Folk Remedies Tested

Folk Remedies Tested: For centuries healers used plants, minerals and kitchen ingredients to treat illness. Modern trials have vindicated some, giving us aspirin, digitalis, quinine and artemisinin, and exposed others as useless or deadly, such as mercury tonics, radium water and soothing syrups laced with opiates.

Willow Bark: Ancient healers chewed willow for pain. In 1763 the English clergyman Edward Stone reported it relieved fevers, and in 1897 Felix Hoffmann at Bayer made acetylsalicylic acid, launching aspirin.

Foxglove: In 1785, physician William Withering published studies of foxglove after learning of a Shropshire herbal recipe for dropsy. It led to digitalis, still a basis for heart failure and rhythm drugs, though the dose between helpful and toxic is narrow.

Cinchona Bark: Native Andean healers and Jesuit missionaries used this bark against fevers. In 1820 French chemists isolated quinine from it, giving the world its first effective malaria drug.

Artemisia annua: Tu Youyou searched ancient Chinese texts in the 1970s and found a recipe from a fourth century handbook by Ge Hong calling for cold water extraction of sweet wormwood. Her discovery of artemisinin saved millions from malaria and won the 2015 Nobel Prize.

Manuka Honey: Honey has been used on wounds since antiquity. In 2007 the FDA cleared Medihoney, a manuka honey dressing, after testing showed antibacterial activity.

Calomel Teething Powders: For generations, mercury based powders were given to teething babies. They caused a painful illness called pink disease or acrodynia, and the link to mercury was only confirmed in the 1940s.

George Washington: When he fell ill with a throat infection in December 1799, doctors bled him repeatedly. Estimates suggest they removed about 40 percent of his blood volume, which likely hastened his death.

Chicken Soup: In 2000, Dr. Stephen Rennard tested his wife's family recipe in the lab and published in the journal Chest. The soup reduced movement of inflammatory white blood cells, offering scientific support for a famous cold remedy.

Ephedra: The Chinese herb ma huang was used for asthma for thousands of years and yielded ephedrine. Sold in diet supplements, it was linked to heart attacks and strokes, and the FDA banned it in 2004 after the death of baseball pitcher Steve Bechler.

Radithor: This 1920s patent medicine contained dissolved radium and was sold as an energy tonic. Wealthy industrialist Eben Byers drank huge amounts, his jaw deteriorated, and he died in 1932 and was buried in a lead lined coffin.

Allicin: Louis Pasteur noted in 1858 that garlic could kill bacteria. During the world wars garlic juice was used as an antiseptic on wounds, and lab studies show allicin has antimicrobial properties, though evidence for treating infections in people is limited.

Curcumin: Turmeric's yellow compound is widely used in folk medicine. A 2017 review found that curcumin is unstable and poorly absorbed, and that its apparent hits in lab tests rarely lead to proven treatments in people.

Echinacea: Plains Native peoples used this coneflower for infections. A 2005 New England Journal of Medicine trial of 437 volunteers found no meaningful effect on infection or cold symptoms, though other preparations are still debated.

St John's Wort: Trials show this herb can help mild to moderate depression. It also speeds the liver's breakdown of other drugs, weakening birth control pills, some HIV medicines and transplant drugs.

Snake Oil: Chinese water snake oil is rich in omega 3 fats. Clark Stanley's Rattlesnake Oil Liniment was tested by US officials and found to contain mostly mineral oil, beef fat, red pepper and turpentine, and he was fined in 1917.

James Lind: In 1747 aboard HMS Salisbury he ran a pioneering controlled experiment on scurvy, giving sailors different remedies. The two who received oranges and lemons recovered quickly, although the Royal Navy took decades to adopt citrus.

Maggot Therapy: Battlefield surgeons noticed soldiers whose wounds were infested with maggots often fared better. William Baer developed treatment in the 1920s, and in 2004 the FDA cleared medical maggots for wound cleaning.

Medicinal Leeches: Leeches were overused for centuries in bloodletting. In 2004 the FDA cleared Hirudo medicinalis as a medical device, valued today for restoring blood flow in reattached fingers and skin grafts.

Cod Liver Oil: Northern European families gave it to children for generations. In 1919 Edward Mellanby showed it prevented rickets in dogs, which led to the discovery of vitamin D.

Cranberry Juice: A longtime home remedy for urinary tract infections. A 2023 Cochrane review of dozens of trials found cranberry products reduce the risk of symptomatic infection in some groups, including women with recurrent infections.

Fowler's Solution: This arsenic tonic from 1786 was prescribed for over a century for asthma, skin disease and fevers. Arsenic is carcinogenic, yet arsenic trioxide later became a lifesaving treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Pacific Yew: In 1962 botanist Arthur Barclay collected bark for the National Cancer Institute, and chemists isolated paclitaxel by 1967. Taxol became a major cancer drug, and the early need for yew bark threatened the slow growing trees until semisynthetic production took over.

Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup: Marketed from the 1840s to calm teething and colicky babies, it contained morphine. Infants died from overdoses, and the American Medical Association labeled such products baby killers in 1911.

Comfrey: Called knitbone, this herb was used for centuries on broken bones and wounds. It contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids that damage the liver, so oral products have been banned in several countries.