Pepto-Bismol
Pepto-Bismol is an over-the-counter drug produced by the Procter and Gamble company used to treat minor digestive system upset. Its active ingredient is bismuth subsalicylate, which is also responsible for its distinctive pink colour. The primary symptoms aided by Pepto-Bismol are nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhoea, and other temporary discomforts of the stomach and gastrointestinal tract.
Pepto-Bismol is made in chewable tablets and swallowable caplets, but is best known for its original formula which is a thick liquid. This original formula is a medium pink colour with a strong wintergreen flavour. These traits have become generally associated with the medicine to the degree that something may be described as "Pepto-Bismol pink" or as tasting like "Pepto-Bismol". The medicine is also heavily associated with advertisements for it in which people dance and sing out the "nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhoea" line.
- 1900sPepto-Bismol was originally sold as a remedy for infant diarrhoea by Norwich Pharmacal Company under the name Bismosal: Mixture Cholera Infantum.
- 1919 The name changed to Pepto-Bismol, making it easier to promote to adults for their own use.
- 1979 Pepto-Bismol was introduced onto the UK market.
- 1982 Procter and Gamble acquired Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals and Pepto-Bismol was transferred to them.
- 2008 Pepto-Bismol has been available in the Us for over a hundred years.