Pyroligneous acid (acetum lignorum) was investigated by German chemist Johann Rudolph Glauber.

It was also used topically for treating wounds, ulcers and other ailments.

[5] During the United States Civil War it became increasingly difficult for the Confederate States of America to obtain much needed salt.

Curing meat and fish with pyroligneous acid was attempted by cooks to compensate for this deficiency, but it was insufficient.

[6] In the nineteenth century, pyroligneous acid was used to prepare an impure aluminium sulfacetate mordant for use with cotton, but the resulting mixture imparted a burnt odor to the cotton, and Ganswindt recommended its use be abandoned in favour of purer preparations in 1899.