Harnessing The Power Of Clay To Protect Communities From Toxins

Story by Courtney Price, VMBS Marketing & Communications

October 2, 2025

From microplastics to heavy metals and forever chemicals, people are more aware than ever of the potential dangers lurking in food, water, and household items. But thanks to researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS), the answer to these concerns may be right under our feet.

Dr. Timothy Phillips, a professor in the VMBS’ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, has spent his career uncovering the manifold uses for clay in human, animal, and environmental health. His research has led to the discovery of a wide range of clay-based therapies used in preventative medicine and for mitigating exposure to toxins and pollutants during disasters, outbreaks, and emergencies. While some therapies are applied to the skin to prevent the absorption of toxic chemicals, others are meant to be eaten, where they prevent absorption of chemicals internally.

Clays may seem like an unusual answer in a world of high-tech solutions, but they have a long history of providing health benefits thanks to their status as sorbents — materials with adhesive properties.

“One of the reasons I originally began my research on clay-based therapies was the fact that animals and humans historically have used clay to help with a variety of ailments and nutritional needs,” Phillips said. “Even as far back as pre-Roman times, people used clays mixed with plant and animal fats and beeswax to create pills. It was ancient medicine.”

Digging Into Toxin Research

Phillips began his career studying clay-based therapies for aflatoxins, a group of toxins produced by fungi that frequently occur in moldy grains, including animal feed. Animals that eat the grain can develop bleeding in the digestive tract, swollen bile ducts, fatty liver, and cell loss. Often, the condition ends in death.

“Aflatoxins are usually found in low levels in the diet — most of us have probably been exposed to them because they are common in foods like peanuts and corn and can occur at higher levels during periods of drought,” Phillips said. “But they are most dangerous to the very young, the elderly, and other vulnerable individuals.”

At the time, there was no treatment for aflatoxins.

“I began studying clays to see if they could provide a solution,” Phillips said. “I discovered that one particular group of clays does a very good job of binding to aflatoxins. The clay has a chemical structure similar to a deck of cards and when they open up, they form interlayer pores that draw in the aflatoxins like a sponge.

“When consumed by people or animals, the clay binds tightly to toxins, keeping them from being absorbed by the body,” he said. “Then, the toxin and clay complex leaves through bodily waste.”

Thanks to Phillips’ work, dozens of clay-based treatments for aflatoxins are now available in commercial products for animals and people at risk of high exposure.

“I’ve been able to work with communities in Africa and other parts of the world where human aflatoxin poisoning is common due to their diet,” Phillips said. “My lab has found that these clays are stable enough for use in cooking so that people in these communities can add them directly to their food, instead of taking a capsule before each meal.”

Fighting Forever Chemicals

Thanks to the success of his work with aflatoxins, Phillips began exploring targeted, clay-based solutions to other problems, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Nicknamed “forever chemicals,” PFAS include thousands of grease-resistant chemicals used in everything from clothing to detergents and pizza boxes; they can take thousands of years to break down in the environment. Many PFAS have also been linked to cancer and other diseases.

At the Texas A&M Superfund Research Center, Phillips leads one of the center’s five central projects dedicated to studying and remediating environmental hazards, including exposure to PFAS and aflatoxins.

“I wanted to create something that could help mitigate exposures in humans following disasters and emergencies,” he said. “That includes flooding — which can carry chemical-laden water from industrial facilities into residential areas — and drought, which can intensify the presence of aflatoxins.”

Phillips and his team were able to create two different clay-based products that can help reduce hazardous exposures — an ingestible clay sorbent and a topical barrier cream.

“We found that certain nutrient-amended clays do a very good job of adhering to PFAS and materials like heavy metals and pesticides,” he said. “When ingested, they help to remove those materials from the gut before they can be absorbed, similar to the products we developed for aflatoxins.”

Barrier cream, on the other hand, helps to prevent toxic chemicals from being absorbed through the skin.

“The clay-based barrier cream is helpful for anyone who might be wading through floodwater, including first responders and emergency personnel,” Phillips said. “We’ve also created formulations with antibacterial properties, and now we’re working on developing versions with sun protection for the general public using only compounds that are GRAS, or ‘generally recognized as safe.’ We’re even looking into making a lip balm.”

Going Green

Phillips’ interest in sorbents has also led him to work with outdoor plants in new ways.

“Plants have a waxy coating on their leaves called the cuticle,” he said. “It helps protect them, but we found that it also binds to harmful chemicals in the air. For example, our former Superfund team conducted studies of pine needles near a hazardous site in Wyoming and found that the needles closest to the site’s center had higher concentrations of volatile chemicals than those further away from the site.”

Volatile chemicals, including volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), are a common air quality concern because their chemical structure makes them very likely to disperse into the air. Fumes from candles, household cleaners, and new furniture are common culprits of poor air quality in homes, but gas released near hazardous industrial sites can reach even more dangerous levels.

“We’ve known for a long time that diverse plants are important for producing oxygen, but it turns out they are helping clean the air around us in other ways, too,” Phillips said. “One of the next aims we’re working on is using chlorophyll — the pigment that makes plants green — in air filtration devices for the home because of its ability to bind benzene, a cancer-causing chemical that comes from things like gasoline fumes and cigarette smoke.”

Phillips’ lab also plans to collaborate with other researchers in the Superfund Center to combine the most effective plants as sorbents for toxic chemicals with green architecture.

“Dr. Galen Newman, from the College of Architecture, helps communities plan green spaces that help remediate environmental exposures,” Phillips said. “Thanks to my team’s recent research, we plan to provide him with a list of outdoor plants that will be the most effective binders of VOCs. 

“We’ve also done research on adding refined clays and green-engineered clays containing chlorophyll directly to the soil, especially in flood and garden models,” he said. “These clays act as tight barriers that bind and detain chemicals in the soil so that plants can’t absorb them, which protects any food grown in that space and prevents leaching of chemicals to ground water.”

Providing Solutions To Complex Problems

While Phillips still hopes that future researchers will find an efficient way to remove and dispose of hazardous chemicals in the environment, his research will help humans and animals live with the problem in the meantime.

“You can’t just dig up and transfer all the contaminated soil every time there’s a disaster,” Phillips said. “It’s not economically feasible, and also, what can you do with contaminated soil? Very high temperatures, similar to those found in volcanoes and superheated water, are required to effectively destroy very stable chemicals like PFAS.

“One thing that makes sense for now are edible sorbents that you can have in your home or can take internally — something you can put in your food or your favorite energy drink — and be protected from short-term exposure to toxic chemicals in food and water following disasters or emergencies,” he said. “That’s why I’ve dedicated my career to studying them and their potential applications.”

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Note: This story originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of VMBS Today.

For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216

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