The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7280 p867-868
20/27 December 2003

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Medicated cheer

Wine has always been associated with good cheer and good health, so what better than to partake of a tonic wine, says Peter Homan, FRPharmS

Wine is good for you, or so the medical journals would have us believe. It is thought to reduce the risk of age-related vision loss (Lancet, 1998;316:648), to boost lung function (PJ 2002;268:710) and to decrease the risk of thrombosis (PJ 2002;269:310).

Traditionally, items for sale in pharmacies have included wines because proprietary manufacturers and pharmacists used wine as a basis for nutritional and tonic beverages. Indeed, the British Pharmacopoeia has, in the past, included a number of these medicated wines.

Generic tonic wines

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pharmacies required a wine licence to sell proprietary tonic wines and some pharmacy-prepared wines. However, if a formula for a tonic wine was given in the British Pharmacopoeia, the pharmacist did not need a licence.

Pharmacists were also permitted to prepare and sell, without a licence, wines containing the equivalent of one grain of iron per fluid ounce (approximately 0.2%w/v), quinine wines and pepsin wine containing not less than 16 grains of pepsin (approximately 3%w/v) and six minims of hydrochloric acid (approximately 1.2%v/v) per fluid ounce. Also permitted was coca wine “containing half a grain of cocaine per fluid ounce (approximately 0.1%w/v) and otherwise rendered unfit for use as a beverage”, ie, the wine had to taste like a medicine rather than a pleasant drink.

Wines that did not require a licence were classed as medicines and it was necessary to attach an official Government Medicine Duty Stamp (replaced in 1941 by Purchase Tax which was, in turn, replaced by Value Added Tax in 1973).

Medicated wines last appeared in the British Pharmacopoeia of 1914. And it was stated in the Pharmacopoeia of 1932 that “there was an international agreement which required that ‘no potent drug shall be prepared in the form of a medicinal wine’”. However, this did not affect the sale of medicated wines without a licence, provided that, in the opinion of the Commissioners of Custom and Excise, the wines were “sufficiently medicated and labelled correctly as a medicine and not a beverage”. The following are examples of generic medicinal wines.

Orange wine (Vinum Aurantii) Orange wine was prepared by fermenting a sugary solution containing fresh bitter orange peel. The standard was between 10 and 12% per cent alcohol and the wine, or a detannated version of it (tannin was removed by macerating the wine with gelatin powder), served as a vehicle for medicated wines including those containing cod-liver oil, quinine or iron.

Beef and malt wine The formula given in the Extra Pharmacopoeia, Martindale and Westcott, 1924, for beef and malt wine was: 4 ounces of extract of beef, 8 ounces of extract of malt and 1 gallon of port wine.

Cinchona wine Cinchona wine was used as a bitter to stimulate the appetite. It consisted of elixir of cinchona, a natural source of quinine, mixed with detannated sherry.

Coca wine (Vinum Cocae) The British Pharmaceutical Codex of 1911 gives a formula for coca wine as a mixture of 12.5 per cent elixir of coca and detannated sherry to 100 percent. The dose was 8 to 15ml with water and the Codex makes the following comment: “Coca wine acts mainly in virtue of its cocaine. It excites the whole of the brain, especially the motor areas, and causes a sense of exhilaration and an increased capacity for physical work. Very large doses cause restlessness, anxiety, tremors, hallucinations and even convulsions; respiration is rapid, the heart is quicker, and blood pressure rises. Coca wine differs from tea, in that the former beverage acts mainly on the motor areas and the latter on the physical. It may be employed in any condition in which it is desirable to ‘rouse’ the cerebral hemispheres.”

Another formula for coca wine was given in the Pharmaceutical Journal Formulary 1904 as: coca leaves, bruised, 2 1/2 ounces and detannated sherry, 1 pint, to be macerated for six days then filtered.

Under the Medicines Act 1935, “cocaine diluted to or below the equivalent of 0.1%w/v from which the cocaine cannot be easily recovered in amounts which constitute a risk to health” became classified as a Part 1 poison and had to be labelled: “Caution. It is dangerous to exceed the stated dose.” Then under the Medicines Act 1973 it became classified as a prescription only medicine (CD Inv POM).

Iron wine (Vinum Ferri) The British Pharmacopoeia, 1898 gave a formula of 5 per cent of iron wire and one litre of sherry, for iron wine. This is “set aside for 30 days in a closed vessel, the iron wire being almost, but not quite, immersed in the sherry, the vessel being frequently shaken, and the stopper occasionally removed. This was then filtered to produce iron wine.

Kola wine (Vinum Kolae) According to the BPC 1911, kola wine contained a mixture of 12.5 per cent elixir of kola in detannated sherry to 100 per cent. This was used as a stimulant in nervous headache and migraine and its action was due to caffeine.

Quinine Wine The BP 1898 formula for quinine wine was 2 grams of quinine hydrochloride in 875ml of orange wine. “Dissolve; set aside; filter if necessary,” the recipe directed.

Proprietary wines

Proprietary wines were sold by off-licences and chemists with wine licences. The following are examples of what was commercially available.

