Anita, I don't think that the charcoal from a fireplace would be the same grade for this, not sure though. Never thought of it that way. One of my sons had food poisioning and we bought the Solaray brand of Activated Charcoal capsules for his stomach. For the poultice for stings I pull the capsule apart and drop the powder out to mix with the flax seed and water. Charcoal in this way is good to take into the stomach as it eats up toxins like in food poisioning. Also I've used the above mixture on wasps stings that I always get in the summer. Those nasty critters seem to be in my way all the time. LOL. Takes the sting out in no time. I was told one time by a lady that I admire that if it ever comes to the point in our society that there are "forced" vaccinations put upon us (you never know what our governments will do these days), that if you know you have to get a certain vaccination and it is against your principles to do so, and you don't want this vaccine in your body, you should take several charcoal capsules by mouth right before the injection and then immediately afterwards put the Flax seed and charcoal poutice on the injection site and it will draw out the fluid "they" injected. I'm sure it will as I know how it works for the bites we get.

As far as the charcoal is concerned, I imagine any brand of powder would work. I've tried the Activated Charcoal crystals by Life Force International that are NOT in capsule form. Just a bottle of crystals. I did NOT like using them in the poultice. They were too large and made for a really bulky poultice and didn't seem to work near as well. Maybe that kind would be good for swallowing for stomach ailments, I don't know.