Life Science Encyclopedia

  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.

VapoRub

The brand is most widely known for the signature "VapoRub" ointment, a mentholated topical cream intended to assist with minor medical conditions that temporarily impair breathing, including the common cold. It is an Ayurveda medicine and 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 and India.

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

• Cedarleaf oil
• Nutmeg oil
• special Petrolatum
• Thymol
• Turpentine oil

Other products

• Vicks Sinex

External links

• Vicks brand website