The namesake of quackery. Snake oil. (1893)

16 days ago by EnmebaraGuesser to c/vintageads

Wikipedia has this nice photo of a historical re-enactor dressed as an 1800's patent medicine broker.

Clark Stanley, likely the most (in)famous snake oil peddler,

Clark Stanley

After the passage of the pure food and drug act in 1906 championed by Teddy Roosevelt, it was examined and found to have no medicinal value. He was fined and it was removed from the market. Stanley's product didn't even contain any snake! It was mineral oil and some other extracts.

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Kowowow 8 points 16 days ago

I've been wanting some literal snake oil for a while, like oil made from snakes, I think I'd have to throw that on as a lable

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TranquilTurbulence 9 points 15 days ago

I’ve been thinking, how would you actually make that oil? Is it like olive oil, in the sense that you simply put dead snakes in a big press and squeeze out the virgin snake oil? Snakes contain lots of water too, so the goo you get that way is probably pretty far from oil.

What if you have to use a more modern approach? Use hexane or another organic solvent to separate the oil from the rest. Then just evaporate the hexane, and you’re left with the oil. Maybe you would have to combine both methods.

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womboflll 7 points 15 days ago

Like any other animal fat I imagine, render it out.

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TranquilTurbulence 3 points 15 days ago

That involves heat, which might damage sensitive organic compounds. You know, snake flavonoids and such. Well, if you’re a traditional snake oil salesman, it’s probably fine. If you’re more serious about quality, you might want to preserve the complicated chemistry as much as possible.

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womboflll 2 points 15 days ago

You can render out fat at lower temperatures. Sub boiling temps preserve more flavor.

But I understand animal fat to be solid at room temp, so I'm not 100% how you turn it into an oil, and honestly not that interested in learning more about snake oil.

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TranquilTurbulence 2 points 14 days ago

In a culinary context, you care about taste and texture. For example, if your blueberry pie lost all the vitamins in the oven, nobody at the table will notice.

In a medicinal context, that approach won’t work. The patients can definitely tell if they’re still sick because the medicine isn’t working. That’s why temperature matters.

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womboflll 3 points 14 days ago

In a medical context, snake oil is bullshit anyways.

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