Wellness with Age: A brief history of medicinal pills
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026
By Crystal Linn
for the Sequim Gazette
In 2025 U.S. supplement sales rose to more than $72 billion. This included everything from general vitamin supplements to weight management to healthy aging — and more.
Throughout history mankind has always researched medicines and supplements to help improve one’s health and energy levels.
Ancient civilizations records show documented recipes for medicines, especially “pills.” Assyrian clay tablets contain recipes using liquid herbal medicines for various ailments. Documentation of creating pills dates back to approximately 1500 B.C. where ancient Egyptian papyruses contained notes about many medical pills. Some recipes discuss remedies made from honey, bread dough and grease. Similar examples are found in ancient Chinese writings where hardened honey was used to create medicinal pills.
In Europe sometime during the late 1300s, if not earlier, the term “pillula” meaning “little ball” was used to described any small mass of ingredients which contained medicinal compounds, and could be taken by mouth. Interestingly enough, the term pillula was also used to describe a bullet.
In the late 1400s the ending of the word was dropped and we have our modern-day word pill.
Sometime during 1833 the first patent for capsule technology was granted to a French pharmacist and one of his students.
During 1912 Polish-born biochemist Casimir Funk discovered how certain diseases such as scurvy and rickets were caused by something missing from the body rather than something which had invaded the body. He coined the term “vitamine.” A simplified translation of the word is vital foods. Later the E was dropped and we have the modern term vitamin.
Around 1916 the first commercial vitamin supplements became available. Some were sold directly to consumers and others required a doctor’s prescription.
The cost of creating natural-sourced vitamins was astronomical and in the 1920s researchers in Europe and the U.S. began experimenting with creating laboratory supplements. In the 1930s a consumer could purchase these laboratory-made supplements for a fraction of the cost of natural made vitamins.
A decade later as more Americans were drafted during World War II it was discovered how many of these men suffered from health concerns related to poor nutrition. In 1941President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Nutrition Conference for Defense.
This lead to creating the first Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) to ensure the servicemen received adequate nutrition while overseas.
During the early 1970s as production costs were more manageable companies began to return to manufacturing supplements made from real foods.
Nowadays we are fortunate in that many health care providers are continuing to learn more about the benefits of additional supplementation for maintaining and improving their patients’ health. The challenge for us consumers is there are so many brands available that it is overwhelming. How does one know which brand offers the best quality?
A colleague of mine, Michael Chase, MS, NTP of Chase’s Market in Ontario, Oregon, has done much research on this subject and learned the top three best quality natural supplement companies are Natural Factors, Solaray and Terry Naturally, with Natural Factors being his top choice. As a side note, Natural Factors has a manufacturing plant, and organic farms in Monroe, Washington.
Email us with your comments at Info@WellnessWithAge.com. We love reader feedback and I personally reply to each and every email.
