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
Mercury Drug Mercury Drug Mercury Drug is a pharmacy chain in the Philippines. The company began on March 1, 1945 with a single drugstore owned by Mariano Que ( ). He named it after Mercury, the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology, whose caduceus is sometimes used as a symbol of medicine. The store began cutting packaged, bulk items into single pieces and selling them individually; this practice is colloquially called "tingí-tingì" in Filipino. During its foundation, it is the second oldest established drugstore chain in the country (after South Star Drug, which established in 1937 - eight years ago). Upon