Snake oil is now a generic term
meaning a substance with no medicinal value sold as a remedy for
physical ailments. The term most likely comes from the use of oil
derived from Chinese water snakes as a topical lotion. Chinese
immigrants working on the construction of the Transcontinental
Railroad in the 1860s would use it to alleviate joint pain. This
ancient Chinese remedy was laughed at by other medicine salesmen,
who called it a scam. In time, the term “snake oil” developed a
negative connotation.
In the mid-1980s, a California psychiatrist named Richard Kunin
decided to explore the question if snake oil was quackery or was it
a legitimate treatment for joint pain, like the Chinese laborers
claimed it was. He shared his findings in a 1989 letter to the
Western Journal of Medicine.
Snake oil, especially the oil from the fatty tissue found in Chinese
water snakes was unusually high in omega-3 fats. Kunin concluded,
this meant that it could actually do what its advocates claimed,
"snake oil is a credible anti-inflammatory agent and might confer
therapeutic benefits. Since essential fatty acids are known to
absorb transdermally, it is not far-fetched to think that inflamed
skin and joints could benefit by the actual anti-inflammatory action
of locally applied oil just as the Chinese physicians and our
medical quacks have claimed.”
Kunin believed that snake oil actually worked. Subsequent research
suggests that he was right. Unfortunately, while Kunin’s conclusions
are mostly correct, there is one significant omission. The Chinese
snake oil came from water snakes, which, perhaps coincidentally fed
on fish which themselves contained high amounts of omega-3 fatty
acids. American-sold snake oil came from rattlesnakes, which do not
have anywhere nearly the omega-3 amounts needed to provide the
promised therapeutic benefits.