Hercules Liquid Paraffin 50ml

Liquid paraffin is the lubricant laxative of the old pharmacopoeia: a mineral oil that is not absorbed at all, simply coating and softening stool so it slides. It works, and modern practice has demoted it anyway, because aspirated droplets in the frail, the reflux-prone and the young cause a stealth chemical pneumonia, and long use leaches fat-soluble vitamins. Its honest remaining niche is short-term softening in robust adults who tolerate it upright and awake, while better chemistry has taken over everywhere else. The 50ml is the trial size of the traditional lubricant.

For the customer set on the traditional oil, short careful use in a healthy adult is defensible; for everyone else, macrogols made this bottle a museum piece, and saying so is good pharmacy. If it is in the house at all, it should be there with its rules attached, because the aspiration risk is invisible until it is pneumonia.