I noticed in the May 1987 Straight Dope Classic entitled “It is true all the vitamins in potatoes, apples, etc., are in the skin?”, I noticed that Cecil notes “There are several types of dietary fiber. The one abundant in apples, and to some extent in all fruits and vegetables, is called pectin.”
Looking at the back of a package of Luden’s Cough Drops, one notes that the active cough suppressant/oral anaesthetic ingredient is called pectin. Are these the same chemical? Can eating apples help me get over my cough?
Fetus. You can go to your doctor and take is information or you can get into the natural healing books and research this yourself.
Yes, potatoes have many vitamins in their skins and it is the same with apples and other fruits. Pectin I believe does come from fruit and may be in coughdrops for the flavor.
I am no doctor but have read a lot of health food books. Dirk Pearson and Sandy Shaw have a couple of wonderful books. I attended a lecture when these two spoke in Woodland Hills and have followed their advice for 30 years.
I know that pectin is in fruit skin (Cecil told me so), and I also know already that pectin is in cough drops (the cough drop bag told me so). The thing, though, is that pectin isn’t in there for flavoring, it’s in there as a cough drug. It says so right on the package. Active ingredient in each drop: Pectin, 1.5 mg. Purpose: Oral demulcent.
So my question is, is this the same pectin as the fiber found in fruit skin? If so, can I cure my coughs by eating apples?
An oral demulcent is any substance that gets smooth and slippery in the mouth. There are no cough suppressants in Ludens cough drops. They work by making things slick so that tickly feeling isn’t triggering coughs all the time. If you have a thick, muscousy cough, they’re not the best choice. If you have a dry, hacking, non-productive cough, they help to lubricate things.
And yes, it’s the same pectin that’s in fruits. Pectin is tasteless, but it’s goopy. Or, to use the technical term, mucilagenous. It’s what we use in jam making to make everything gel together. In enough quantity, it can be used instead of gelatin for making vegetarian jell-o.
Can eating apples cure a dry cough? Probably not. There’s just not enough pectin available in each one. If you want to increase the available pectin and give it a try, cut the apple in half and scrape at the flesh with the side of a spoon before eating it. This releases more pectin than just chewing it.
Thanks for all the info, WhyNot. Just out of curiosity, do you know why some Luden’s drops contain pectin and some contain menthol and why the packaging doesn’t differentiate between one and the other except in the Drug Facts on the back? From my limited knowledge of menthol, I would presume it’s used as an oral anaesthetic. It seems to be pretty popular in cough drops.
No, I don’t know why Luden’s doesn’t label their different products better. That sounds sketchy to me. I know about pectin in cough drops because I use them in making my own. They give you that soft, chewy kind of drop (although you shouldn’t chew it, you should let it disolve) as opposed to the hard candy-like cough drop.
Menthol is a mild cough suppressant, mild antispasmodic (stops muscle fibers from spasming) and a very mild local anasthetic. I would choose the menthol ones if I had a spasmodic cough (coughing that happens rapidly and you can’t stop once a fit starts) or a sore throat with the cough.