Laudanum
Sydenham’s laudanum
- Known today as
- A tincture of opium in wine, with saffron, cinnamon, and cloves.
- Kind
- Compound, in 3 older authorities
- Constituents
- morphine, codeine, ethanol
- Poisoning
- Opioid poisoning
- Earliest authority here
- Thomas Sydenham (1624–1689)
Revised October 3, 2026: Tradition, lore, modern assessment, and sources extended. Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Deadly. Addictive; overdose stops the breath.
Laudanum: what was it used for?
For pain, sleeplessness, coughs, and the flux; in nineteenth-century England so widely used that it was taken for granted for self-medication.
Laudanum: what does modern science say?
Opium tincture is still made for severe diarrhoea; laudanum was sold without a prescription until the early twentieth century and is now recognised as addictive. In Britain the Pharmacy Act of 1868 required those who sold poisons to be examined and registered, though its full force took twenty-five years to be felt; in the United States the Harrison Act of 1914 restricted the manufacture and distribution of opiates, laudanum among them. The deodorised tincture of opium that remains is a controlled drug for diarrhoea and has been used for the withdrawal of infants born to opioid-dependent mothers. The modern tincture holds 10 mg of morphine in each millilitre.
Laudanum: is it poisonous?
Yes, and it can kill. Addictive; overdose stops the breath. Its poisoning is opioid poisoning: Minutes to an hour. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- As opium.
- Checked against ChEMBL
- morphine: ChEMBL’s curated mechanism: agonist Mu-type opioid receptor.
- Syndrome
- Opioid poisoning
- Standing
- Deodorised tincture of opium remains a controlled drug for severe diarrhoea.
- Berridge, V. (1999). Opium and the People. Verified against its record · doi:10.1046/j.1360-0443.2000.951234.x
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.
Laudanum: what lore surrounds it?
See Opium poppy.
Coleridge was a laudanum addict, and his opium-induced writing of Kubla Khan was famously interrupted by “a person on business from Porlock”; Mary Lincoln, the President’s wife, was another. Wilkie Collins based the laudanum of The Moonstone (1868) on his own experience of it. De Quincey, in the Confessions, reckoned twenty-five drops of laudanum to the grain of opium and at his height took eight thousand drops a day.
The Recipe
The recipe: 5 ingredients, with the apothecaries’ weights in modern measure. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.
Laudanum: what did the older authorities say?
- Thomas Sydenham
- Published his formula of opium in sherry with saffron, cinnamon, and cloves, set in a vapour bath for two or three days and strained.
- Thomas De Quincey
- Described the pleasures and pains of laudanum in his Confessions (1821).
- The Victorian chemist
- Sold it without prescription, cheaper than gin because it was taxed as a medicine and not as drink; mothers quieted infants with Godfrey’s Cordial, laudanum in a sweet syrup, and opium was used most widely of all in the undrained and malarial Fens.
Sources
- Sydenham, T., Observationes medicae and later works. Read in part · the text read
- De Quincey, T. (1821). Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Read in full · the text read
- Berridge, V. (1999). Opium and the People. London: Free Association Books. Verified against its record · doi:10.1046/j.1360-0443.2000.951234.x
- Wikipedia contributors. “Laudanum.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laudanum (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia contributors. “Godfrey’s Cordial.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey%27s_Cordial (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- ANI Pharmaceuticals (current label). Opium Tincture USP (Deodorized), prescribing information. DailyMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, setid 674a969a-707d-41a9-b7c3-b90cbf2909e3. Read in full · the text read
- Langenfeld, S., et al. (2005). Therapy of the neonatal abstinence syndrome with tincture of opium or morphine drops. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 77: 31–36. Abstract read · the text read
- Ferner, R. E., & Aronson, J. K. (2023). Medicines legislation and regulation in the United Kingdom 1500–2020. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. doi:10.1111/bcp.15497 Read in full · the text read
- Plant, M. (1999). Review of V. Berridge, Opium and the People (Free Association Books, 1999). BMJ 319: 131. Read in full · the text read
- Hunter, E. K. (2022). ‘To cause sleepe safe and shure’: dangerous substances, sleep medicine and poison theories in early modern England. Social History of Medicine 35: 473–493. Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 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
- The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 11 cited: 7 read in full, 1 read in part, 1 abstract read, 2 verified against its record. 3 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
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 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Laudanum.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/laudanum.
- MLA
“Laudanum.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/laudanum. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Laudanum. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/laudanum
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See Also
Poisoned alike: opioid poisoning
Mithridate · Dover’s powder · Nepenthe · Diascordium · Opium poppy · Theriac · Paregoric · the syndrome, with all of them →
Sharing morphine, codeine, ethanol
Also in Thomas Sydenham
Iron and steel in Thomas Sydenham · everything Thomas Sydenham names →
Nearby in the alphabet
Laurel (Laurus nobilis) · Lapis lazuli, pills of · Lavender (L) · Lady’s mantle · Leech (Hirudo medicinalis) · Labdanum (Cistus ladanifer and C) · Lenitive electuary · Koji mould (The mould grown on steamed rice or soybeans)
Historical description, not medical advice.