"Snake oil" is a term used to describedeceptive marketing,health care fraud, or ascam. Similarly,snake oil salesman is a common label used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy, or solution.[1] The term comes from thesnake oil that was sold as a cure-all elixir for many kinds of physiological problems. Many 18th-century European and 19th-century United States entrepreneurs advertised and soldmineral oil (often mixed with variousactive andinactive household herbs, spices, drugs, and compounds, but containing no snake-derived substances whatsoever) as "snake oilliniment", making claims about its efficacy as apanacea.Patent medicines that claimed to be panaceas were extremely common from the 18th century until the 20th century, particularly among vendors masking addictive drugs such ascocaine,amphetamine,alcohol, andopium-based concoctions orelixirs, to be sold atmedicine shows as medication or products promoting health.
Patent medicines originated in England, where a patent was granted to Richard Stoughton'selixir in 1712.[2] There were no federal regulations in the United States concerning the safety and effectiveness of drugs until the 1906Pure Food and Drug Act.[3] Thus, the widespread marketing and availability of dubiously advertised patent medicines without known properties or origin persisted in the US for a much greater number of years than in Europe.
In 18th-century Europe, especially in Britain,viper oil had been commonly recommended for many afflictions, including the ones for which oil from therattlesnake (pit viper), a type of viper native to America, was subsequently favored to treatrheumatism andskin diseases.[4] Though there are accounts of oil obtained from the fat of various vipers in the Western world, the claims of its effectiveness as a medicine have never been thoroughly examined, and its efficacy is unknown. It is also likely that much of the snake oil sold by Western entrepreneurs was illegitimate, and did not contain ingredients derived from any kind of snake. Snake oil in the United Kingdom and the United States probably contained modifiedmineral oil.William Rockefeller Sr., the father ofJohn D. Rockefeller, peddled literal snake oil.[5]
A commontrope inWestern films, selling snake oil is portrayed as aconfidence trick: a traveling salesman purports to be a doctor (with false credentials), sellingfake medicines with boisterousmarketing hype, and supported by pseudo-scientific evidence. To increase sales, an accomplice in the crowd (ashill or a "toadie") will often attest to the value of the product in an effort to provoke buying enthusiasm. The "doctor" will leave town before his customers realize they have been cheated. This trope is associated with theAmerican Old West. However, the famousjudgment that sparked the most controversy happened in 1916, whenStanley's Snake Oil was discovered to contain no actual snake oil, creating the notion that bottles of snake oil (and their salesmen) were essentially a fraud.[6] That case took place inRhode Island, and involved snake oil being shipped toMassachusetts, far away from and substantially later than the Old West.[7]
Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment – produced by Clark Stanley, the "Rattlesnake King" – was tested by the United States government'sBureau of Chemistry, the precursor to theFood and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1916.[8] It was found to contain: mineral oil, 1% fatty oil (assumed to betallow),capsaicin fromchili peppers,turpentine, andcamphor.[2]
In 1916, subsequent to the passage of thePure Food and Drug Act in 1906, Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment was examined by the Bureau of Chemistry, and found to be drasticallyoverpriced and of limited value. As a result, Stanley facedfederal prosecution for peddling mineral oil in a fraudulent manner as snake oil. In his 1916civil hearing instigated by federalprosecutors in theU.S. District Court for Rhode Island, Stanleypleadednolo contendere (no contest) to the allegations against him, giving noadmission ofguilt.[8] His plea was accepted, and as a result, he was fined $20[8] (about $578 in 2024).[9]
The termsnake oil has since been established in popular culture as a reference to any worthless concoction sold as medicine, and has been extended to describe a wide-ranging degree of fraudulent goods, services, ideas, and activities such as worthless rhetoric in politics. By further extension, asnake oil salesman is commonly used in English to describe aquack,huckster, orcharlatan.
False health products described by medical experts as "snake oil" continue to be marketed during the 21st century, includingherbal medicines,dietary supplements, products such asTibetan singing bowls (when used forhealing) and treatments such asvaginal steaming. The companyGoop has been accused of "selling snake oil" in some of its health products and recommendations.[10][11]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic, theXinhua News Agency claimed that the herbal productShuanghuanglian can prevent or treat infections fromcoronaviruses, stimulating sales across the United States, Russia, and China. However, the clinical studies on its effectiveness have been inconclusive.[12][13] Su et al. published a report that the herbal substance has been shownin vitro to becytotoxic "against a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2".[14] However, another government media outlet,People’s Daily, published a contrasting report urging citizens not to purchase the herbal remedy as it had not been recommended for coronavirus antiviral treatment and treatment measures had not passed clinical trials.[15]
[...] William Rockefeller, father to the first billionaire John D. [...] was a literal snake oil salesman and con artist who sold 'cancer cures' to women door-to-door.
