| · Complementary medicines
· Quackery
· Certificates
· The Council
Letters to the Editor
|
Quackery
Is distilled witch hazel just water and alcohol?
From Dr R. J. Schmidt, MRPharmS
Ray Sturgess’s fascinating account of quackery (PJ, 24/31
December 2005, p795 PDF (130K)) provides many examples of remedies that
relied more on faith
than pharmacology for their curative properties. May I might be permitted
to draw attention to one further remedy, namely distilled witch hazel,
which continues inconspicuously to occupy a place on pharmacy shelves.
According to Lloyd and Lloyd,1 the supposed virtues of distilled witch
hazel were invented by the pharmaceutical industry in the late 1800s when
a proprietary preparation was originally introduced. Subsequently, liquor
hamamelidis (a non-proprietary preparation) was made the subject of pharmacopoeial
monographs in the US and in Britain, but then seemingly fell out of favour:
the preparation appeared in a list of suggested deletions from the British
Pharmacopoeia because it was considered to be “little more than a
weak solution of alcohol”.2 Shortly thereafter, the US Dispensatory
(20th ed) noted: “This water was probably introduced into the British
Pharmacopoeia and US Pharmacopoeia IX on account of the large demand for
it which has grown out of the wide advertisements of a certain proprietary
medicine, and the universally recognized need in American families for
an embrocation which appeals to the psychic influence of faith. As the
tannic acid of hamamelis bark does not come over into the distillate the
water is therapeutically a mixture of water and alcohol, the volatile oil
being found in too minute a proportion to possess any therapeutic value.”3 Nevertheless, this preparation continues to be widely recommended as a
soothing, astringent application for sprains and bruises, as a haemostat
for small superficial wounds, and as an application for minor skin irritation.
Interestingly, a monograph for liquor hamamelidis appeared in the British
Pharmaceutical Codex until 1973.
Dr Sturgess’s observation that quack medicines commonly seemed to
rely on their content of alcohol for any activity they did possess appears
also to apply to distilled witch hazel.
Richard Schmidt
Barnoldswick,
Lancashire
References
1. Lloyd JU, Lloyd JT. History of hamamelis (witch hazel), extract and
distillate. Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association 1935;4:220–4
2. British Pharmacopoeia revision. Report of the Therapeutic Committee
of the British Medical Association. Pharmaceutical Journal 1908;81:811–2
3. Remington JP, Wood HC, Sadtler SP, LaWall CH, Kraemer H, Anderson JF
(editors). The Dispensatory of the United States of America (20th ed).
Philadelphia: JB Lippincott;1918 |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal