Triple Vitamines to Super Plenamins - a century of Rexall nutritional supplements

VITAMINS   a group of 13 organic substances that are necessary in small quantities for normal growth and health in higher forms of animal life. Vitamins generally cannot be synthesized by the body in sufficient amounts and must be obtained from food or other sources. For this reason, vitamins are called essential nutrients.   —Britannica

Maladies such as scurvy, beriberi, pellagra and rickets are now understood to be caused by specific nutritional deficiencies—disease states that are relieved by administration of the missing nutrients. Accurate diagnosis and treatment, however, was a long time coming. Longer still was identification and synthesis of the chemicals we call vitamins that alleviate these diseases.

Scurvy

Once called the “disease of pirates,” scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, a chemical name derived from the Latin term for the affliction, scorbutus. Known since ancient times (described by Hippocrates around 400 BCE), the malady was not a significant problem until the beginning of the 15th century when long-distance mariners were unable to access fresh food for months at a time. A seaman’s diet of preserved meats and carbohydrates contributed no vitamin C, and unlike most animals, the human body cannot synthesize it. Early symptoms of scurvy include spongy gums, joint pain, and subcutaneous bleeding. As the disease progresses, teeth become loose with attendant halitosis, and the afflicted becomes too weak to rise. Death can occur suddenly, “mid-sentence,” from cerebral hemorrhage. Finally, in the mid-18th century, naval surgeon James Lind proved that scurvy could be prevented, and cured, by adding citrus fruit to the diet. His findings were not readily appreciated, however, and it was not until 1795 that the British Royal Navy began issuing standard rations of lemon and lime juice to its sailors.

Passengers and crew, suffering from scurvy, are desperate for the lemons and oranges being hoisted aboard. Citrus fruit was discovered in the mid-1700s to be a lifesaving remedy for the disease.

Beriberi

The Sinhalese term “beri-beri” translates, “I cannot, I cannot,” referring to the victim’s inability to perform even the simplest physical tasks because of peripheral polyneuritis (nerve inflammation) caused by vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency. Although beriberi was known to exist many centuries ago in rice-dependent Asia, incidence peaked with the introduction of rice-polishing mills. The improved taste and shelf life of milled white rice led to rejection of native brown rice, resulting in abandonment of a primary source of thiamine—the bran, or outer layer of the rice grain. Among symptoms of beriberi are weakness, pain, weight loss, difficulty walking and emotional disturbances. In 1897, Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch physician and pathologist, proved that feeding unmilled rice to chickens helped cure and prevent beriberi; and in 1929 was awarded a Nobel Prize for his pioneer work that ultimately led to discovery of the “anti-neuritic vitamin” thiamine.

Pellagra

Once called “Asturian leprosy” because of its early recognition in the Principality of Asturias (Northern Spain), pellagra is caused by a lack of niacin (nicotinic acid), particularly in cultures dependent on improperly treated corn for basic nutrition. The disease was endemic in northern Italy, for example, where it was dubbed pelle agra (rough skin) by physician Francesco Frapolli of Milan in 1771. The classic symptoms are actinic dermatitis (sunlight induced skin rash), diarrhea, glossitis (tongue inflammation), ataxia and dementia. Despite the efforts of USPHS physician Joseph Goldberger stationed in the American south during the period 1915-26, during which he proved pellagra wasn’t caused by a germ but by dietary deficiency, few physicians embraced his conclusions, perhaps because Goldberger failed to identify the specific element whose absence caused pellagra. It was not until 1937 when Conrad Elvehjem, a biochemist experimenting with dogs at the University of Wisconsin, showed that niacin (originally called vitamin B3) cured pellagra.

Rickets

Caused by deficiency of vitamin D, rickets is usually an affliction of growing children. It was first recognized clinically in mid-seventeenth century England where it acquired its popular name, possibly from the Greek rhakhis which refers to the spine. The most telling symptom is at the epiphyses (growth plates) of long bones where lengthening is thwarted by reduced calcium deposition. The result is a flaring or “cupping” appearance, especially in leg bones, and if untreated, rickets can also cause spinal curvature, stunted growth and frequent fractures. In adults, osteomalacia (bone softening) is often caused by the same deficiency. The human body is able to produce vitamin D when the skin is exposed to UVB radiation in sunlight. Today, vitamin D can be taken orally as a dietary supplement, usually ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) biosynthesized from yeast, or cholecalciferol (D3) made from lanolin. Regardless of the source, the body must convert vitamin D to an active metabolite in the liver and kidney before it can function on a cellular level.

“Tiny Tim,” seen here being carried by his father, Bob Cratchit, is a fictional character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The author did not explain the boy’s crippling illness, but a likely candidate is rickets, caused by lack of vitamin D.

Cod liver oil achieved a reputation as a treatment for consumption, a leading cause of death in the 19th century. Administered to patients suffering from tuberculosis and other “wasting” diseases for its caloric content, fish liver oil was also discovered to be an effective treatment for rickets. This was confirmed during 1919-22 in post-war Vienna by microbiologist Harriette Chick and her co-workers—a study that demonstrated rickets could be halted by either sunlight exposure or by cod liver oil. Subsequent work with cod liver oil and irradiation experiments during 1922-36 by Elmer V. McCollum, Alfred F. Hess and Adolf Windaus led to the isolation and molecular structure of vitamins D2 and D3. 

