YOUR remedies
for menstrual period pain and problems. See
more remedies here.
A discussion of
the letter testimonials, and their
authenticity, of the Pinkham company (in a
discussion of a Pursettes ad with a letter
testimonial)
See two letters to MUM about the ingredients of her
Compound, and one about the lyrics of
an English
pop song, Lily
the Pink, about her.
Other amazing women:
Nelli Bly, Dr.
Marie Stopes, Dr.
Grace Feder Thompson
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The Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Co.,
maker of medicine for headaches,
stomach illness, insomnia, depression,
cancer, tumors, women's diseases,
flatulence, menstruation, fertility, etc.:
About the
ingredients of the Pinkham Vegetable
Compound: three e-mails
First e-mail:
As an herbalist, I think you
underestimate the medicinal
value of Lydia
Pinkham's elixir.
It has always contained
effective herbal medicines (in
fact the FDA [the American Food
and Drug Administration] or its
precursors required tests as
early as the 1920s, if memory
serves). The 13-20% of alcohol
is not atypical of an herbal
tincture. Indeed, an herbal
extract with less alcohol is
pharmacologically unstable. The
alcohol does help disperse the
medicine to the tissues better
than the pill form, carrying it
to the uterine tissues. But the
herbs used are powerful
medicines in their own right,
although the modern formulation
is somewhat less effective than
that of the 1960s and before.
The original recipe for Lydia
Pinkham's Vegetable Compound is
as follows:
Unicorn Root (Aletris
farinosa L.) 8 oz.
Life Root (Senecio aureus
L.) 6 oz.
Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga
racemosa (L.) Nutt.) 6oz.
Pleurisy Root (Asclepias
tuberosa L.) 6 oz.
Fenugreek Seed (Trigonella
foenum-graecum L.) 12 oz.
Alcohol (18%) to make 100
pints
This formula is believed to
have been developed through
reading King's American
Dispensatory. J. Burton, in his
biography, of Lydia Pinkham,
1949, claims the addition of 8
oz. of False Unicorn
(Chamaelirium luteum). I seem to
remember that as recently as the
1960s it had Angelica and
Cimicifuga, when it was
indicated for menstrual cramps
as well as menopause. I read an
excellent biography of her
sometime in the 1970s which
documents a number of formula
changes over the years [that
biography might be "Female
Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and
the Business of Women's
Medicine," by Sarah Stage,
Norton, 1979, a great resource
about Mrs. Pinkham and the
patent medicine industry in the
U.S.A.].
The current ingredients are:
Piscidia erthrina (Jamacian
dogwood)
Asclepias tuberosa (Pleurisy
root)
Glycyrhizia
Taraxacum officinale
Gentiana lutea
Leonarus cardiacus
Ferrous lactate
D-Alpha tocopherol
Ascorbic acid
Ethyl alcohol (13%)
It tastes strongly of the
ferrous lactate and lacks the
old punch, and is only suggested
as a menopause formula. It is
currently distributed by NUMARK
Laboratories, of Edison, New
Jersey, U.S.A.
Karen Vaughan
The second e-letter arrived
in February 2001:
Thank you for putting up the
Web site. It is very
interesting and enlightening.
You may wish to dignify
Lydia Pinkham's compound by
adding that the ingredients
(iron, dogwood, pleurisy,
licorice) contain a mineral
and herbs which have been and
are still being used by
alternative, naturopathic, and
traditional Chinese medicine
to treat health problems such
as iron deficiency anemia,
adrenal exhaustion, fatigue,
inflammations, respiratory
diseases etc.
Information about pleurisy
root and licorice herbs can be
verified at
Alcohol remains a carrier
liquid and preservative for
herbal tinctures to this day.
Your comments about the
alcohol being the only
effective ingredient in
Pinkham's compound are not
true, and you should correct
this.
Sincerely,
The third arrived in June
2009:
Great site and I've
bookmarked it to spend some
more time later.
But I noticed something i'd
like to bring to your
attention in the hopes of
getting a correction, on your
Lydia Pinkham
page<http://www.mum.org/MrsPink1.htm>
*Even though Mrs. Pinkham
had been in the temperance
movement, as a student of
phrenology she had studied
human nature, and almost 20%
of her concoction was alcohol,
which she said acted "as [a]
solvent and preservative,"
certainly solving many a
problem and preserving not a
few of her fellow citizens.
