Friars Balsam 25ml

Friars Balsam is compound benzoin tincture BP - the dark, aromatic, sharply resinous liquid that generations of Australians added to a bowl of hot water for a blocked chest. If you have been searching for it because your usual pharmacy no longer carries it, you are not imagining things: several Australian registrations have been cancelled in recent years. We stock the Gold Cross 25mL bottle.

Why is Friars Balsam so hard to find?

The reason it has become difficult to find is regulatory, not a change in what it does. Multiple Friars Balsam registrations have been cancelled by their sponsors in Australia, so the brands people remember have quietly disappeared from shelves. That is why the most common searches for it are now about whether it has been discontinued rather than what it is used for.

It has two traditional uses. As a steam inhalant, 5 to 10mL is added to 500mL of hot - not boiling - water and the vapour breathed in, which is the use most people remember from childhood. As a skin antiseptic and protective, it is applied undiluted to small cuts, where the resins form a tough protective film as the alcohol evaporates.

Each millilitre contains benzoin Sumatra equivalent to 51.4mg dry benzoin, prepared storax 25.7mg and Aloe ferox inner leaf dry juice 5.1mg, in alcohol 73% v/v. That high alcohol content is why it stings on a cut, why the vapour carries so readily from hot water, and why the bottle must be kept well away from flame.

Key features

• Compound benzoin tincture BP - the traditional formulation
• Steam inhalant for a blocked, congested chest
• Skin antiseptic and protective for small cuts
• Benzoin Sumatra, prepared storax and Aloe ferox in 73% alcohol
• 25mL bottle - a little goes a long way at 5 to 10mL per inhalation
• Increasingly hard to source in Australia as registrations are cancelled
• Must never be taken internally

Specifications

Common uses

The steam inhalation is what most people come looking for - a congested chest or blocked sinuses, a bowl of hot water, a towel over the head. It is also kept for small cuts and grazes, where the film it leaves behind protects the wound as the alcohol dries. Households that have used it for decades tend to buy it whenever they see it, precisely because supply has become unreliable. If your need is a chesty cough rather than congestion, Senega and Ammonia is the traditional expectorant mixture that loosens phlegm instead. Both sit with our home and family first aid supplies in the wider first aid kits range.