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.