Vinegar
Acetum
- Known today as
- Soured wine.
- Kind
- Food & Drink, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- acetic acid
- Earliest authority here
- Livy
- Qualities
- Cooling and astringent (Lémery). What the degrees mean
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Vinegar: what was it used for?
Cooling and astringent: to whet the appetite, help digestion, allay the heat of choler, and guard against a bad air.
Vinegar: what does modern science say?
Hippocrates used it as an antiseptic, by the reference articles’ account; today, two to four tablespoons with a meal may slightly lower the rise of blood sugar and insulin in people with diabetes.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- acetic acid ChEMBL4–18 per cent by volume
- Mechanism
- Acetic acid at a meal: two to four tablespoons of vinegar may slightly lower the rise of blood glucose and insulin in people with diabetes. Hippocrates used vinegar on wounds.
- Toxic dose
- Too much “doth very much prick the Stomach” (Lémery); swallowed in excess, cider vinegar has damaged tooth enamel, and its tablets the gullet.
- Standing
- A food.
- Johnston, C. S., and Gaas, C. A. (2006). “Vinegar: medicinal uses and antiglycemic effect.” Medscape General Medicine 8. Abstract read · the text read
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.
Vinegar: what lore surrounds it?
Used in These Compounds
Vinegar is an ingredient of 2 compound medicines in the database. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.
Vinegar: what did the older authorities say?
- Livy
- Tells how Hannibal’s men, cutting a way down a cliff of the Alps, built a fire on the rock and poured vinegar on the heated stones to make them “soft and crumbling.”
Sources
- Livy, History of Rome XXI. Read in part · the text read
- “Vinegar.” Wikipedia (read 2 October 2026). Read in part · the text read
- “Apple cider vinegar.” Wikipedia (read 2 October 2026). Read in part · the text read
- “Acetic acid.” Wikipedia (read 2 October 2026). Read in part · the text read
- The British Pharmaceutical Codex (1911), “Acetum. Vinegar.” As transcribed at Henriette’s Herbal Homepage. Read in full · the text read
- Lémery, L. (1745). A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, both Animal and Vegetable; also of Drinkables, trans. D. Hay. London: T. Osborne. Read in part · 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
- 7 cited: 1 read in full, 5 read in part, 1 abstract read. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- acetic acid is not on the WHO essential medicines list; the WHO recommends it for visual cervical screening. Reworded.
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
“Vinegar.” 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/vinegar.
- MLA
“Vinegar.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/vinegar. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Vinegar. (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/vinegar
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See Also
Sharing acetic acid
Of the same qualities: cold and dry
White willow · Sandalwood · Camphor · Rose · Chicory · Quince · what the degrees mean →
Nearby in the alphabet
Vine ash (Ash of burnt vine wood) · Violet, lettuce, sow-thistle (garden lettuce (Lactuca sativa), sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus)) · The vernicle (leaving his image) · Viper (Vipera species, dried into troches) · Verdigris (the green rust of copper) · Vitriol (blue vitriol (copper sulfate), and white vitriol (zinc sulfate)) · Verbena (Verbena officinalis)
Historical description, not medical advice.