The use of herbs to facilitate bowel movements probably represents one of the very earliest internal uses of drugs to correct a medical problem. An obsession with the frequency and consistency of bowel movements has survived antiquity and is very much with us today—whether motivated by the desire to remain healthy, to deal with a medical problem, or to follow a weight loss program.
Before the twentieth century, when the causes of disease were not well understood and the practice of medicine was based on relief of symptoms, a wide assortment of drugs were used to deal with recalcitrant bowels. Textbooks of the day contained extensive drug classifications and included such terms as aperient, laxative, purgative, cathartic, and drastic. Our contemporary books have happily truncated this list to four, based on how the drugs facilitate bowel movements.
One reliable source states that more than 700 different laxative preparations were available in the United States in the early 1970s. The best-selling laxatives of that time contained phenolphthalein, the same acid-base indicator you used in your chemistry laboratory. As a drug, it was the active ingredient in (chocolate-coated) Ex-Lax, as well as Feen-A-Mint, Correctol, and Carter’s Little Liver Pills. Phenolphthalein’s laxative properties were discovered quite by accident in 1902, after the Hungarian government ordered that it be added to wines to detect adulteration. Those who excessively imbibed the wine experienced diarrhea. The result was a new laxative that was colorless, tasteless, dependable, perceived to be safe, and pleasant to use.
After more than ninety years of successful use, phenolphthalein’s drug days came to an abrupt end when, in 1996, it was shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Products containing phenolphthalein were hastily removed from the shelves, but they reappeared shortly thereafter, bearing their familiar time-honored names, but with another drug as their active laxative ingredient. It’s the trade name that sells, not the active ingredient.
SEE ALSO Patent Medicine (1623).
A 1919 French advertisement not only promoted Jubol to relieve constipation but also to assuage vertigo, hemorrhoids, indigestion, and migraine headaches. Note the diligent workers cleaning out the intestinal cavity.