Herbst Past and Present by Charles Garcia
The Noble History of the Cough Drop
I’m having my traditional holiday cold as I write this. Much to my surprise it has come late in the season. Much to my pleasure it has not turned into bronchitis or pneumonia… yet. My doctor had warned me that another bout of pneumonia could possibly be my last. I was prescribed antibiotics and an expectorant cough syrup. Along with that I self prescribed myself echinacea, elderberry syrup and golden seal to stimulate my already battered immune system.
Not everything went according to plan. The antibiotics did clear the infection in my sinuses. But the cough expectorant aggravated my cough to the degree that my ribs ached with every breath I took. Sleep was only possible when exhaustion set in. And finally, the expectorant was barely bringing up any phlegm out of my lungs. It was time to hit the big gun of herbal medicine.
This last summer I was able to make a tincture of Wild Ginger root out of my own garden. It is a slow growing plant and tends to enjoy more shade and moisture than is available here in Richmond. Regardless, I had enough for several ounces. Despite the five years it took to grow the plant it certainly saved a trip to the central coast of California foraging for it.
The tincture was made extra strong using that fine Mexican alcohol, Cana de Azucar. Most herbalists tend to avoid using 192 proof alcohol, considering it unnecessary. I, on the other hand, consider many of my colleagues sissies. If you are going to make medicine…make it strong.
In this case I had to take my own medicine…literally. I took sixty drops of the tincture and let it slide down the back of my throat. Battery acid would have tasted smoother. I quickly washed it down with a several cups of water. Within twenty minutes I felt a spasm of coughing strike my chest. Unlike the previous weeks, the coughs were not dry. I began bringing up viscous phlegm. Every cough expelled more and more phlegm.
Over the next two weeks I took Wild Ginger several times a day. My coughs became less violent and more productive. I was able to get through Christmas and New Years without a lot of pain. Unfortunately this cold has left me with a spasmodic cough, which strikes when I shock my system with something cold or something salty. There is no more phlegm to bring up, so the cough is unproductive. This spasmodic cough is a remnant of years of bronchitis and several bouts of pneumonia. The damage to my lungs will always be with me. Thank God I don’t smoke.
In the past this type of cough has lasted as long as five months. My brother suffered from a similar cough that lasted almost twenty years. I’ve been prescribed inhalers to eventually ease the spasms in my chest, and I do use them. But occasionally, I don’t want the taste of inhalant in my mouth, so I turn to the simple and humble cough drop.
The cough drop is actually an ancient medication first devised in Egypt in around 1,000 B.C. Lacking sugar, which would not arrive in the region for many centuries, the Egyptian apothecaries used honey. To form these semi-hard candies, herbs, spices, and citrus fruits were carefully powdered and mixed into the sugar. Sucking these candies relieved coughs by moistening a dry throat. It should be noted that an apothecary who failed the Pharaoh often ended up headless. So the cough drops had to be JUST RIGHT. Having made these lozenges myself, I am impressed by our ancient ancestors. It is difficult at best to find the right consistency for a good cough drop using honey.
The cough drop as we know it was first marketed by a Scottish immigrant, James Smith. Smith was a gifted carpenter by trade, but was a far better candy maker. In 1847 Smith moved the family to Poughkeepsie, New York where he opened a restaurant. One a day a customer in need of money offered James Smith the formula for an effective cough remedy. Smith gave the man five dollars (a considerable sum in those days) and promptly whipped up a batch of hard black candy. It was a particular hard winter that year, so Smith’s “cough candy” was field tested by family and friends. Smith made six pounds that year. It was perfect.
His sons, Andrew and William, eventually took over the candy making enterprise and named the business, Smith Brothers. In 1866, realizing they needed a distinctive trade mark, decided to use their own hirsute faces on large candy bowls kept on drugstore counters. A few years later they designed a box to hold 12 lozenges. On the box was their now familiar unsmiling faces.
The actual recipe for the famous Smith Brothers Cough Drops has been a closely held secret for over a century. But I would hazard a guess that it included licorice root, sassafras, and horehound. Of course it included lots of sugar. Horehound, an incredibly bitter tasting plant, has traditionally been used by English herbalists for bronchial problems. In small doses with lots of sugar it is a popular candy flavor. The licorice and sassafras are Native American herbs, used for a host of problems, including coughs, fevers, and female complaints. In combination it is possible that these herbs work like a non-narcotic sedative. They ease the chest muscles, moisten the throat, and cut down unproductive coughs.
At the same time the Smith Brothers were becoming the Bill Gates of cough medicine, a Pennsylvania candy maker came up with his own brand of drops. In 1872 George Luden introduced an amber colored menthol flavored drop and the novelty of using wax paper to line his boxes. This kept his candies fresher and tastier. Shortly thereafter he introduced a wild cherry flavored cough drop. The bark of the wild cherry tree works much like horehound to ease coughing, and is far easier to swallow. Many folks considered his candies an improvement on the traditional black licorice of the Smiths. Luden was an early proponent of quality control. His candies remained fresh and effective through every batch. They were perfect.
Still, the Smith Brothers kept a strong grip on the market and by 1888 were making 60 tons of cough drops a year. Well into the 20th century, Luden and Smith were the only real choices a coughing American had.
As a child growing up in Riverbank California, I thought that cough drops only came in three flavors…licorice, menthol and cherry. During the cold season most of us children at Cardoza Elementary School smelled like menthol cough drops and Vicks-Vapo-Rub. The aroma in our third grade classroom was overwhelming. To this day, I hate the smell of menthol cough drops. But in the early eighties a new array of flavors hit the pharmacy counter. Honey and lemon, lemon and mint, fruit flavors with vitamin C, as well as extra-strength wild cherry, became available.
On my nightstand, I keep several honey and lemon drops to ease my nightly coughing jags. Though they have a bit of menthol, the combined taste makes it bearable.
So next time you pop a cough drop in your mouth, consider its long and honorable history. From Pharaoh to the Smith Brothers. It had to be perfect.
As in all things, moderation and knowledge is suggested in the use of herbal remedies. Please contact an herbalist or knowledgeable physician concerning herbal treatments.
