W. A. Puckner, Secretary.
Syrup Leptinol is sold by the Balsamea Co. of San Francisco. It was first introduced as Syrup Balsamea. In recent advertising, Syrup Leptinol is also referred to simply as “Leptinol.”
According to the statements of the Balsamea Co., Syrup Leptinol is prepared from the root of a species of Leptotaenia (a plant belonging to the parsnip family) which grows in Nevada and which has heretofore not been used in medicine. The manufacturer states that the botanists who have been consulted have been unable to agree on the botanical classification of the plant. The dried root of this unclassified species of Leptotaenia is extracted with alcohol and from the extract so obtained the syrup is made, but no information has been furnished to show how the alcohol-soluble material is incorporated in the syrup. Further, the manufacturer has not announced tests whereby the identity and uniformity of the finished preparation may be determined.
A booklet contains the following:
“The species of Leptotaenia from which Leptinol is produced was first used in medicine by Dr. E. T. Krebs, who, after thorough laboratory investigation and clinical application over a period of several months, which resulted in the perfecting of Leptinol, prescribed the preparation for Influenza during the epidemic of that disease in 1918 with remarkably good results. Since this first use, Leptinol has been exhaustively tested by clinicians in private practice and in hospitals in the treatment of Pneumonia, Influenza Bronchitis, etc., and has been universally endorsed.”
In a circular letter it is asserted that the use of “Leptinol” during the “influenza epidemic” of 1918–1919 “demonstrated its almost specific action in respiratory affections”; that “during this epidemic it proved to be five times as efficacious as any other treatment in pneumonia ...”; and that “it is now as firmly fixed in the mind of many doctors for respiratory diseases as quinine is for malaria and the salicylates for rheumatism.”
In the booklet it is further stated that the therapeutic action of the preparation is primarily that of a “stimulating expectorant” and secondarily as a “sedative expectorant”; that “its antiseptic action in the respiratory tract is prompt”; that it “is an effectual cardiac tonic where the tone of the heart muscle is impaired by fever”; that “in acute pulmonary conditions it effectively improves the respiratory action and allays cerebral irritation due to fever and toxins”; that it acts “as a vital stimulant and nerve sedative”; that “it stimulates the excretion of acid by the skin and in fever it has a strongly diaphoretic and antipyretic action without depressing the circulation or the central nervous system”; that it is “mildly diuretic” and “slightly augments the biliary flow” and that “it increases the gastric and intestinal secretions and allays intestinal fermentation.”
No evidence has been presented to the Council which shows that Syrup Leptinol has the actions ascribed to it. The reports of clinical trial are little more than chance observations and lack all control. This applies also to the following, stated to be a quotation from the report of the Tonopah Mines Hospital Association:
“In the spring of 1919 a recurrence of the Influenza epidemic of the previous winter was experienced. During the first period of this second epidemic, prior to April 15th, there were treated one hundred sixteen cases of Influenza, fourteen of which developed Influenzal Pneumonia, with six deaths. The Pneumonia was of the very virulent type which prevails in this high altitude.... After April 15th, when the clinical use of Leptinol was inaugurated, three hundred and sixty-eight cases of Influenza were treated and not a single case developed Pneumonia. Twenty-two cases of Influenzal Pneumonia were received and treated with Leptinol, with a consequent one hundred per cent. recovery....
“In the cases where Leptinol was used the treatment was the same as had been previously followed, as to diet, fresh air, etc., but the medication was confined to Leptinol. Syrup Leptinol was started immediately in one-dram doses at one-hour intervals, in cases with high temperatures, and this was continued until temperature and pulse subsided. It was then used in one-dram doses at three-hour intervals as recovery progressed. On admission to the hospital, calomel in 1⁄4 grain doses, was given at fifteen minute intervals for eight doses. The last calomel was followed in six hours by 1⁄2 ounce Magnesium Sulphate in saturated solution. The second day 1⁄10 grain of calomel was given at one-hour intervals for ten doses....”