About thirteen years ago Labordine was advertised under the name of Analgine-Labordine, “A purely vegetable product,” “a combination of the active principles of Camellia Thea, Apium Graveolens, saccharin and carbohydrates,” “Superior to Antipyrine, Phenacetine, Antifebrine, Acetanilid”—note the use of two names for the same thing—“or any of their imitations,” and “unexcelled by any coal-tar product or their compounds.” In 1894 the name was changed to Labordine, in order, as its owner stated, to prevent its being mistaken for a coal-tar product of similar name.
What its composition was at this time we do not know, since there is no guarantee of the permanence nor stability of nostrum formulas except “the honor and reputation of the manufacturers,” which, as investigation has shown, is not always unimpeachable. There has been nothing to prevent alteration of the formula, if the proprietors desired, with every change in the moon. But the name and the general tone of the advertising has been the same. The claim of superiority over coal-tar products has been constantly made.
As to the present conditions, a circular enclosed with a sample of Labordine, recently sent from the St. Louis office, contains the formula given above in the report of the Council. In the same circular are also found these illuminating statements: “The medical profession has long appreciated the dangers involved in the administration of various mineral remedies now so commonly employed, and the value of a safe, effective and reliable vegetable antipyretic is universally recognized. Such a remedy is Labordine. It is purely vegetable in its composition and produces none of the evil after-effects of the coal-tar derivatives.... Labordine ... is a purely vegetable cardiac stimulant.... There is nothing mysterious about Labordine or its constituents.... The ‘Process-Laborde’ gives the true active principles of the Celery and Indian Wintergreen, something heretofore difficult to obtain. To this is added the fact that absolutely chemically pure Acet-Amide-Phenyle is used. The latter is the most valuable and, in fact, the only vegetable antipyretic known.”
The above report of the Council shows the following facts:
1. Apium Graveolens (true active principle), “Process-Laborde” is probably powdered celery seed. One chemist says: “The powder has the characteristic odor of celery, while a microscopic examination shows the presence of a substance having the characteristic structure of seeds in general.” If celery seed has any “active principle” it has never been isolated. As to its therapeutic value, nothing whatever is known. It is, we understand, highly beneficial in the case of singing canaries, but authorities in scientific therapeutics have never discovered that it possessed any remarkable medicinal qualities.
2. Gaultheria Fragrantissima (true active principle), “Process-Laborde,” is probably ordinary everyday salicylic acid. One analysis showed salicylic acid to be present to the amount of about 7 per cent. The question of whether or not salicylic acid could in any way be considered the “true active principle” of Gaultheria Fragrantissima, was submitted to Prof. John Uri Lloyd of Cincinnati, the eminent authority on the chemistry of the proximate principles of plants, who replies:
“The advertisement is evidently so worded that, although the name of the Indian plant Gaultheria Fragrantissima is employed, its true and active principle being wintergreen oil, the concoctor can mystify his patrons and at the same time use the well-known wintergreen oil, made in America, which in my opinion, so far as any chemical test might be concerned, could not be distinguished from the methyl salicylic acid (wintergreen oil) derived from the Indian plant. Concerning whether salicylic acid is a proximate constituent of Gaultheria Fragrantissima, in my opinion, it would be a misnomer to make such an announcement. Salicylic acid, per se, does not exist, in my opinion, in the plants mentioned, being made by chemistry.”
3. The third and most important ingredient in this “purely vegetable antipyretic” is brazenly announced as “Acet-Amide-Phenyle,” but it is only necessary to say that this imposing designation is an attempt to “Frenchify” a scientific name for acetanilid.
Analysis shows that this coal-tar product is present to the amount of 37.9 per cent., or 1.89 grains in a 5-grain tablet.[56] In other words, this imposing Labordine, made by a mysterious and elsewhere unheard of “Process-Laborde,” is simply one more of the many acetanilid powders that have been foisted on our profession and that have filled our journals for years past. The only thing in it that is of practical therapeutic value is 2 grains of acetanilid to a 5-grain tablet. The statement that Labordine is a purely vegetable preparation is probably intended by the proprietors as a good joke on the medical profession. Acetanilid is not usually regarded as a vegetable product, at least it is not ordinarily found in market gardens. The only vegetable source from which acetanilid can be obtained is the beautiful flowering coal-tar bush, from which so many other nostrum vendors obtain their “perfectly harmless, purely vegetable antipyretics,” all composed of acetanilid and something to hide it. If the statements made by one of the company’s employees and quoted below are true, Labordine is not “manufactured and made chemically pure in the laboratories of the Labordine Pharmacal Company,” for this company has no laboratory, and its product is manufactured for it.