The warning letter was issued to a company called McDaniel Water LLC of Amistad, NM. The company has been selling a product it called ‘Black Indian Salve,’ which it also referred to as ‘Black Salve’ and ‘Indian Herb.’
Long history use doesn’t imply safety
Black salve has a long history of use, which is not to say that it has ever been considered benign by health authorities. The basic ingredients typically are bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and zinc chloride. The McDaniel Water formula is advertised to contain Bloodroot, yellow dock, licorice root and galangal.
Bloodroot, an herbaceous plant native to eastern North America, has a history of use in Native American traditional medicine for treatment of warts and other skin issues. It is a known corrosive agent, as is zinc chloride.
Modern promoters have hawked this product for its purported effects to remove skin cancer tumors. One site that still openly sells the product, Alpha Omega Labs, a company reportedly operating out of Guayaquil, Ecuador, claims “Cansema (its brand name for its Black Salve product) is empirically a proven cure for skin cancer for the majority of those who use the product according to our instructions.”
The warning letter to McDaniel Water said the claims the company allegedly was making on the product caused it to be an unapproved new drug. This is in addition to the known dangers of the product.
“The combination of bloodroot and zinc chloride results in a corrosive topical agent capable of indiscriminately damaging healthy and diseased tissue alike and forming eschar (sloughed dead tissue). The tissue necrosis caused by topical application of products containing such ingredients (often referred to as “black salves”) is well-documented,” the warning letter said.