How did the term “vitamin” come to be? It originated during the beriberi research. While Christiaan Eijkman had called the missing nutritional substance “anti-beriberi factor,” Polish biochemist Casimir Funk, one of the scientists assigned to isolate it from rice bran, created a new nomenclature. When Funk succeeded in separating out a few tiny samples of a crystalline substance that cured pigeons with polyneuritis, he determined that chemically the material was an organic base or amine. In his June 1912 article, “The Etiology of the Deficiency Diseases,” Funk grouped scurvy, beriberi, pellagra and rickets into a single category of deficiencies, claiming all could be prevented or cured by the addition of substances that occurred in minute quantities in food—vital amines, or in short, “vitamines.” He used the new word repeatedly throughout his 27-page article as if it was already widely accepted; and although it turned out that not all vitamins are true amines, by 1920 the term was well established. Yielding to its popular usage, British biochemist Jack Drummond nevertheless proposed the final “e” of vitamine be dropped, and also that the cumbersome chemical names be simplified to “vitamin A,” “vitamin B,” etc. His ideas were adopted over the next few years.

Commercialization

When is was discovered that brewers’ yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was a source of water soluble B-complex vitamins, merchants introduced yeast-based products that greatly exaggerated nutritional and therapeutic claims. This was a blatant repetition of the “patent medicine” propaganda that ultimately led to passage of the 1906 Food and Drugs Act, a law that prescribed penalties for misbranding and adulteration. By 1922, government regulations had been developed to challenge the latest generation of health nostrums. Laboratory studies of commercial vitamin products revealed they possessed a wide range of effectiveness in combating vitamin deficiency diseases induced in laboratory animals such as rats, guinea pigs and pigeons. Effectiveness was determined by conducting nutritional studies to monitor animal growth, remission of polyneuritis (vitamin B deficiency), and remission of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency). Results of one study, conducted by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, were published in an August 1922 report titled, “The Potency of Some Commercial Vitamine Preparations as Compared with that of Dry Brewers’ Yeast.”

Fleischmann Company of New York, in the face of revoked alcohol permits during National Prohibition, increased promotion of their brewers’ yeast cakes. The term “vitamin” first appeared in Fleischmann’s ad copy in 1920, then more specifically “vitamin B” in 1922. The Connecticut report, however, found the product to be of marginal value in supplying essential vitamins to test animals.  

Parke, Davis & Co., a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in Detroit, first detailed their Metagen capsules to the medical profession in May 1921. It was advertised as “A combination of active vitamine extracts derived from several natural sources,” namely cod liver oil, yeast, grains and citrus fruits.

Medical Record, June 4, 1921.

United Drug Company enters the field

United’s root connection to production and distribution of vitamins actually predates formation of the company. Creative genius behind United Drug Co. was Louis K. Liggett (1875-1946), who in January 1898 at age 23 was a salesman for Chester Kent & Co. of Boston. Liggett’s job was to urge the retail drug trade to sell Vinol, a bottled tonic made by extracting cod livers with wine and adding iron. The preparation was, in the company's words, "cod liver oil without the oil.” Vinol had been sold on the open market with only fair success until Liggett convinced Chester Kent to grant exclusive agencies to druggists, one per town or city neighborhood, to eliminate the self-destructive practice of price cutting. Liggett’s idea was a success—a strategy he developed more fully when he organized the co-operative enterprise known as United Drug Company in concert with franchised Rexall Drug Stores in 1903.

1902

Fast forward twenty years: United Drug’s interest in vitamins per se surfaced in early 1922 with introduction of Rexall Triple Vitamines with Organic Iron, packaged in bottles of 100 tablets. The marketing was likely in response to massive promotions of other preparations such as Mastin’s Vitamon Tablets, Ironized Yeast Tablets, and Parke-Davis’s Metagen. Each Rexall tablet contained “Vitamins A, B and C, plus peptonized iron.” The latter substance was a semi-organic chemical made from iron oxychloride and beef peptone. United’s 1922 product launch placed Rexall Triple Vitamines among the earliest “multi-vitamin” combinations on the American market. This was, of course, prior to the invention of synthetic vitamins, and natural materials such as fish liver oils, cultivated yeast and citrus fruit juice necessarily composed the major ingredients.

An August 1924 newspaper ad described Rexall Triple Vitamines as “…pleasant and meaty tasting…can be eaten as a food,” suggesting an uncoated, chewable tablet with desiccated yeast and peptonized iron supplying the “meaty” character. The product continued to be advertised and sold by Rexall druggists until about 1930. 

United Drug Company's first multi-vitamin tablet, 1922.

United Drug’s trademark, Puretest, used since 1920 for chemical and botanical products, was also applied to its expanding group of yeast and cod liver oil preparations. The oil was obtained from Gadus morhua, the Atlantic cod, harvested in Norwegian fisheries and professed to be “teeming with the dynamic vitalizing forces of vitamines…practically the only specific medicine in the case of rickets.” Product labeling in 1928 stated the oil was “Vitamin-Tested,” but specific vitamins and potencies were yet to be disclosed on packaging.

1928 booklet cover. Note "Vitamin-Tested" on the labeling.

The objectionable fishy taste of cod liver oil was always a problem for patient compliance. Two inventions in the latter 1920’s, however, solved this difficulty and helped move the fledgling vitamin industry along the road to greater acceptance.

In May 1927, vitamin researchers Casimir Funk and Harry Dubin were granted U.S. Patent No. 1629074 for a purification process that concentrated the fraction containing vitamins A and D in cod liver oil to 1% of its original volume. This allowed the vitamin activity of 3 teaspoonfuls of cod liver oil to be contained in an easily swallowed tablet or capsule.

A similar advance was the invention of Viosterol, a substance with vitamin D activity produced by exposing edible vegetable oils or certain yeasts, both containing the plant steroid ergosterol, to UV radiation or electrical discharge. United Drug Co. used Viosterol made by General Mills, manufactured with technology they called the “A.R.P.I. Process.” These techniques of converting the pro-vitamin ergosterol to vitamin D2 was licensed to General Mills, Parke Davis & Co. and others by the actual inventor, Harry Steenbock of Wisconsin, per his U.S. Patent No. 1680818, granted August 14, 1928. The high potency, man-made Viosterol was primarily used by the pharmaceutical industry to fortify fish liver oil products.
During these pioneer years, potencies of vitamins were expressed in “units” based on official drug standards and biological assays stipulated in the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP). For example, in USP XI (1936), “Cod Liver Oil, USP” was required to contain in each gram, “at least 600 USP Units of vitamin A and 85 USP Units of Vitamin D.”

Department of Research and Technology

In November 1935 one of Louis Liggett’s long time aspirations was realized. A new 18,000 sq. ft. laboratory was completed at the Boston complex, occupying the top floor of a new four-story building. Officially called United Drug Company’s Department of Research and Technology, the laboratory was tasked with assay of raw materials and finished products to provide better quality control. The state-of-the-art facility also housed a miniature manufacturing plant for developing new formulas and researching improved factory methods. Product categories under the laboratory’s purview included medicines and vitamins, toilet goods, candy, hospital and fountain supplies.

The new lab was operational in January 1936, headed by United’s veteran chief chemist, Edward C. Merrill. Medical officer was Paul W. Spickard, MD. Formerly with the FDA, Spickard was responsible for accuracy and legality of therapeutic claims printed in the company’s product labeling and literature. Setting up the lab for research and control in the field of vitamins was assigned to Dr. Philip K. Bates, a scientific researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A pet project of Bates and Merrill was application of the newest and most publicized technology for the department—an absorption spectro-photometer, granted U.S. Patent No. 2123573 and assigned to United Drug Co. in 1936. The meter was used to determine Vitamin A potency in fish liver oil within 2% accuracy, compared to the slow biological assays that allowed tolerances as high as 20%. Soon to follow was a spectro-fluorometer used to measure Vitamin B1 and B2 potencies, accurate to within 4%. Equipped with instruments like these, United Drug Co. was able to make great strides in producing vitamin products of reliably high quality. 

U.D. Pharmaceuticals Physicians' Formulary, 1942.

Rexall Magazine, February 1945.

Another significant development in the 1930’s was the perfection of the soft gelatin capsule, enabling the encapsulation of liquid and semi-solid medication in precise doses. Inventor Robert Pauli Scherer of Detroit patented his rotary die process in 1934, putting to rest the idea that oily and pasty medications could not be dispensed in oral capsules (U.S. Patent No. 1970396). The most innovative feature of the machine’s operation occurs when precisely measured contents are packed into capsules at the instant of their formation from two layers of elastic gelatin. United Drug likely contracted with Scherer’s firm, Gelatin Products Co., to manufacture their Cod Liver Oil and Halibut Liver Oil capsules, with Puretest branded packaging accomplished at United Drug’s Boston and St. Louis factories. It is also possible one or more of the machines were leased by United.

Rexall Magazine, January 1936.

1943

Successor to Rexall Triple Vitamines was Puretest Vitamin ABD and G Capsules, available in January 1936. Originally, strengths of individual vitamins were expressed in biological units and as multiples of minimum daily requirements. By the mid-1940’s, however, stating potencies in metric weights on labeling became more prevalent.

January 1939                                                                     1946

Synthetic vitamins

Discovery, isolation and synthesis of the chemicals we call vitamins was accomplished in various university and institutional laboratories around the world, some in advance of any recognition of importance to human nutrition. Nicotinic acid, for example, made by oxidizing nicotine in 1867, initially found use in photography. Not until Casimir Funk isolated it from rice polishings in 1912, was the substance reconsidered for a possible role in food and health issues. It was later named niacin, a contraction of "nicotinic acid vitamin."

Commercial production of synthetic vitamins gained momentum the 1930’s. Given the minute quantities of vitamins in plant and animal tissues, extraction from natural sources was not practical for supplying world demand; and the majority of vitamins consumed today thus comes from a different kind of plant—a chemical factory. A typical example is ascorbic acid. The large scale process developed by Tadeusz Reichstein in Zurich in 1933 continues in use today. Basically, sorbitol is made from corn syrup, then through successive steps of bacterial fermentations and treatment with hydrochloric acid, ascorbic acid or vitamin C is biosynthesized (U.S. Patent No. 2301811). Other advances were biosynthesis of pure ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) by F.A. Askew in 1931, thiamin (vitamin B1) by Robert R. Williams of NYC in 1936, and alpha tocopherol (vitamin E) in 1938. 

