Sweet Birch Oil ("Wintergreen") Betula
date: label: date made
content: 1928
name: label: maker
content: William S. Merrell Company
notes: label: Description
content: Footed glass display vial with ground glass stopper and a paper label on the foot: "OIL SWEET BIRCH / "WINTERGREEN" / BETULA." This vial contains a yellowish oil - oil of sweet birch, which is distilled from the bark of the Betula lenta trees.
label: Description
content: One of seven (7) objects including two specimens of salicylic acid, four specimens of salicylates, and one specimen of sweet birch oil (“wintergreen”), donated to the museum in 1928 by the William S. Merrell Company. This material replaced specimens donated in 1917 for a display on the manufacture of salicylates which included a model of a birch oil still.
label: Description
content: Both birch oil and oil of wintergreen are a source for methyl salicylate from which other salicylates are derived. Salicylates were first isolated from plants in the early 19th century. They have been used to treat pain, fever, and inflammation, particularly joint inflammation associated with rheumatism. Acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), introduced 1899, is the most commonly used salicylate.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Ohio, Cincinnati
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of William S. Merrell Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-02575
label: accession number
content: 1985.0516
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0516.004
label: accession number
content: 103745
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pharmaceutical
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (container material)