Artifact of the Month – January 2021
Bob Harris – Collections and Exhibits Volunteer

Historic Remedies

1973.5.5, .101, .162 Gifts of Robert and Minnie Woods, 1977.33.3 Gift of Nancy Martin, 
& 1966.6.4 Gift of Anonymous Donor

Humans have sought natural sources for medicine since antiquity. Even today, many over-the-counter remedies contain natural ingredients. One of the oldest occurs in the most commonly used drug in the world. Found in willow bark, salicin was used for pain relief in Egypt more than 3500 years ago. It was first converted into acetylsalicylic acid in 1853 and marketed by Bayer as Aspirin by 1899. The exhibited remedies all contain naturally derived ingredients while suggesting that historic folk had many digestion-related maladies. For example, Kaba is a laxative containing brewer’s yeast and refined, solidified sap from the karaya tree. The refined sap can absorb twenty times its weight in water. (Oof, that sounds uncomfortable.) Kaba was made by Battle Creek Food Company, which became Kellogg’s in 1922. Even though Kaba is no longer on the market, karaya gum is still used as a laxative in some countries.

Many of these remedies were taken off the market due to dangerous ingredients. Administered as an anesthetic in the mid-1800s, the chloroform found in Chamberlains’ Colic Remedy can cause cardiac fibrillation, acute toxicity, and cancer. This medicine was likely meant to soothe a distressed baby and parental frustration or to simply mitigate digestive issues and flatulence. Carter’s Little Liver Pills, for headache, torpid liver, constipation, and complexion, was reformulated with bisacodyl and sold as a laxative once the toxicity of podophyllum, an herbaceous, perennial plant, was discovered. However, even though scientists knew about the highly addictive and intoxicating qualities of opium, found in poppies, Lilly’s was legal during its time because it had less than the two-gram maximum opium dosage per lozenge allowed by the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1915. Today, we know more about the ramifications of opioid use.

Believe it or not, the only exhibited remedy still on the market is ox bile. Bile is a fluid made in the liver. It is stored in the gallbladder where it prevents the formation of gallstones and used in the intestine to aid digestion. Belein Ox Bile is dried and purified ox bile. Modern ox bile also contains digestive enzymes, Betaine HCL, and herbs. Modern medicine, like any science, is constantly refined to reflect the most current knowledge available. Sometimes that means information we are familiar with changes. So, we must be willing to adapt just like our ancestors, who discovered natural doesn’t always mean safe.

To learn more about this artifact, visit the Artifact of the Month exhibit inside the Museum entrance at Turtle Bay Exploration Park. You can also click the link below for the Artifact of the Month webpage for more information on the exhibit and past blogs.