Word: phenolphthalein
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...PHENOLPHTHALEIN Now mostly used as a reagent in labs, this chemical was common in over-the-counter laxatives--until products with phenolphthalein were pulled from the shelves. Check the ingredients of packages that have been sitting around in your medicine cabinet for a time...
WASHINGTON: After 90 years of regularity, America's No.1 laxative is set to be dumped from supermarket shelves. Novartis, the drug's maker, pulled Ex-Lax Friday after the FDA announced an intended ban of the product. Apparently high doses of phenolphthalein, Ex-Lax's active ingredient, causes cancer in laboratory animals. Novartis said it was "obviously disappointed," but promised that a reformulated Ex-Lax derived from the senna plant would be on store shelves in 60 days. Expect coffee and bran muffin futures to skyrocket when Wall Street's big players get back from the beach...
...world's first and still largest selling (1966 company sales: over $10 million) palatable purgative, a Hungarian immigrant who worked his way through pharmacy college, then proceeded to rescue countless kiddies from the ghastly grasp of castor oil by mixing a tasteless powder called phenolphthalein and chocolate flavoring into Ex-Lax, a name he adapted from a Hungarian parliamentary term (ex lex), meaning an extraordinary suspension of governmental activity; of a heart attack; in Atlantic Beach...
Every year the colon-conscious U.S. public spends $100 million on laxatives-the biggest seller, after vitamins, in the drug field. Most of the laxatives people buy and take are intestine-irritating chemicals which many doctors denounce: cascara, aloes, resins, castor oil, phenolphthalein and salts. Such concoctions often aggravate digestive trouble, or start trouble if none exists...
...produces a large bland bulk in the bowel. "Mineral waters, whether natural or artificial, should not be used. . . ." Dr. Aaron went on to advise readers to avoid any cathartic pills that contain aloe, aloin (both somewhat irritant drugs), or strychnine; also any laxative chocolates, candies, chewing gums that contain phenolphthalein, a tasteless drug which stimulates peristalsis. Castor oil and calomel are drastic cathartics, should be taken only on advice of a physician. Children should not be given laxatives or enemas unless they are prescribed by a physician...