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.”