Paregoric
Paregoric, or camphorated tincture of opium, also known as tinctura opii camphorata, is a traditional patent medicine known for its antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic properties. According to Goodman and Gilman's 1965 edition, "Paregoric is a 4% opium tincture in which there is also benzoic acid, camphor, and anise oil. ... Paregoric by tradition is used especially for children." The term "paregoric" has also been used for boiled sweets which contained the substance, in particular the Army & Navy brand. Properties In 1944, two clinicians who evaluated the expectorant action of paregoric, concluded: The survival of paregoric through the centuries, and particularly through recent critical decades, is probably due to keen clinical observation and stubborn adherence to the clinical deduction that paregoric is useful in certain types of cough. History In the very early 18th century, Jakob Le Mort (1650–1718), a professor of chemistry at Leiden University, prepared an elixir for asthma and called it "paregoric". The word "paregoric" comes from the Greek word "paregoricon" which was originally applied to oratory – to speak, but, more accurately, talk over, soothe, and finally came to have the same meaning as "anodyne". Le Mort's elixir, consisting of "honey, licorice, flowers of Benjamin, and