Use of man-made vitamins in United Drug’s line of "Puretest Vitamin Products" was well established by 1941. Viosterol (irradiated ergosterol, vitamin D2) had been used to fortify cod liver oil since 1934; and Cevitamic Acid (a synonym for ascorbic acid) was made available to Rexall customers as 25 mg. tablets in 1939. A stronger version of ABD and G Capsules, called Multamins, was also developed in 1939. The difference was the potency of vitamins B1 and B2—four times stronger than the original.

Plenamins

Puretest Plenamins—a multi-vitamin and iron supplement made from numerous natural and synthetic sources—was first released in boxes of 60 capsules in September 1939. The Plenamins trademark (No. 380397) was registered in August 1940, and about the same time, a logo composed of a stylized mortar and pestle with text “Laboratory Approved” began to appear on vitamin products. Puretest and the logo continued until 1946 when United Drug’s new president, Justin Dart, ordered all labeling to feature “Rexall” as the dominant part of a brand name. 

Significantly, the daily dose of Plenamins required taking two different capsules—one amber colored containing the oil soluble vitamins, A, D and E, and one black capsule containing the balance of ingredients (B1, B2, C, liver and iron). Separation was necessary to prevent  interaction between the two groups and subsequent loss of potency. The unique process of encapsulating vitamins and other substances with soft gelatin in a single operation was pioneered by Robert P. Scherer of Detroit (U.S Patent No. 1970396, 1934). Such capsules are also called “perles.” The two-capsule problem was ultimately solved with development of Super Plenamins tablets in mid-1954 (see below).

Plenamins counter card, 1943.

R.P. Scherer's rotary-die soft gelatin capsule machine, c.1948.

War time marketing

Seven months before the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, forcing the United States into combat with Japan and Germany, hundreds of nutritionists, physicians, farm organizers and other professionals convened in New York City for the National Nutrition Conference for Defense. Speakers repeatedly stressed that food policy was an integral part of national security, and that availability of vitamins would be critical to America’s chances for victory in a future war. It was a revival of the WW I slogan, “Food Will Win the War,” but this time the sub-chant was, “Vitamins Will Win the War.” Three months after the conference, the New York Times reported Hitler had established a special institute for vitamin research, German margarine was being fortified with vitamin A, and certain groups of the population were being plied with synthetic vitamins. At the same time, it was rumored the Nazis were restricting vitamins in the diets of conquered peoples so they would be easier to manage.

With such fearful information washing over the American press from seemingly reliable sources, the government joined food marketers in spreading the gospel of vitamins to American homemakers. The most successful educational program was a 1943 campaign sponsored by the USDA that created the famous pie chart of "Basic 7" food groups, a guide to maintaining nutritional standards under wartime food rationing. Group 7, for example, emphasized the importance of vitamin A, found in butter and fortified margarine. The natural response to this propaganda was elevated concerns about the adequacy of homeland food supplies, and manufacturers like United Drug Co. wasted no time in offering nutritional supplements to help calm the anxiety.

1943

Rexall Magazine, January 1944.

Procedures had been developed in 1940 to distill vitamin A from fish liver oils, enabling the manufacture of high potency vitamin A dosage forms (25,000 USP Units)—six times the minimum daily requirement for an adult at the time. Rationale for such a high dose was medical treatment of “night blindness” and deficiencies that could arise during pregnancy and lactation. Vitamin A potency was monitored in United Drug’s control lab with the same  spectro-photometer used for standardizing fish liver oil products.

Although United’s promotional thrust throughout the war was multiple-vitamin dosage forms, pure thiamin chloride (B1) tablets were available in three strengths in January 1941, and vitamin A capsules were perfected by 1942. Advertising in a March 1944 medical journal identified such tablets and capsules as “Isolated Pure Vitamins.” They were sold under the Puretest banner as well as “UD” brand, the latter reserved for United Drug Co. pharmaceuticals detailed to the medical profession.

 Other pure vitamins packaged under the UD label were riboflavin (vitamin B2), ascorbic acid (C), pyridoxine (B6), niacin, viosterol (D2), and menadione (K1). Udi-Globin, a multi-ingredient UD branded item, was composed of iron, bone marrow, liver concentrate and B vitamins, professed in 1938 to be a “hemoglobin-forming tonic.” After the firm became Rexall Drug Company in late 1946, the pharmaceutical brand was changed to “RD.”

Demand for a product that supplied only B vitamins was initially satisfied with Vitamin B Complex Syrup in 1941; but within two years, United Drug developed three additional formulations—Beta-Caps, Betas, and Panoplex. The three differed in their balance of B1, B2, niacinamide (a chemical variant of niacin or vitamin B3), B6 and pantothenic acid, with Panoplex the most potent formula.

1943                                                                                    1946

In 1942, as more attention was being given to the vitamin needs of children, Polycaps was formulated to supply juveniles with the minimum daily requirements of A, D, and C, plus B1, B2 and niacinamide. They were manufactured as spherical, “easy to swallow” gelatin capsules, designed for kids 4 to 12.

The formula for Plenamins was expanded in 1943 to include three more B-complex vitamins: niacinamide 20mg., pyridoxine 50 mcg., and calcium pantothenate 1 mg., this in addition to the existing thiamin hydrochloride 1.5 mg., riboflavin 2 mg., ascorbic acid 30mg., liver concentrate 130 mg., ferrous sulfate 65 mg., vitamin A 5,000 units, synthetic vitamin D 1,000 units, and alpha tocopherol 1 mg.

A formal Plenamins selling plan was introduced in 1943 to inspire salespeople in Rexall drugstores to become familiar with the technical details of Plenamins vitamins and to sell them at every opportunity. The plan was called the “Barrel-Head Commission Plan,” and awarded cash payments of 25c, 50c and $1.00 to employees selling Plenamins in 72, 144 and 288 tablet sizes, respectively. This may have been the first corporate Push or Promotional Money (PM) program instituted in drug stores.

1943 barrel bank promotional, molded from lightweight wartime composition, 4.8" h.

Post war boom

Justin W. Dart (1907–1984) succeeded Louis Liggett as president of United Drug Company in May 1943 at age 35. He was an innovative executive who was convinced the future strength of the company lay with its venerable Rexall trademark. Many changes were soon implemented to support his conviction. In May 1945 the corporate name of the firm was altered to United-Rexall Drug Co., and 18 months later, in November 1946, to Rexall Drug Co.  Dart had already moved corporate headquarters from Boston to Los Angeles in October 1945, just two months after V-J Day marked the end of WW II. He was convinced Southern California was going to be an area of tremendous population and economic growth following the war, and wanted his creative team to be in the middle of it, enjoying the warmer climate and the commercial advertising advantages of the nearby motion picture and nascent television industries. Multi-page advertising in national magazines and sponsorship of popular radio programs increased; and by the time Rexall Drug ventured into network TV in October 1957 with its first NBC special, Pinocchio, “Rexall” had cemented its status as a household word. The company’s vitamin products were heavily spotlighted in its growing media presence.

Saturday Evening Post, October 1946.

February 1954

Two more pediatric dosage forms were released in 1951—Polymulsion, which provided liquid multivitamins in a teaspoon dose, and Polydrops, administered as 0.3 or 0.6 cc doses via a rubber bulb dropper to infants and children.

Characters from Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland populate this advertisement for Polydrops and other vitamin preparations formulated for children, 1951.

Red Vitamin B-12

A red crystalline compound isolated from mammalian liver at Merck & Co. of Rahway, NJ in 1948 was proven to be vital for red blood cell growth. Called the “anti-pernicious anemia factor,” and normally available to humans by consuming meat or dairy, it was designated Vitamin B12. Further work at Merck yielded methods for B12 production using bacterial fermentation (US Patent No. 2595499, filed July 10, 1948). This biosynthetic form of B12 (cobalamin concentrate) was incorporated into Rexall Plenamins in 1951—each black capsule containing 3 mcg.—along with 200 mcg. of another new member of the B-complex, folic acid. To make it more convenient to carry in pocket or purse, each pair of Plenamins capsules was now sealed in an airtight foil wrapper.

Plenamins counter card, 1951.

Plenamins capsules in foil wrapper, 1951.

Several other vitamin products developed and released by mid-1953 were likewise touted to possess the new vitamin B12—

   Rexall 5X Multi-Vitamins with Red Crystalline B12 contained 5 mcg. of B12 along with a high potency combination of ADC-B1-B2 and niacinamide. “5X” referred to the strengths of the ingredients, all “5 Times Stronger” than known minimum daily requirements.

   Multi-Vitamin Formula V-10 was introduced as a tonic in pint bottles, incorporating vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, and niacinamide along with liver concentrate and salts of iron, copper and manganese in a palatable base of sherry wine and malted grain syrup. With a suggested daily dose of one wineglassful (2 fl. oz.), alcohol content was kept at 17% to prevent the mixture from fermenting and bottles exploding. Formula V-10 did indeed possess ten active ingredients, counting the wine. Importantly, another iron and B vitamin tonic had hit the market three years earlier and was gaining popularity, Geritol. By early 1962, Formula V-10 had been renamed Ger-Rite Liquid, and the composition was altered to help Rexall’s “tired blood” tonic stay aboard the Geritol train. Ger-Rite Liquid was put up in 12 fl. oz. cobalt blue and amber bottles, with labels marked, “Rexall Drug & Chemical Company,” a rarely seen name on Rexall consumer products, reflecting the corporate style during the decade, April 1959–April 1969.

   Vitamin B-12 and B-12b Concentrate was a soft gelatin capsule containing 5 mcg B12, concentrated from streptomyces fermentation, and supplied in bottles of 100 under the “RD” pharmaceutical label.

Multi-vitamin products featuring vitamin B12, 1953-63.

In September 1952, Rexall Drug acquired Vitamin Corporation of America (VCA), a Newark, NJ firm that manufactured a major competitor to Plenamins—Rybutol. VCA’s product was a high potency multi-vitamin and mineral combination launched in 1942; and through intense newspaper, radio and magazine advertising it was elevated to a leading national brand. The acquisition coincided with Rexall’s 1952 involvement with the Ann Delafield Reducing Plan, a weight loss product for both men and women that included vitamins in the regimen. Rexall Drug merged VCA into its corporate structure in 1955, then sold it and the Rybutol brand to Lanolin Plus in 1959.

March 1953 was the 50th anniversary of United Drug Company’s first shipment of merchandise from the original factory in Boston. Also, it had been 50 years since their premier trademark “Rexall” (No. 40019) was registered with the U.S. Patent Office on March 31, 1903. The trademark document was signed, “Louis K. Liggett, Secretary...doing business at 43 Leon Street.”

Riding on the success of Plenamins, new multi-vitamin products were perfected by Rexall laboratories that centered on the addition of minerals and other micro nutrients to established, purely vitamin formulas. The most prodigious was Mineralized B Complex, a polypharmacy mixture of B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, desiccated liver, gastric substance (intrinsic factor), 12 minerals, alfalfa concentrate and other nutritional factors that brought the total number of ingredients to a record 27. The product was released in early 1953 in bottles of 100 tablets.

Rexall Plenamins was introduced in England in the spring of 1954, manufactured at the Rexall Drug Co., Ltd. factory in Loughborough. A few months later, Rexall Drug Co. in the U.S. released an improved version of Plenamins that was destined to become a huge seller and endure as long as the Rexall brand itself.

Rexall Plenamins available in Great Britain, 1954.

Super Plenamins

The improved Plenamins was basically a merger of the existing 11-vitamin formula with the 12 inorganic salts in Mineralized B Complex. Potencies of all ingredients, including liver concentrate, remained the same as in their source products. Super Plenamins, as it was enthusiastically titled, was made with an exclusive 31-step protective coating process that enabled all components to be compressed into a single tablet. The achievement rendered Plenamins’ two-capsule dose obsolete. Advertising broke in August 1954, claiming, “One tablet contains all the vitamins for which daily requirements are known to man…one tablet gives you more than two capsules.” The red colored, football-shaped tablets were packaged in round glass bottles of 36, 72 and 144, with labels printed in two shades of “Rexall blue,” adopted in late 1946 for medicine and vitamin lines. In 1959, graphics for Super Plenamins products were modernized—multi-color labeling and easy-to-grip oval glass bottles with ribbed shoulders. A tall “table bottle” containing 365 tablets made its first appearance in July 1961.

November 1954

Automobile giveaways were popular during the post-war 1950’s, and Rexall kept up with the best of them. The first “Rexall Super Plenamins Sweepstakes” kicked off in November 1955. By simply filling in name and address on an entry card at a local Rexall drugstore, ten lucky people won a 1956 Ford Mainline 2-door sedan. The next year the drawing was limited to three winners, but each had a choice of prizes: a 1957 Lincoln Premiere, a Ford Thunderbird, $5000 college scholarship, mink coat, 2-week trip to Europe, or a remodeled kitchen and laundry full of GE appliances. Each year the jackpot got bigger and better. Rexall’s last sweepstakes, in 1983, featured PAC-MAN vitamins. That year Rexall Corporation gave away $20,000 for one student’s college tuition.

Fall 1958 sweepstakes, promotional sign

Fall 1965 sweepstakes, magazine ad

Over the years, the number of individual vitamins in Super Plenamins remained a constant eleven. The mineral content, however, varied. The original 1954 formula contained 12 minerals, including iron. That changed in 1962 when the number was reduced to ten. From 1966 to 1979 the count fell to eight. Eliminated were cobalt, molybdenum, potassium and nickel. Curiously, in 1974, Rexall Drug Co., Ltd. of Canada formulated Super Plenamins with 9 vitamins and two minerals.

During the 1950’s and 60’s additional new products began to populate Rexall Drug’s expanding stable of vitamin combinations, largely developed to compete on a formula-by-formula basis with other nationally advertised brands—

   Panovite with Minerals.  Iron and eight other minerals were added to the original Panovite formula in 1953 to provide a Rexall equivalent to Stuart Formula and Upjohn’s Unicap-M. Panovite was a member of United Drug’s line of Puretest vitamins developed during WW II, and was nearly identical to Plenamins except iron, liver, and vitamin E were omitted, permitting a single rather than two-capsule dose. By 1961, both Panovite products had been converted from capsule to tablet formulations.

   Theramins was another member of the Puretest wartime range, a high potency vitamin capsule created in 1943. An obvious contraction of “Therapeutic vitamins,” Theramins contained the same essential vitamins as Plenamins except the potencies of B1, B2 and C were increased 2 to 3 times. In 1962 it was fortified with minerals to yield Theramins-M, a competitor for Squibb’s Theragran-M. By 1963, both Theramins products were sold as tablets. The capsule-to-tablet conversions in the early 1960s reflected a general trend in the industry, responding in large measure to consumer preference, but for Rexall it also reflected a continued confidence in their superior tablet compression and coating technology established with Super Plenamins.

