"Active Charcoal+: Phytochemical Composition, Mechanistic Rationale, and Evidence Appraisal of a Five-Component Ayurvedic Formulation — A Critical Narrative Review"

Abstract

Active Charcoal+ is formulated as a 500-mg Ayurvedic capsule containing Andrographis paniculata (130 mg), Aloe barbadensis (83.5 mg), Allium sativum (85.5 mg), menthol (75 mg), and Triphala Masi (75 mg), together with excipients. This critical narrative review examines how the published evidence for these individual components relates to digestive function and comfort, intestinal ecology, immune-inflammatory regulation, metabolic and hepatic physiology, antioxidant defence, and detoxification-associated processes. Triphala Masi is classified as a thermally carbonised Triphala preparation and is kept conceptually distinct from both uncarbonized Triphala and pharmaceutical activated charcoal. The human evidence varies markedly according to preparation, dose, and endpoint. Individual trials of standardised Andrographis products report gastrointestinal activity, but pooled findings are less consistent. Garlic has the broadest human evidence across metabolic, hepatic, and immune-inflammatory outcomes. Peppermint-oil trials offer indirect clinical context for menthol, whereas human-colon experiments support a direct spasmolytic action of menthol through reduced L-type Ca2+ influx and separate TRPM8-related effects on colonic motor function. Aloe findings are strongly dependent on the leaf fraction and processing method. Studies of ordinary Triphala show measurable but non-uniform changes in the microbiome and cannot be directly transferred to Triphala Masi. Evidence specific to Masi remains limited to pharmacognostic and in-vitro observations. Overall, the formulation has a biologically coherent ingredient-level rationale for gastrointestinal, inflammatory, and metabolic support, but current data do not establish finished-product efficacy or generalised systemic detoxification.