Carhue is the largest thermal center of the province of Buenos Aires, located 520 kilometers from the state capital. The thermal baths and the treatments with the lake’s peloids have become an emblem of the city. Since 1920 visitors from around the world have come to this place to enjoy the benefits of the mineral waters from Epecuen Lake. Objective: The objective of this work is the physicochemical study of the Carhue peloid. Material and Method: A commercial peloid sample, The percentage of the solid components, water and ashes was determined by gravimetric techniques drying the sample in oven and mufla. The specific heat, thermal conductivity coefficient and calorific retentivity were calculated from these data.   The particle size was determined by laser diffraction, using the model 3000 of Malvern Instruments Mastersizer.   The instrumental texture was determined with the Brookfield LFRA, Texture Analyzer, model 1000 LFRA LRFA. The Rambaud method was the technic used to obtain the cooling curve, with thermostatic baths, Lauda, RA 8 Alpha and E-100 and thermocouple Cole-Parmer, model 91100-50. Results: (Table 1) Conclusions: Its water percentage (47.4%) allow us classify this product as a true peloid.   From the relation ash / solid (0.90) it follows that is a peloid rich in inorganic products.   The particle size indicates that there are particles ranging 0.6 to 120 microns, with Dv(50) of 10.5 microns but with scarce uniformity.   Specific heat and retentivity values are agree with the obtained percentage values of water and ashes.   The value tr (8.7 minutes) shows a peloid with slow release of heat, matching up with the data of their retentivity 7.74 106 s/m2.   According to its texture is a soft peloid (64.7 g) with good cohesion capacity (0.96) so it is an easy product to use.

  There is little doubt that the main therapeutic action of the peloid’s, therapy depends on their thermal properties. For this reason is quite of interest getting to know the thermal properties of the materials that form peloids. Objective: Study the thermal properties of three inorganic solids that can be used in the preparation of therapeutic peloids. Materials and Method: The products used are aluminic Bentonite, Kerolita (Süd Chemie) and SPLF ELITE (Tolsa).   From the thermal point of view the specific heat was determined using a Scanning Calorimetry equipment, model DSC1, cooled by air of Mettler Toledo and it was used the software STARe for the collection and processing of data.   An extemporaneous product was prepared with a liquid phase of 60%, using distilled deionized water. Its cooling curves their relaxation and inertia times were studied.   For the determination of the cooling curves we have followed the Rambaud technique, obtaining graphs and equations that best fit the experimental curve, using the ORIGIN program 8. We used Thermostatic baths, models Lauda RA Alpha 8 and E-100 and a thermocouple Cole-Parmer, model 91100-50. Results and Discussion: The following Table 1 shows the results of the specific heat measures of the three studied products, in the range of 45-36°C and its corresponding average value. We also include the inertia and relaxation time of peloids. Conclusions: The SPLF, a sepiolite, presents the highest value of the specific heat, whose corresponding peloid with an equal percentage of water would provide the greatest amount of heat. The specific heat of the bentonite and kerolita is very similar.   Bentonite Al shows the most relaxation time of the three products, releasing therefore the heat more slowly.

  The main objective of the present study was to determine the in situ biomechanical behaviour of skin in response to the use of three muds manufactured with a hyperosmotic Spring “Hervederos de Cofrentes” water, Valencia, Spain. The impact of the osmotic muds on the biomechanical behaviour of human skin, its pH, blood flow, barrier function and dermal density was quantified in healthy volunteers using several non-invasive approaches. Materials and Method: This study was designed to assess the skin response to daily use for 10 and 20 days on volar forearms of 33 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 40 years (23.3 ± 4.4) when applied 3 extemporaneous peloides with 0 (P0), 30 (P3) and 60 (P6) days of maturation.   Peloids daily placed on volar forearm on panellist and variables were determined at baseline before starting treatment (day 0), and 10 and 20 days after the start of treatment. Day zero values are considered normal skin pattern.   After a descriptive statistical analysis (mean and standard deviation), a paired Student’s t-test was used to compare data. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. Results and Conclusions: Our results also suggest a direct relationship between the actions of the muds used and the following changes in the in vivo characteristics of human skin.   P3 peloid gradually decreases blood flow (p<0.05) whitout affetation TEWL and there is a general increase in pH with the implementation of treatment. Increases skin firmness (p<0, 05) and elasticity (p<0.05).   All peloids P0, P3 and P6 had an increase in dermal density (p<0.05), and was recorded reaching significance after 10 days of treatment and increased resistance towards repeated suction (reduced fatigue) after 10 days of treatment too, rising gradually up to 20 days was observed (p<0.05).   As an overall conclusion, our findings indicate that the skin treatment proposed, P3 peloid mainly, decrease blood flow without modifying the barrier function of the skin, does not change TEWL, and clearly improves its biomechanical properties, improving skin density, skin firmness, increasing the elasticity and decreasing the fatigue of the skin, up minimally modifying the pH.   All these circumstances make it very compatible with scaly process type psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, ichthyosis or cutaneous process that curse with an increase in skin cell turn-over.