Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound


Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, Women's Tonic. Visual motif: Child, head and shoulders, full face. Lydia Estes Pinkham (February 9, 1819 - May 17, 1883) was an iconic concocter and shrewd marketer of a commercially successful herbal-alcoholic "women's tonic" meant to relieve menstrual and menopausal pains. The five herbs contained in Lydia Pinkham's original formula are: pleurisy root, life root (traditional uterine tonic), fenugreek, unicorn root and, black cohosh. The formula also contains drinking alcohol, ethanol, as in wine, beer and liquor of all sorts. Alcohol relieves muscular stress and acts as a pain killer, and also changes one's mood. The persistence of Mrs. Pinkham's compound long after her death is testament to its acceptance by women who sought relief from menstrual and menopausal symptoms. The company continued under family control until the 1930s. Although Lydia Pinkham's company continued increasing profit margins fifty years after her death, eventually the advent of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) caused changes in the formula. The compound is now produced by a pharmaceutical company.


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Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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