TONGALINE AND PONCA COMPOUND
Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry
The Council, having considered “Tongaline,” “Tongaline Tablets,” “Tongaline and Lithia Tablets,” “Tongaline and Quinine Tablets” and “Ponca Compound Tablets,” found these preparations ineligible for New and Nonofficial Remedies and authorized publication of the following report.
W. A. Puckner, Secretary.
TONGALINE
Tongaline (Mellier Drug Co., St. Louis) is a fancy name given to what is essentially a sodium salicylate mixture. The air of mystery created by the name permits the manufacturers to make claims for the product which would be ludicrous if the medical profession was fully conversant with the very ordinary character of the preparation.
Tongaline receives its name from tonga, an inert, long-discarded mixture of various barks and herbs said to be gathered and prepared by Fiji Islanders. Its constituents evidently tend to vary with the collector. The history of the introduction of this indefinite combination of simples is thus given in The Journal, May 10, 1913.
“A supply of the crude drug was carried to England by a man who had lived for a short time in the Fiji Islands and it was placed in the hands of a retail house in London. This occurred about 1879. In 1880, two English physicians of repute published laudatory articles on the therapeutic value of tonga in neuralgia and rheumatism. This created a demand for the drug which extended to the United States.”
Time showed that tonga was inert therapeutically, and authorities on pharmacology now no longer notice it. As the Council previously reported,[12] the indefinite character of the mixture should, alone, be sufficient to exclude it from practical therapeutics. During the temporary popularity of tonga, the proprietary mixture Tongaline was put on the market for physicians’ use by the Mellier Drug Company, St. Louis. In this, tonga was named as the active ingredient. The commercial interests thus involved have faithfully nourished and kept alive the “tonga” myth.
In a recent advertising booklet, “The Therapeutic Properties of the Ingredients of Tongaline,” the virtues of tonga, blue cohosh, colchicum, jaborandi and salicylic acid are discussed. The label of a recently purchased bottle reads:
“Tongaline contains Tonga, Cimicifuga Racemosa, Salicylate of Sodium (the salicylic acid being made from pure natural oil) Colchicum and Pilocarpin.”
It will be noticed that Tongaline is “made from the pure, natural oil.” In fact, the statement is repeated in red ink, in large letters running across the face of the label, thus emphasizing the alleged importance of this assertion. In this connection it is only necessary to recall that it has been proved clinically, chemically and physiologically that there is absolutely no difference between the salicylic acid made from the natural oil and the synthetic.
The formula was thus commented on in the article previously quoted from The Journal:
“Tongaline ... is essentially a preparation of sodium salicylate,... The Mellier Drug Company realized the impossibility of creating any marked demand for a nostrum unless it had some real drugs in it—hence the presence of the salicylates. What the actual composition of Tongaline is, no one but the manufacturers know. At one time the following was given as the formula:
| Fluid Tonga | 30 grains |
| Extract of Cimicifuga Racemosa | 20 grains |
| Sodium Salicylate | 10 grains |
| Pilocarpin Salicylate | 1⁄100 grains |
| Colchin Salicylate | 1⁄500 grains |
“These amounts refer to the quantity of drugs in each fluidram of the preparation. Whether the nostrum still has this composition we do not know, but assuming that it has, it is quite evident that sodium salicylate is the essential and active ingredient.”
The therapeutic indications given on the label of the bottle are:
“Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Grippe, Gout, Nervous Headache, Sciatica, Lumbago, Malaria, Tonsillitis, Heavy Colds, Excess of Uric Acid, and wherever the use of the Salicylates is indicated.”
In a recent booklet this semisecret salicylate mixture is recommended, not only in conditions in which salicylates are indicated, but also combined with aconite for rheumatic fever, with benzoate of soda in the treatment of “grippe,” with potassium bromid in nervous headaches, with gelsemium, glycerin and whisky for “heavy colds,” with ammonium chlorid, stramonium and cimicifuga in “rheumatic dysmenorrhea,” and even with mercury biniodid as a treatment of syphilitic eruptions!
“When administered with good judgment, Tongaline exerts a stimulating effect upon every organ of elimination; cleansing the complex sewerage system and putting it into working order. When this is done, the sluggish blood current begins to flow more freely; the lymphatic and glandular systems to give up and carry off the toxic products, so long retained ...”
TONGALINE TABLETS
Then because of a “desire to put Tongaline in a more compact and convenient form,” the same concern puts on the market Tongaline Tablets. Whether Tongaline Tablets are of the same composition, the doctor who prescribes them is not advised. In this form we have Tongaline and Lithia Tablets, and Tongaline and Quinin Tablets. Presumably those who are attracted by the word “lithia” are sufficiently uncritical to be content with the statement that:
“The addition of Lithia to Tongaline presents a most useful combination which does not rely upon its action on the kidneys alone as is the case with Lithia salts or Lithia waters as administered ...”
And the foregoing quotation, be it remembered, is for the information of the medical profession! Tongaline and Lithia Tablets, we are informed, are:
“... particularly indicated for certain diseases which are caused by deposits of urates in the joints and kidneys, and can be used with much benefit for many people who indulge in generous or intemperate habits of living.”
Tongaline and Quinine Tablets are also exploited without statement of composition. The promoters are probably justified in feeling that physicians who prescribe quinin in combination with “Tongaline” care little about the dosage.
It is unnecessary to discuss the silly claims made for Tongaline and its combinations, although it is worth while to point out that the prescribing of such nostrums by physicians is an imposition, if not a fraud, on the public.
PONCA COMPOUND
Ponca Compound, also made by the Mellier Drug Company, St. Louis, is a “female weakness remedy” in tablet form. The name suggests that “ponca” is a medicinal substance, and, in fact, at one time, “Ext. Ponca” was named as an ingredient. The nature of “Ext. Ponca” was apparently never explained. It is now replaced in the “formula” by “senecin,” and the only information concerning the composition at present given is:
“Ponca Compound Tablets Contain Extract of Mitchella Repens, Senecin, Helonin, Caulophyllin and Viburnin.”
This “formula” is practically meaningless, not only because the amount of each ingredient is not stated, but also because “senecin,” “helonin,” “caulophyllin” and “viburnin” are in themselves variable mixtures of unknown composition.[13]
Presumably, “senecin,” “helonin,” “caulophyllin” and “viburnin” are extractives of some kind prepared, respectively, from senecio aureus (life root), helonias dioica (false unicorn), calophyllum thalictroides (blue cohosh) and viburnum prunifolium or opulus (black haw or cramp bark). These are, one and all, practically inert drugs. There is no reason to believe that any or all of them can have any beneficial influence in the many and varied conditions for which Ponca Compound is advertised.
The following are excerpts from the advertising matter:
“Ponca Compound is a remedy of a very beneficial character for Functional, Uterine and Ovarian troubles, which will respond to internal treatment, especially when digital examination or surgical interference is undesirable.”
“Ponca Compound is also valuable during gestation and after parturition.”
“Uterine Alterative for Leucorrhoea, Dysmenorrhoea, Amenorrhoea, Metritis, Endometritis, Menorrhagia, Metrorrhagia, Irregular Menstruation, Subinvolution, Painful Pregnancy.”
It is recommended that Tongaline and Ponca Compound and all their preparations be held in conflict with Rule 1, in view of their semisecret and indefinite composition; with Rule 6, for the grossly exaggerated therapeutic claims made for them; with Rule 8, because of their misleading names, and with Rule 10, in view of their unscientific character as irrational combinations. It is also recommended that this report be published.—(From The Journal A. M. A., July 17, 1915.)