Laudanum are generally confined to controlling diarrhea, alleviating pain, and easing withdrawal symptoms in infants born to mothers addicted to heroin or other opioids. Recent enforcement action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) against manufacturers of paregoric and opium tincture suggests that opium tincture's availability in the U.S. may be in jeopardy. The terms "laudanum" and "tincture of opium" are generally interchangeable, but in contemporary medical practice the latter is used almost exclusively. Paracelsus, a 16th-century Swiss-German alchemist, experimented with various opium concoctions, and recommended opium for reducing pain. One of his preparations, a pill which he extolled as
Crude drug Crude drug Crude drugs are vegetable or animal drugs that contain natural substances that have undergone only the processes of collection and drying. The term natural substances refers to those substances found in nature that have not had man-made changes made in their molecular structure. They are used as medicine for human being and animal, internally and externally for curing disease, e.g., Senna and Cinchona. A crude drug is any naturally occurring, unrefined substance derived from organic or inorganic sources such as plant, animal, bacteria, organs or whole organisms intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention