Cascara Evacuant was an extremely popular laxative during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1920 the Canadian Medical Journal reported “It was directed to the attention of the British Medical Association in Cork, Ireland as early as 1879. It wasn’t long before cascara was being prescribed by medical men all over the world…Fluid extract of cascara is an ideal product. It contains all of the tonic-laxative constituents of two-year old bark of Rhamniis Pursliianaj, the true cascara”.
Cascara evacuant was a trade-name of Parke-Davis & Co. It was less unpleasant to take than the bitter extract of Cascara.
Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 1920; p.215