Need Sweet Spirits of Nitre (the traditional folk medicine)

A. My mother always gave me nitre in a little water for a fever.

A. Hi Wendy,
You can't. It's banned by the FDA.
Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. A pale yellow liquid, of a sweetish taste and a pleasant ethereal odor. It is obtained by the distillation of alcohol with nitric and sulfuric acids, and consists essentially of ethyl nitrite with a little acetic aldehyde. It is used as a diaphoretic, diuretic, antispasmodic, etc. Called also sweet spirit of niter

For those of us who don't know (I had to grab a reference myself).

A. Sweet spirit of nitre, so one sees, taken off market!
What would cost 25 cents to cure simple blisters, now cost us $25.00 Now, we have all types of molecular compound derivatives, sporting and supporting these overpriced compounds. Guess what, filled with steroids!

A. I used spirit of niter 45 years ago. I was having trouble trying to urinate. I kept trying to go 6 or 8 times and I was hurting My father was living with us and he asked me what was going on I told him I could not pee. He asked me if we had any spirit of niter? So I looked in the medicine chest and found some. He told me to take 3/4 drops of it with some sugar in warm water. Well in a half of an hour I was having my back getting hot at the belt line I tried to pee several times and about 45 minutes after I took the niter I passes a kidney stone.WHEW {{If it works take it off of the market. and sell something for more money.}}[my wording]

A. I have taken Sweet spirits of niter since I was a child, usually only when I have tried every other means to cure my problem with urination, and now I have been having problems and have been to my Dr and have been on medications that have not given me any relief, I know that this works for me and I usually only took it when I absolutely needed it. I would be ever so grateful if anyone could tell me where I can get this as most pharmacies don't even know what I am referring to, Can you please help me to locate this so that I can avoid being in misery with my urinary problems. I am 65 years old and I have used this since I was a child and never had any problems it has saved me much misery and many trips to the Doctor and as I said I have been on antibiotics and nothing has helped I just want to be able to give this old fashioned remedy a try to see if I will feel better. Please Reply back to me,Thank You

A. I BOUGHT A SMALL BOTTLE ONLINE FROM AMAZON ⇨
AND I DID WHAT MY MOTHER IN THE 1940S-50S) DID FOR A BELLY ACHE. THE ONE I BOUGHT HAS NO MANUFACTURER'S NAME ON BOTTLE, NOR DOES IT HAVE ANYTHING ON BOTTLE EXCEPT 'SWEET SPIRITS OF NITRE'. I PUT FEW DROPS INTO GLASS, ALONG WITH A LITTLE SUGAR AND WATER, AND TOOK A SIP, IT TASTED LIKE IT MIGHT BE POISON.
AND I'D LOOK IT UP ON GOOGLE TO FIND OUT JUST WHAT IT'S FOR.
YOU CAN DO THE SAME TO READ ALL ABOUT IT.

opinion! Big pharma owns both parties, so the FDA banned sweet spiris of nitre and virtually every "traditional remedy" by ruling that centuries-old folk cures are "new drugs" (frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=1997_register&docid=97-6411.pdf ⇩):

The revolving-door FDA serves the mega-corps so, rather than testing inexpensive traditional medicines like this one, bluestone, silver ointments, and others, the FDA has outlawed them all as "new" drugs until someone runs the FDA tests ... knowing of course that traditional medicines can't be patented, so no money can be made to compensate for the cost of the testing, so no one will ever sponsor the tests they've dictated ... thereby rendering all traditional cures illegal :-(

Please note that I am NOT claiming or implying that Spirits of Nitre is safe! I have absolutely no qualifications to even guess. Rather, what I am saying is that if the FDA actually cared about citizen health they would certainly test them or commission a university do so.

[Ed. update: The above link has broken. Thankfully, The Internet Archive preserved a copy
These days information often appears on the internet, then disappears forever. If that bothers or frightens you please consider a donation to The Internet Archive.

P.S. - Postings asking where to get it should not be interpreted as people asking where to buy an illegal substance. Those posters will probably be shocked to learn that the sweet spirits of nitre their grandmother gave them 70 years ago is a "new drug" :-)

I was given spirits of nitre when I was a child in the early nineteen forties for fevers. We were talking about it today and I decided to find out what was in it. It always took the fever away.

A. I myself was given sweet spirits of niter as a child when we were sick and had a fever. I have also asked about it and got that (What?) look.

