By Chisom Ibemere
Sepiolite, also referred to as Meerschaum and known as sea foam in German, is a fibrous hydrated magnesium silicate mineral. It is white, cream, opaque or grey in colour. It may resemble cuttlefish Sepia bones, from which its name is gotten.
Sepiolite contains extended silicon-oxygen sheets, so that the mineral belongs to the layer silicate family. The major use of Sepiolite is in the making of tobacco pipes. Its deposits can be seen in the plains of Eskişehir, Tur., where it is seen as irregular nodules in alluvial deposits. Sepiolite is a soft mineral but hardens on drying. It occurs in places like France, Greece, the Czech Republic, and the United States.
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Sepiolite is a clay mineral which belongs to the group of phyliosilicates. It is characterized by high specific surface, great sorptive capacity, low cation exchange capacity and rheological properties.
It is used in animal feed as a registered feed additive. It may be used in pelleted feeds as a binder. It facilitates the durability and hardness of pelletes, and physical stability of feeds and prevents dust losses. The use of sepiolite in animal nutrition is still limited.
SEPIOLITE is initially named meerschaum by Abraham Gottlob Werner in the year 1788 and named sepiolite by Ernst Friedrich Glocker in 1847. The name originated from Greek sepion meaning “cuttlebone” and lithos which means stone, after a perceived resemblance of this mineral to cuttlebone.