Armbrecht Coca Wine — “for fatigue of mind and body” Made by Armbrecht, Nelson & Co, 2, 3 and 4 Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, London, Armbrecht wine was claimed to be: “A powerful nerve stimulant. Restores the functions of the digestive organs, strengthens the mental and physical powers, assuages thirst, relieves the dullness and drowsiness of nervous debility. Given with benefit in cases of opium and morphia habit.” It was also marketed for “sleeplessness from nervous exhaustion” and people were instructed to “place a wine-glassful at the bedside, and take a sip about every half hour until asleep or, take the whole at one dose, and repeat during the night if wakeful”. In 1910, the name was changed to Armbrechts’ Tonic Wine and production of the wine discontinued in 1923.

Buckfast Tonic Wine Buckfast Abbey is a Roman Catholic monastery in Devon. The nephew of one of the original French monks sent a recipe for tonic wine to Buckfast. It consisted of maté tea, coca leaves and vanilla in a base of Spanish fortified wine. The tonic wine was sold at the abbey and the dose was given as “three small glasses per day”. Sales from the abbey continued until 1927 when local magistrates withdrew the licence to sell wine. However, the monks continued to make the wine and it is now marketed by a separate company, J Chandler & Co, London, with the abbey receiving a percentage of the sales. The present formula reflects more of a medicated wine than a proprietary tonic and does not now contain maté tea or coca leaves.

Burroughs Beef and Iron Wine Made by Burroughs, Wellcome & Co, Burroughs Beef and Iron Wine was advertised as: “Highly concentrated strength-giving tonic food. Each teaspoonful represents the tonic and stimulant value of one ounce of good fresh beef with one grain of iron, in a pure medicinal wine, previously freed from tannin. The Medical Press and Circular reports: This preparation is an admirable combination of beef and iron and is palatable enough to be borne and even liked by the most fastidious taste.” It was also available with added quinine.

Hall’s Wine — “The Great Restorative Nervine” Originally called Hall’s Coca Wine, each bottle of Hall’s wine contained about 1 grain (60mg) of the extractive principle of coca leaf and about 17 per cent alcohol. In the 16th edition of The Extra Pharmacopoeia 1915, it was stated that: “An overdose is likely to act as its own antidote by causing vomiting — a safeguard against taking excess. Not sufficient coca present to induce cocaine Habit.”

Sanatogen Tonic Wine — “Enjoy it doing you good” Advertised as a tonic and restorative, Sanatogen Tonic Wine contained Solution of sodium glycerphosphate 1.25%w/w in British wine. Although the tonic powder, called Sanatogen, had been in existence since the first decade of the 20th century, the wine did not appear until the late 1930s. Prices in the Butler & Crispe catalogue of 1939 were 2/- (10p) and 3/9 (19p) per bottle.

Vibrona — “The Ideal Tonic Wine” Vibrona was made by Fletcher, Fletcher & Co Ltd, of Holloway in London. The British Medical Journal in May 1909 stated that it contained 0.02 per cent alkaloid and went on to declare: “To the many thousands of invalids who dare not take even the smallest quantity of cinchona or its alkaloid — quinine — on account of the intense and unbearable headache and other distressing symptoms invariably produced, Vibrona has proved an inestimable boon.” The article went on to say that the wine contained “a mixture of the alkaloids of cinchona from which the quinine and cinchodine had been removed”.

Six years later a formula was given as: alcohol 19.30 per cent, glucose 6.4 per cent, cane sugar 5.2 per cent, alkaloid cinchona alkaloids) 0.0297 per cent. (The Extra Pharmacopoeia, 16th edition, Vol II, 1915).

Wincarnis The wine that is now called Wincarnis was also called Liebig’s Extract of Meat and Malt Wine. Wincarnis (win = wine, carnis = meat) was produced by Coleman & Co Ltd, St George’s and Bank Plain, Norwich and 3 New London Street, London. One consumer’s testimonial, advertised in 1891, in a book of hints and directions in book keeping for retail chemists (‘How do I stand?’) states: “I have been attending a child two and a half years old suffering from blood poisoning; the child was very ill and refused all kinds of nourishment. I then tried your Liebig’s Extract of Meat and Malt Wine alcoholic, ordered him one table spoonful every two hours, which he took readily; he had nothing else except medicine for 14 days — the child is now recovering, and takes ordinary food. Yours truly, Geo. Hother, Surgeon. Wincarnis was also available with added iron or quinine at the same price of 3/3 (17.5p) or 5/6 (27.5p) per bottle.

Wincarnis is currently advertised as an English aperitif wine and is produced by Hedges & Butler Ltd of London.

Other medicated or tonic wines of note were:

• Lemco Meat Wine and Bovril Meat wine each containing alcohol, meat extract and glucose
• Christy’s Kola Wine containing alcohol, glucose and kola extract
• Burgeaud’s Wine containing alcohol, glucose and cinchona

Tonic wines are still available at some off-licences and a few pharmacies still hold wine licences, but the good news seems to be that even unmedicated wine, especially red wine, can be beneficial to your health. Cheers!