A. Hello,
In case you have not found this stuff, in South Africa one of the old Dutch remedies they sell is called Witdulsies and it contains Ethyl Nitrate and Ethanol. Maybe it can help you. I don't know if you can get it from where you are though.

My mother mixed water sugar and sweet spirit of nitre for fevers when I was a child..I inquired several years ago at a drug store and the pharmacist had never heard of it..I notice that many people are posting from New Jersey...Is it a Jersey thing?

A. I am a Jersey native and had never heard of it until this thread, Carrie. Sorry. The "many people posting from New Jersey" is probably just because the website and its operators are in NJ.

A. In the 1940s when I was a youngster, I remember my Grandfather giving me a liquid with sweet nitre in it when I was very sick. Those were the days before antibiotics and one could die from a fever associated with an infection associated with a sore throat or ear infection. My Grandfather was a Feldsher - field surgeon in German. It is the equivalent of a nurse practitioner today. He treated many soldiers of the Tsar's military with his various herbal medicines during the Boxer rebellion in 1900. That was the only type of medicine at the time. At the time it had to be administered very carefully or it could cause death. Modern pharmaceuticals take care of our ills better and more safely today.

I was born in 1927. I experienced "bad dreams" . From early age until age 3 or 4.. I would hear distant sounds get louder and louder Crescendo and decrescendo. At the same time I would have visual retinal bizarre response like spinning spirals and blinking lights.I would awaken crying and my mother would give me some "spirits on Nitre" to calm me ..The bad dreams diminished with time. A colleague jokingly said I was probably relieving the birth canal contractions.. Could be. Salvatore Dali, the great artist said he remembered being born....

A. THIS IS EXCELLENT MEDICINE FOR FEVER BLISTERS, IT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT EVER GOT RID OF THEM IN JUST A MATTER OF A FEW DAYS. WITHOUT IT IT NOW TAKES SOMETHING LIKE 2 WEEKS OR BETTER TO GET RID OF, IT'S A SHAME THAT IT WAS TAKEN OFF OF THE MARKET, A GREAT LOSS TO US WHO SUFFER FROM FEVER BLISTERS.

A. My father used to take sweet nitre to urinate back around 1945. He ended up having an emergency operation to remove a bunch of kidney stones around 1965. Like a half of quart of stones. He did recover but it took a while.

This discussion of Sweet Spirit of Nitre is fascinating and brings me back to my childhood in the 1950s. My mother, too, would give it to me with water when I had a fever and hallucinations, which were very much as described above. Sounds would become slow and distorted and visuals would seem to travel at me and then away. I can still remember the smell and taste of the Sweet Spirit of Nitre and it brings memories of my dear mother taking care of me. I've never found anyone to talk to about this and thank you all for sharing this with me!

A. I was looking for some Sweet spirits of Niter for a cure for Jaundice and done some research. It seems that it is available from the Amish people in America. See details:

This is to thank Mr. Tom Brady.
I am 77 years old. When in my forties, I had a urinary problem, my mother suggested three drops in a glass of water. The problem was cleared the next day and I don't know what became of the rest of the bottle but when my youngest son had problems, I couldn't find any anywhere. (It had been taken off the market in the 80's). He wound up going to the doctor; high fee plus medicine and a repeat visit.
As has been stated: "If it works, remove it."
It just came to mind as I was sitting here. Hope no one needs any. Thanks again.

For at least seven years I've been searching for Spirits of Nitre for bladder infections that seem to plague elderly bedridden friends. I grew up in the '30s and clearly remember Mother administering a few drops in water for her children's occasional bouts of bladder problems. It worked! One of my old friends died recently wishing for relief she was certain Nitre would provide, but all my efforts to find some for her failed. It's too late tonight to contact the Amish lady that makes it. I'm so grateful for this exciting clue, and will order some first thing in the morning.

A. 55 years ago this was purchased at a drug store and ten drops placed in water to drink and help with excess acid in ones system. I have called every pharmacy around my area to no avail.

A. My grandmother would heat the small bottle of sweet spirit of niter in warm water. She would use it for when when we had an ear ache. It was so soothing to me, would go right to sleep. And I was born in 1959.

Oh my God, I remember Nitre too...And I also learned very early on, don't cry wolf, or fake illness to get out of school, cause you were gonna get " Dosed "...It never killed us, but for about the first 15 minutes afterwards, we wish we would have went ahead and died cause it was so bad...