ZYME-OID
W. A. Puckner and W. S. Hilpert
Zyme-oid, manufactured by the Oxychlorine Chemical Company of Chicago, is advertised as “a powerful gastro-intestinal antiferment” which will “arrest and prevent bacterial fermentation in any portion of the intestinal tract, whether the media be acid or alkaline.” These extravagant statements, like many others made regarding the properties of zyme-oid, are very similar in character to those made in the circulars accompanying the preparation oxychlorine, manufactured by the same firm and exposed in The Journal, July 6, 1907, page 54. (See page [147] of this book.)
As examples, several parallel statements help to show this similarity. The formula (?) of oxychlorine, as expounded on the label, is given in full, while in the case of zyme-oid only a hint is given as to its composition, but still sufficient to point to a similarity between the two:
| OXYCHLORINE | ZYME-OID | |
| “Oxychlorine is a tetraborate of sodium and potassium combined with oxychlorid of boron, thus: (6NaKB4O7) BOCl3.” | “Zyme-Oid is a double borate salt.” |
In the matter of claims for chemical stability the two seem to be very closely allied:
| Oxychlorine is “a stable salt under all conditions until brought in contact with sub-oxygenated organic matter.” | Zyme-oid is “a product which is stable enough for keeping purposes, but which readily yields nascent oxygen in the presence of bacterial products.” |
The therapeutic properties attributed to these sister products are even more similar, for we find that:
| “Oxychlorine is adapted to all morbid and abnormal fermentative alimentary states.” | “Zyme-oid is a powerful gastrointestinal antiferment.” |
Many more statements and claims could be quoted to show a similarity between, amounting almost to an identity of, oxychlorine and zyme-oid.
With these facts in mind, the analysis of zyme-oid was undertaken in order to compare it with the previously examined oxychlorine and to determine to what extent the claims made for zyme-oid are upheld by its composition. The analysis indicated, as was expected, that zyme-oid is essentially the same as oxychlorine as is shown in the following, quoted from the report of the analysis of each:
| ANALYSIS OF OXYCHLORINE | ANALYSIS OF ZYME-OID | |||
Potassium (K) | 12.26 | Potassium (K) | 13.50 | |
Sodium (Na) | 8.20 | Sodium (Na) | 9.84 | |
Chlorate (ClO3) | 25.32 | Chlorate (ClO3) | 27.50 | |
Nitrate (NO3) | 21.70 | Nitrate (NO3) | 24.22 | |
Boric acid anhydrid (B2O3) | 18.63 | Boric acid anhydrid (B2O3) | 13.42 | |
Water, calculated | 13.29 | Water, calculated | 10.42 | |
Assuming that the chlorate in zyme-oid is present as potassium chlorate and the nitrate is present as sodium nitrate, the figures obtained by analysis correspond to a mixture approximately as follows:
| Potassium chlorate (KClO3) | 40.43 |
| Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3) | 33.22 |
| Potassium tetraborate (K2B4O7) | 1.60 |
| Sodium tetraborate (Na2B4O7) | 3.31 |
| Boric acid | 21.14 |
From the results of the analysis and from the physical properties of zyme-oid we conclude, just as was done in the case of oxychlorine, that the preparation is not a definite chemical compound, but is essentially a mixture of alkali chlorate and nitrate with boric acid, probably produced by fusing together the constituents.
COMMENT
An examination of the claims made for the firm’s two products, while, as already proved, disclosing many points of similarity, will also show one remarkable difference. We refer to the skilful indefiniteness that pervades the claims made for zyme-oid and which defies scientific refutation. This verbal obscurity is becoming daily more common in the “literature” of firms marketing nostrums. Since the Council has analyzed many of the much-advertised articles and proved the unreliability of the pseudo-scientific claims made for them, the more cautious of the nostrum-mongers have modified the matter descriptive of their products. They have called to their aid the principle that words were given to man to conceal thought rather than to express it, and they have reduced equivocation to a fine art. Wherever it was possible to put forward claims by implication rather than by expression this has been done.
To substantiate further the claims made by the manufacturers of zyme-oid for their product, a laboratory report is brought in evidence. This report, which is written more in the style of a peruna testimonial than that of a conservative scientific statement, fails to verify the claim that zyme-oid is a “double borate salt,” but confines itself to a statement of its harmlessness and its anti-fermentative properties. In passing, it seems regrettable that scientific laboratories should, for a pecuniary consideration, be willing to jeopardize their reputations by lending their names to the furtherance of nostrum exploitation. The results of the examination of zyme-oid demonstrate that the product is no more worthy of the physician’s consideration than its close, and equally worthless, relative, oxychlorine.—(From The Journal A. M. A., May 23, 1908.)