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What was in patent medicines? Many products were mass-produced versions of folk remedies that had previously been made in small quantities by hand at home, mostly using plants, and sometimes minerals.
What traditional herbal remedy does this medicine claim to incorporate?
Wild cherry bark was a traditional herbal remedy for coughs and throat complaints. The cherry tree figures prominently in the illustration.
However, since manufactures did not have to reveal what was in their products, we don't really know how much cherry bark was in this Ayer's Cherry Pectoral. Other advertising could be even more misleading!
See other examples of packaged versions of herbal folk remedies: Sarsaparilla, Yellow Dock).