   Rexall Multiple Vitamins/One Daily. The elaborate launch in early 1962 for this product was designed to capture a share of the market enjoyed by Miles’ ONE-A-DAY (brand) Multiple Vitamins. By June 1963, however, subtitle for the Rexall product had changed from "One Daily" to "One Tablet Daily," suggesting Miles may have threatened damages for trademark infringement . In the early 1970’s, Rexall Drug Co., Ltd. of Canada dodged the issue by calling their version “Rexall All Day Multiple Vitamins.”

   Rexall Therapeutic Multi-Vitamin Tablets. In 1963, 60th anniversary of the Rexall brand, this high potency multi-vitamin formula was widely advertised to compete with Squibb’s Theragran, Abbott’s Optilets, and Parke-Davis’ Theridol. To mark Rexall’s six decades of business, 60 tablets of Rexall Therapeutic Multi-Vitamin were included gratis with each bottle of 100.

   Rexall B & C Caps combined B complex vitamins with 300 mg. vitamin C. Released in 1966, the bright green and yellow capsules approximated A.H. Robins’ Allbee with C.

Rexall Theramins and endorsement by Rebel Randall, film actress and G.I. pin-up girl, 1950.

1962                                                                             1963

The top shelf is loaded with variations of Super Plenamins, while competitive products made by Upjohn, Parke-Davis and other vitamin manufacturers fill the shelves below.  McKell Drug Co., Pittsburg, California, 1963.

Super Plenamins had become America’s largest selling vitamin-mineral product by 1966. Selected for use by the U.S. Olympic team and major league football and baseball teams, distinctive shield-shaped glass bottles and labels were adopted to reflect the patriotic shields displayed by these organizations in their logos. Super Plenamins was claimed to provide a more complete and potent formula than Upjohn’s Unicap-M, Squibb’s Vigran-M, and McKesson’s Bexel-M.

New, shield-shaped bottles and labels were chosen for Super Plenamins to coincide with endorsement by the U.S. Olympic Team and professional sports teams, 1966.

David and Steve Kaplan of Sun Rexall Drug, Richardson, Texas, running a "How Many Super Plenamins in the Jar" contest, 1969.

Terry Bradshaw, No.1 NFL draft choice, and Super Plenamins, No.1 selling multi-vitamin & mineral product, 1970.

Magazine ad offering "72 Free Super Plenamins," included with purchase of apothecary-style bottle containing 216 tablets (stretch-pak shown at right). This was tie-in with the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, West Germany.

Children’s Vitamins – expanding the market

In November 1955, Super Plenamins Junior, a sugar-coated tablet, was made available for children ages 6-11. But these swallow tablets, like liquid Polymulsion, and Super Plenamins Junior Liquid (10 vitamins plus minerals and lysine) released in 1958, were not popular with youngsters. Better compliance was achieved when flavored and sweetened chewable tablets were developed. Meltamins Junior—11 vitamins plus iron and liver concentrate, with a sugar-free “flavored center,” appeared in January 1960 to compete with fruit flavored Chocks marketed by Miles Laboratories. Rexall Minuteman Chewable Multiple Vitamins (fruit flavors, 9 vitamins) was introduced in January 1964, then restyled ten years later with tablets shaped like miniature American Revolutionary soldiers. Packaged in red and blue plastic bottles figured as minutemen, the product was marched out to do battle with Miles’ Flintstones and Chocks Bugs Bunny. The Super Plenamins Junior brand was finally used for a chewable tablet when Meltamins Junior was phased out in late 1967.

Meltamins Junior chewable tablets, cartoon advertisement 1960.

Meltamins Chewable was targeted for adults with difficulty swallowing regular tablets and capsules. The "senior" version contained 11 vitamins and 7 minerals, and first appeared in 1962.

        1960                                                   1962                                           1964

Super Plenamins Junior Chewable, counter card, 1967

Minuteman Chewable, stretch-pak, 1974

Buzzword for the 70’s—Natural

Natural” and “organic,” as applied to human nutrition, became darlings of advertising in the early 1970’s. The terms were tossed around with little attention to precise definition, mostly because their use as descriptors was poorly regulated by the FDA. As early as November 1962, Rexall Drug Co. advertised Chewable Vitamin C with Sunkist Natural Citrus Bioflavonoids, claiming the product possessed a “fresh, fruit-like flavor.” Ten years later, to kick off their 70th anniversary celebration in 1973, Rexall launched an extensive promotion to cash in on the national preoccupation with everything natural. Several vitamins were claimed to come straight from “fresh, wholesome foods like liver, yeasts, fruits and vegetables…just as you would get them from nature.”

 Rexall druggists were assured in 1972 that the anniversary promotional would emphasize “Naturalness and Ecology.” For Super Plenamins, effort was made to convey these vague yet seemingly desirable attributes by picturing a young family surrounded by greenery on each stretch-pak of bottles. In truth, products identified as “natural” were largely based on the same botanical and animal sources introduced in the 1920’s and 30’s—brewers’ yeast, rice bran, wheat germ oil, refined fish liver oil, and beef liver concentrates. Because extraction of pure vitamins from animal and vegetable sources was prohibitively expensive, vitamin products containing such extracts could not rival the potency or economy of those compounded from synthetics. Rexall Vitamin C with Rose Hips, for example, derived most of its vitamin C activity from laboratory-made ascorbic acid, added to replace the antiscorbutic property lost while drying and processing rose hips.

