The Shocking Ingredients in 1900s Cough Syrup | Morphine, Cannabis & Chloroform - video Dailymotion

Vault Of Velora

In the early 1900s, some cough syrups contained ingredients that would shock people today.  A product known as “One Night Cough Syrup” listed substances such as morphine, cannabis indica, chloroform, and alcohol directly on its label. At the time, many medicines were sold as patent medicines, and there were very few regulations controlling what companies could include in their products.  These medicines were widely available in pharmacies across the United States and promised to cure coughs, pain, and insomnia. While some ingredients could suppress coughing and make people sleepy, they also carried serious risks such as addiction and dangerous side effects.  Public concern over unsafe medicines eventually led to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, one of the first laws in the United States that required companies to properly label ingredients in food and drugs.  In this video you will learn:  The strange ingredients in early cough syrup  The history of patent medicines  How dangerous remedies helped create modern drug regulations  Subscribe to Vault of Velora for more videos about history, mysteries, and fascinating facts.

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00:00Do you know what you're looking at? This is a real cough syrup label from the early 1900s and

00:04its ingredients might shock you. The product was called One Night Cough Syrup. It promised to stop

00:09your cough so fast you'd sleep through the entire night. Sounds normal, right? But look closely at

00:15the ingredients on this label. It's alcohol, cannabis indica, chloroform, and morphine. Yes,

00:20actual narcotics were mixed into cough medicine. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, medicines in

00:26the United States were mostly unregulated. Companies called these products patent medicines.

00:31They were sold over the counter with bold claims and very little safety testing. Morphine was used

00:36because it suppressed coughing and pain, while chloroform and cannabis made people sleepy.

00:40So technically, the medicine probably did stop your cough, but it might also knock you unconscious

00:45or cause addiction. Products like this helped spark major health reforms in America. In 1906,

00:52the U.S. passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, requiring companies to properly label ingredients.

00:57Over time, dangerous substances like chloroform and morphine became strictly controlled or banned

01:01in over-the-counter medicines. So the next time you grab cough syrup at the pharmacy, just be thankful

01:06it doesn't come with chloroform and morphine. Follow Vault of Valora for more strange and forgotten history.

The Shocking Ingredients in 1900s Cough Syrup | Morphine, Cannabis & Chloroform

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