Many similar medicines of the
past used alcohol as the
active ingredient, (continued
below picture) which was often
the only way respectable women
were able to enjoy the
intoxicant. And during the
banning of alcoholic beverages
in America, especially in the
1920s, the Pinkham "medicine"
enjoyed its greatest success.*
I myself am an herbalist,
making some of my own herbal
preparations and also serving
as *an independent
distributor*<http://www.mynsp.com/home-remedies-that-work>for
Nature's Sunshine Products
(over 600, many herbal
formulas). I am involved in
this work because herbs are,
quite simply, magical in use
and for the most part utterly
benign when used responsibly
and knowledgeably. So I'm a
big fan of Mrs. Pinkham,
partly because of her
accomplishments (I'm also a
feminist), and especially for
making herbal remedies
available to women and quite a
few men as well since the
menstrual products weren't the
only ones she produced.
So naturally I object to the
disdainful, disapproving tone
in this passage which imagines
-- and implies -- that the 20%
alcohol content was what was
*really *being delivered in
her products and that people
may not have been getting any
value other than that from her
remedies. As late as the
1960s, when I was a pre-teen,
my mother still had a little
bottle of Lydia Pinkham's
Little Liver Pills in her
medicine cabinet and every now
and then, I was told I needed
to take a few.
For some of her products,
aIcohol was absolutely
required. For one thing, it's
the medium used to make herbal
tinctures. Alochol (brandy or
vodka or even grain alcohol)
extracts the consituents from
the herb and, just as she
claimed, serves as a
preservative. Because of its
resulting strength, one takes
a dropperful or two at a time
of a tinctured herb or herbal
formula, instead of having to
make and drink a whole cup or
two of tea several times a
day.
In times past, there were
only so many ways to preserve
food products (and herbs are a
type of food) without
refrigeration -- preserving
with alcohol, preserving in
vinegar (pickles), preserving
via natural fermentation
(saurkraut, kimchee, etc.),
perserving with sugar (jams
and jellies) and canning. Only
alcohol (and to a less
reliable extent vinegar) also
draws out the properties of
the herb into the medium,
allowing the now spent plant
material to be discarded, and
the tincture saved for future
health needs -- a dropperful
or two at a time
Now, a 20% alcohol product
was clearly not a tincture --
perhaps a strong tea (infusion
or decoction) -- but even so,
how could one preserve it in
those days without alcohol?
Nowadays we have modern
processing which would
essentially "can" a product
like that -- like our fruit
and vegetable juices or
anything else in bottles or
jars -- but the product then
requires refrigeration if not
immediately consumed. Mrs.
Pinkham could hardly expect
that all her customers had
refrigeration ("ice boxes" in
the day).
So, not only is the passage
in question not fully
informed, but I find it a tad
sexist, too, to imply that
women only used Mrs. Pinkham's
products so they could
surreptitiously imbibe. If
that happened -- and I assume
it did on occasion -- there
were still plenty of women AND
men who were using the
products as specified for the
herbal health benefit, just as
my mother (and I) did. And
truly, we have absolutely no
evidence -- merely an obvioius
anti-herbal remedy bias --
that any of her products were
ineffective or worthless. I
happen to know from personal
experience that they weren't.
Thanks for your attention to
this matter.
Patricia Santhuff
*http://www.mynsp.com/Home-Remedies-That-Work*<http://www.mynsp.com/
Home-Remedies-That-Work>
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NEXT: Trade card: little girl and cat -
See more Mrs. Pinkham, below (and
see her first page)
The
Schlesinger Library, of the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced
Study, part of Harvard
University, has probably
the largest
collection of material
about the Pinkham enterprise, the
records of the Lydia E. Pinkham
Medicine Company.
Part of the donation of
SarahAnne Hazelwood to this
museum, much of it patent medicine
and old medical equipment, was a
very interesting biography and
study of Mrs. Pinkham's business,
Female
Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and
the Business of Women's Medicine,
by Sarah Stage.
See two letters to MUM about the
ingredients
of her Compound, and one
about the lyrics of an English pop
song,
Lily the Pink, about her.
Other amazing
women: Nelli Bly, Dr.
Marie Stopes,
Dr. Grace Feder Thompson
See also the patent medicine
Cardui,
Dr. Grace Feder Thompson's
letter
appealing for patients, Dr. Pierce's
medicines, and Orange
Blossom medicine.
©
1998, 2005 Harry Finley. It is
illegal to reproduce or
distribute work on this Web site
in any manner or medium without
written permission of the
author. Please report suspected
violations to hfinley@mum.org
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