Jamaica ginger

Jamaica ginger extract, known in the United States by the slang name Jake, was a late 19th-century patent medicine that provided a convenient way to obtain alcohol during the era of Prohibition, since it contained approximately 70% to 80% ethanol by weight.

Manufacturers sought solids which impaired the taste less; tricresyl phosphate was used, which the producers later found to be a potent neurotoxin; adulterated Jake is estimated to have caused 30,000 to 50,000 people to lose function in their limbs.

[1][2][4] In small doses, mixed with water, it was used as a remedy for headaches, upper respiratory infections, menstrual disorders, and intestinal gas.

[5] Patent medicines with a high alcohol percentage, such as Jamaica ginger, became obvious choices, as they were legal and available over the counter without prescriptions.

[6] Only a fluid extract version defined in the United States Pharmacopeia, with a high content of bitter-tasting ginger oleoresin, remained available in stores.

[1][4] When the price of castor oil increased in the latter portion of the 1920s, Harry Gross, president of Hub Products Corporation, sought an alternative additive for his Jamaica ginger formula.

[citation needed] Harry Gross and his part-owner of Boston-Hub Products, Max Reisman, were ultimately fined $1,000 each and given a two-year suspended jail sentence.

[7] Although this incident became well known,[citation needed] later cases of organophosphate poisoning occurred in Germany, Spain, Italy, and, on a large scale, in Morocco in 1959, where cooking oil adulterated with jet engine lubricant from an American airbase led to paralysis in approximately 10,000 victims, and caused an international incident.

Bottles of "Jamaica ginger," also called "Jake."
Tri-ortho cresyl phosphate(TOCP), also called tricresyl phosphate , was the neurotoxin responsible for the paralysis associated with "Jake Walk."
Sampling "Ginger Jake", April 2, 1932