Vicks

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50g Vicks VapoRub.
50g Vicks VapoRub.

Vicks is a line of over-the-counter medications owned by the US company Procter & Gamble. Vicks manufactures NyQuil and its sister medication, DayQuil. The Vicks brand also produces Formula 44 cough medicines, Vicks brand cough drops, and a number of inhaled breathing treatments.

[edit] VapoRub

The brand is most widely known for the signature "VapoRub" ointment, a mentholated topical creme intended to assist with minor medical conditions that temporarily impair breathing, including the common cold. It is applied to the chest, often immediately before sleeping, or inhaled by melting it in very hot water.

VapoRub was created in the 1880s by Lunsford Richardson, a Selma, North Carolina pharmacist, as a salve for treating colds and pneumonia. Richardson later moved to Greensboro, North Carolina and began marketing it as Vicks VapoRub, named in honor of his brother-in-law, Dr. Joshua Vick, a Selma physician. In 1948, Edward Mabry became president of Vicks, then known as the Vicks Chemical Company. In 1985, it was sold to Procter & Gamble. VapoRub is currently manufactured and packaged in Mexico.

Vicks is also popular among ecstasy users, who may concentrate the vapors to heighten the effects of the drug [1], sometimes with delererious results to the upper respiratory tract.[2]


Active Ingredients:

  • Camphor 4.8% (Cough suppressant and topical analgesic)
  • Eucalyptol 1.2% (Cough suppressant)
  • Menthol 2.6% (Cough suppressant and topical analgesic)

Inactive Ingredients

[edit] External links