PAS-AVENA
How Its Formula Evades the Food and Drugs Act
Pas-Avena is a widely advertised “nerve sedative and hypnotic.” The preparation is put on the market by the Pas-Avena Company of New York City. As a headliner the advertisements of the remedy state that the formula has always been on every bottle, and this, The Journal states, has a twofold object: It aims to give the impression that the preparation is non-secret, and it is calculated to inspire confidence in the—apparently—scientific nature of the product. As a matter of fact, it should do neither. The preparation is essentially secret in its composition because of the presence in the formula of an unknown quantity and the liability to change of formula at the whim of the manufacturer. On the bottles some time ago the following formula was given:
| Each tablespoonful contains: | ||
Passiflora | 20 | minims. |
Avena sativa | 10 | minims. |
Somnalgesine (C30H28N5O6) | 2 | grains. |
The first two ingredients are plants in whose therapeutic value but little confidence is placed. Somnalgesine, the third constituent, is a secret preparation, the chemical formula of which the manufacturers were kind enough to add. To a chemist, however, the formula is absurd and impossible, and is included either because of the manufacturer’s ignorance or because of an intent to deceive the profession. Since the Food and Drugs Act became law, the label of Pas-Avena has been changed to read:
Alcohol | 8.37 | per cent. by volume. |
Anilipyrine | 16.00 | grains per fluid ounce. |
| Guaranteed under the Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906. | ||
Substitution of anilpyrine for somnalgesine gives little more information. Chemists may recognize this as a name applied to a mixture said to be formed by the fusion of two molecules of antipyrin and one molecule of acetanilid. To physicians, however, the name carries with it the same mystery as did somnalgesine. Attention is directed to the fact that by publishing the guarantee under the pure food laws the company presumes to disperse all doubt and criticism, assuming that the majority of physicians will be satisfied with the guarantee as it stands. Inasmuch as the preparation contains acetanilid and antipyrin, however, the manufacturers are disregarding that part of the Food and Drugs Act which requires that the name of the parent substance—in this case acetanilid and antipyrin—be put in parenthesis. The laws are so well defined that physicians appear to be content to do nothing, firmly believing that they are safe from the defrauding methods of unscrupulous manufacturers.—(Abstracted from The Journal A. M. A., March 7, 1908.)
Proprietary House Insolvent—and Physicians Lose?
The Pas-Avena Chemical Company, whose product, Pas-Avena, was exposed in The Journal a few months ago, has recently failed, according to our pharmaceutical exchanges. In recording the fact, one journal says:
“It is reported that considerable stock of this company had been sold to physicians.”
At this time, when physicians are importuned daily to invest money in various wildcat pharmaceutical concerns, this sentence might well be used “to point a moral or adorn a tale.”