Asthmador and Nasaldor were marketed in the 1920s as cures for allergies such as asthma and hay fever, and for viral infections like cold sores.

They contained a hallucinogen (#DaturaStramonium) cut with a poison (#Belladonna) and the people who liked it were actually addicts hallucinating that they were better, some even dying of the poison.

Banned by any health department? Or food or drugs regulator? No.

The Federal Trade Commission in 1937, which could only stop the ads.

#toxicology

@AbandonedAmerica Ask it about Asthmador.

The bad but easy info, on a Smithsonian WWW site no less, is people saying how "great" it was.

The good info that the FTC banned it in 1937 from being marketed as a cure, because it contained a hallucinogen (#DaturaStramonium) cut with a poison (#Belladonna) and the people who took it were actually addicts hallucinating that they were better, some even dying of the poison, is only available in books and behind subscription paywalls.

#toxicology

@DukeDuke @DrLindseyFitzharris

You've yet to encounter Asthmador, the Asthma "cure" that could give you hallucinations and possibly kill you, then. (-:

The joys of the WWW being what they are, search engines will easily find you the entry at the #Smithsonian with loads of anecdotal testimonials of how "great" it was according to people's grandparents; and the information that it was a dangerous #DaturaStramonium hallucinogen and #poison (Belladonna) requires JSTOR subscription.

#toxicology

The peculiar history of thornapple, the hallucinogenic weed that ended up in supermarket spinach

The soldiers prepared a meal from the plant and shortly afterwards, were entirely incapacitated. They were, apparently “stark naked … sitting up in a corner, like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them”. Another of the affected soldiers would “fondly kiss, and paw his companions”.

https://theconversation.com/the-peculiar-history-of-thornapple-the-hallucinogenic-weed-that-ended-up-in-supermarket-spinach-197014

#TheConversation #Spinach #Thornapple #DaturaStramonium