SARSAPARILLA
Sarsaparilla is the common name of several different plants that were believed to have medicinal properties. The name then became applied to a variety of home-made teas or mildly alcoholic beverages that incorporated a mixture of herbal ingredients. The original root beer was a similar general herbal tonic.
This is a mass-produced commercial version that claims to have been additionally fortified with potassium and iron. The role of minerals in maintaining human health was just beginning to be understood in the late 1800s. It was one of "the latest things", so patent medicine manufactures sometimes claimed to have included various mineral supplements in their products.
See advertisements for other products with iron: tonic, anaemia pills
See another example of a packaged version of an herbal folk remedy.
