[8] High daily intake over a period of months can possibly cause severe fatigue, weakness and neurological symptoms that reverse with discontinuation.

[13] For the same reason, it is typically recommended that nursing mothers not use medication containing bismuth subsalicylate because small amounts of the medication are excreted in human breast milk, and these pose a theoretical risk of Reye syndrome to nursing children.

The combination of bismuth subsalicylate and zinc salts for astringency with salol (phenyl salicylate) appears to have begun in the US in the early 20th century as a remedy for life-threatening diarrhea in infants with cholera.

It was originally sold as a remedy for infant diarrhea by Norwich Pharmacal Company under the name "Bismosal: Mixture Cholera Infantum".

Pepto-Bismol is made in chewable tablets[24] and swallowable caplets,[25] but it is best known for its original formula, which is a thick liquid.

[26] Generic bismuth subsalicylate and other branded versions of the drug are widely available in pill and liquid form.

Despite its common usage and commercial significance, the exact structure of the pharmaceutical long remained undetermined, but was revealed, through the use of advanced electron crystallography techniques, to be a layered coordination polymer with the formula BiO(C7H5O3).

The determination of bismuth subsalicylate had long been hindered due to the small particle size as well as defects within the structure, arising from variations in the stacking arrangement of the bismuth subsalicylate layers, which could be observed as part of the structural investigation.