Paregoric
Elixir paregoricum; camphorated tincture of opium
- Known today as
- Opium, camphor, benzoic acid, and anise oil in spirit.
- Kind
- Compound, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- morphine, camphor, benzoic acid
- Poisoning
- Opioid poisoning
- Earliest authority here
- Jacob Le Mort
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 30, 2026.
Caution. Contains opium.
Paregoric: what was it used for?
For coughs, diarrhoea, and the pains of teething infants; its Greek name means “soothing.”
Paregoric: what does modern science say?
Still made in the United States, as a controlled drug on prescription, chiefly for diarrhoea; it was formerly given to newborns in opioid withdrawal.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- A weak opium, one twenty-fifth the strength of laudanum; it slows the bowel, and a 1944 study held it expectorant by a reflex from the stomach.
- Toxic dose
- The adult dose is 4 mL, about 1.6 mg of morphine. Children are very susceptible to opium, and confusion with laudanum, twenty-five times stronger, has caused fatal overdoses.
- Syndrome
- Opioid poisoning
- Standing
- A Schedule III controlled drug in the United States, still made for diarrhoea.
- British Pharmacopoeia, camphorated opium tincture. Read in full · the text read
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.
Paregoric: what did the older authorities say?
- Jacob Le Mort
- The Leiden professor of chemistry is credited with the first version, early in the eighteenth century, as an elixir for asthma.
Sources
- Wikipedia contributors. “Paregoric.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paregoric (read 2 October 2026). 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
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
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 3 cited: 2 read in full, 1 abstract read. 1 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 30, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Paregoric.” 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/paregoric.
- MLA
“Paregoric.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/paregoric. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Paregoric. (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/paregoric
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See Also
Poisoned alike: opioid poisoning
Theriac · Opium poppy · Diascordium · Nepenthe · Dover’s powder · Mithridate · Laudanum · the syndrome, with all of them →
Sharing morphine, camphor, benzoic acid
Salvia rosmarinus · Cinnamomum camphora · Salvia officinalis · Vinegar of the four thieves
Nearby in the alphabet
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) · Panther cap (white-spotted amanita of European woods) · Paschal candle · Palm of Christ (Ricinus communis (note XLII)) · Passarino’s white powder (a man skilled in the spagyric (chemical) art (note XXXIX)) · Palm and olive branches (Branches blessed on Palm Sunday) · Pawpaw (the one temperate tree of the custard-apple family) · Oyster mushroom (A shell-shaped mushroom of dead hardwood)
Historical description, not medical advice.