2012: Humic Acids for Medical Use: 1. Understanding the Influence of Peat Formation on Humic Acid Quality
Summary:
Theme IV. Chemical, physical and biological characteristics of peat
SUMMARY
Humic acids are potent agents against certain types of human pathogenic viruses such as herpesviruses. However, their ill-defined chemical structure seriously hampers structure-effect studies and has so far prevented their wide spread use. Here we present on-going work to isolate high quality humic acids suitable for medical purposes from peat, i.e. with a high content of active compounds. We study the influence of peat formation variables on the chemical and antiviral characteristics of humic acids. In this abstract, data obtained from peat samples from different depths of the Dierhäger Moor, a raised bog on a terrestrialisation mire (fig. 1), are presented.