Glauber’s salt
Sal mirabile, the wonderful salt
- Known today as
- Sodium sulfate, crystallised from spring water and from the residue of making spirit of salt.
- Kind
- Mineral
- Constituents
- sodium sulfate decahydrate
- In other databases
- Wikidata search
Glauber’s salt: what was it used for?
A gentle purge, and in the chemists’ hands a remedy for nearly everything.
Glauber’s salt: what does modern science say?
A laxative, long since replaced.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- An osmotic laxative: the sulfate is barely absorbed and holds water in the bowel, giving a watery stool in one to three hours; the same principle, with magnesium, is the Epsom salt, and the same salt is in the bowel-cleansing solutions before colonoscopy. Glauber, who found it in a spring near Vienna in 1625, thought it the universal medicine; it is a reliable purge and no more.
- Toxic dose
- 10–30 g purges; repeated use loses water and salts; the sodium load matters in heart failure.
- Standing
- In the pharmacopoeias; a component of licensed bowel-preparation solutions (e.g., sodium picosulfate with magnesium citrate, or sulfate-based preparations).
- Rex, D. K., et al. (2010). “A randomized clinical study comparing reduced-volume oral sulfate solution with standard 4-liter sulfate-free electrolyte lavage solution as preparation for colonoscopy.” Gastrointestinal Endoscopy 72. Verified against its record · doi:10.1016/j.gie.2010.03.1054
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Glauber’s salt: what lore surrounds it?
Johann Rudolf Glauber drank from a spring near Vienna while ill with fever, recovered, found the salt in its water, and named it the wonderful salt.
In Their Own Words
The 1911 Britannica says the salt was first described by J. R. Glauber in 1658, who made it from oil of vitriol and common salt and, ascribing many virtues to it, called it sal mirabile Glauberi.
“…it was first described by J. R. Glauber (De natura salium, 1658), who prepared it by the action of oil of vitriol or sulphuric acid on common salt, and, ascribing to it many medicinal virtues, termed it sal mirabile Glauberi.”
Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Glauber's Salt, Glauber's Salt. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in full
Quincy calls its operation cathartic and diuretic, answering the purposes of most purging waters.
“Its Operation is Cathartic and Diuretic, and anſwers all the Intentions of moſt of the Purging Waters.”
John Quincy, M.D., Pharmacopœia Officinalis & Extemporanea, or, A Complete English Dispensatory, Part III, 'Sal Mirabile Glauberi, Glauber's wonderful Salt'. London: printed for E. Bell and others, 1724; the edition number on the title page is illegible in the scan (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Sources
- Glauber, J. R. (1658). Tractatus de natura salium. Book, not indexed
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 2 cited: 1 verified against its record, 1 book, not indexed. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- Glauber's spring was near Vienna, not in Hungary.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 30, 2026
- Chicago
“Glauber’s salt.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 30, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/glaubers-salt.
- MLA
“Glauber’s salt.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 30 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/glaubers-salt. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Glauber’s salt. (2026, September 30). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/glaubers-salt
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See Also
Nearby in the alphabet
Goat’s rue (French lilac) · Glass powder (Powdered glass) · Goji berry · Ginseng · Gold leaf (Beaten gold) · Ginger (The rhizome of Zingiber officinale) · Gold, frankincense, and myrrh (The gifts of the Magi) · Ghost pipe
Historical description, not medical advice.