TYREE’S ELIXIR OF BUCHU AND HYOSCYAMUS COMPOUND
Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry
Each dessertspoonful of this preparation is said to represent
Buchu Leaves | 31⁄2 | grains |
Uva Ursi | 11⁄8 | grains |
Pareira Brava | 11⁄8 | grains |
Hyoscyamus | 11⁄2 | grains |
Hops | 11⁄2 | grains |
Acetate Potash | 71⁄2 | grains |
Spirits Nitre | 5 | grains |
Alcohol5 per cent. (by volume)” | ||
The manufacturer, J. S. Tyree, Washington, D. C., offers this formula to the medical profession with the following claim:
“Approximate composition made [sic] by quantitative and qualitative analysis of the finished product.”
It is also claimed that
“An even greater advantage of Tyree’s Buchu and Hyoscyamus Compound over other drugs, lies in the fact that every constituent of the former is required to conform to a fixed standard of active principle strength; hence the results derivable from it are absolutely uniform.”
These pretentious claims of scientific accuracy look rather absurd to chemists. Many of the substances present in buchu, hops, hyoscyamus, uva ursi and pareira brava are also present in other drugs; hence it would never occur to a pharmaceutical chemist to try to ascertain the composition of such a mixture as Tyree’s Elixir by “quantitative and qualitative analysis of the finished product,” much less to determine the “active principle strength” of each ingredient, for no methods are known by which this can be done.
It is claimed that, because of the care exercised in making Tyree’s Elixir
“... the results derivable from it are absolutely uniform.”
A moment’s reflection, however, must compel any physician to attribute this statement, on the most charitable construction, to sheer ignorance. Of course, even a definite chemical principle, such as quinin, does not exert uniform clinical action, for clinical conditions vary, and accordingly the patient may or may not be cured. It is simply preposterous to claim that the clinical results obtained from such substances as hops, pareira brava, buchu and uva ursi are absolutely uniform.
A peculiarly vicious claim is that the elixir renders the mucous surfaces of the genito-urinary tract “hostile to the multiplication of the gonococci.” Since infection with the gonococcus produces the direst results, any claim which means in plain English that the remedy assists in producing a cure or in preventing infection with that organism cannot be condemned too strongly. Uva ursi, to be sure, has some slight antiseptic action but it is devoid of any curative action in gonorrhea and the minute amounts that are present in the Tyree elixir are of no more protective value against gonorrheal infection than a grain of hexamethylenamin would be.
It is further claimed that the elixir is a “specific” for “Inflammation of the Bladder, Bright’s Disease, Renal Colic, Suppurative Nephritis, Acute Cystitis, Urethritis, Catarrh of the Bladder [it would be interesting to know what distinction the manufacturer draws between ‘Inflammation of the Bladder,’ ‘Cystitis’ and ‘Catarrh of the Bladder’], Acidemia, Edema, Vesical Catarrh of Old Age, Lithemia” and that ascites and anasarca “can be reduced greatly to the satisfaction of the patient, and honor of the physician” by using a mixture of Tyree’s Elixir and infusion of digitalis. Such claims as these do not merit serious discussion, for they carry their own refutation.
It is recommended that Tyree’s Elixir of Buchu and Hyoscyamus Compound be held in conflict with Rules 5, 6 and 10 and that publication of this report be authorized.—(From Reports of Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, 1915, p. 167.)