A new uniform for vitamins and other nutritional supplements debuted in October 1972—polystyrene plastic bottles with bright and bold labels that featured blue and red chevrons flying above "Rexall."

Rexall's 70th anniversary line of Super Plenamins. A tall table bottle of 365 tablets stands at right, 1973.

Rexall Natural Vitamins, newspaper ad, 1973

"50% More Free" Super Plenamins stretch-pak, 1976

 As with other manufacturers, Rexall Drug Co. created several products to accommodate the flurry of nutritional fads popular in the 1970’s—

Kelp tablets—a seaweed and natural source of iodine, kelp was professed to help weight loss by increasing production of thyroid hormone—a falsehood.

Alfalfa tablets—a faux arthritis remedy.

Soya lecithin capsules—an imaginary body fat eliminator that is itself a fat.

Cider vinegar tablets—Vermont physician D.C. Jarvis promoted the suspect idea that raw apple cider vinegar could cure arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure.

Liquid protein—Dr. Robert Linn’s “Last Chance Diet” claimed that body fat would disappear by drinking a slimy cocktail of enzyme-hydrolized collagen obtained from slaughterhouses. A form of starvation, the 300 calories per day regimen proved deathly.

The New Rexall

The year 1977 was one of momentous change for Rexall Drug Company. In January, its parent corporation, Dart Industries, sold the Rexall division to Ross Hall Corp., a real estate and venture capital investment firm in Palo Alto, CA. The $16 million sale included the factory in St. Louis, contract manufacturing and franchise operations, and U.S. trademark rights. Continuing as president and CEO in St. Louis was Howard K. Vander Linden (1922-2013) who formerly headed Rexall Drug. Co., Ltd. of Canada, 1963-71. One of Vander Linden’s first marketing decisions was to boost the strength of Super Plenamins to compete with formulations being detailed to physicians as “ultra therapeutic.” The altered formula, called Super Plenamins Extra Strength, was released in August 1979. The number and variety of vitamins and minerals in the tablet remained at 11 and 8, but many vitamin strengths significantly increased, qualifying it as an ultra “high potency” vitamin and mineral supplement. Vitamin D remained at 400 I.U., and vitamin A increased only 25%, from 8,000 to 10,000 I.U., but most of the B-complex was boosted 400-500%, and vitamin C increased from 75 to 250 mg., 400% of the U.S. “Recommended Daily Allowance.” Vitamin E advanced from a mere 1 mg. to 30 mg., and the most important mineral, iron, went up 62%, from 15 to 24 mg. Missing was an ingredient that had been a hallmark of the Plenamins formula during the previous forty years—liver concentrate. The new Extra Strength tablet competed directly with Myadec Tabs by Parke-Davis and Theragran-M by Squibb.

Rexall vitamin products scheduled for television and radio promotions, 1978.

Super Plenamins Extra Strength, Rexall Drug Co., 1979.

In April 1980, Larry A. Weber succeeded Howard Vander Linden as president and CEO. Under Weber’s direction, Rexall Drug Co. made the fatal decision to expand its distribution of vitamin products to non-Rexall drug chains, to mass marketers like Sears and K-Mart, and to food chains like Safeway. This move effectively disenfranchised thousands of independent Rexall Stores that had long honored their end of cooperative agreements with Rexall Drug Co. The company spent large sums on promoting Super Plenamins nationally to maintain its standing in the face of massive advertising campaigns by firms like The Upjohn Co., E.R. Squibb & Sons, and Parke, Davis & Co. Despite its well-known name, however, Rexall had become a little fish in a big pond.

By February 1981, Rexall Drug Co. had reorganized as Rexall Corporation, prompting a name change on vitamin product labels. A prime addition to the catalog was PAC-MAN Children’s Chewable Multi Vitamin. The brand was derived from the 1980 Japanese arcade game of the same name. U.S. distributor Bally Midway Mfg. Co. licensed Rexall Corp. to use the brand on children’s vitamins in an effort to compete with Flintstones, claiming no sugar, artificial flavors or colors.

Vitamin C with Rose Hips, Rexall Drug Co., harvest label, 1980.

Children's Chewable Multivitamin Supplement, Rexall Corporation, 1982.

PAC-MAN Children's Chewable Multi-Vitamin plus Iron, Rexall Corporation, 1983.

Sundown

But time was running out. Disappointing market shares combined with manufacturing problems accelerated demise of the company. Plans to modernize and remodel the St. Louis factory never materialized, debt increased and the major lender refused to provide more capital. Finally, in October 1985, production at the Kingshighway Blvd. complex was shut down; and the next month all drug related assets were transferred to The Rexall Group, Inc., a firm organized specifically to purchase Rexall Corp. It was headed by Carl DeSantis, CEO of Sundown Vitamins, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

DeSantis, who originally managed Super X and Walgreen’s drug stores, started selling mail order vitamins out of his home under the Sundown label in 1975. His business flourished, and ten years later a New Jersey associate, Edward Gerald Kay, informed him that Rexall Corp. was undergoing a financial crisis and the company might be for sale. The famous Rexall brand was just what DeSantis needed. He flew to St. Louis and ultimately agreed to a $2.1 million purchase price to buy the Rexall trademarks, packaged products and raw materials. The Rexall tradition had found a new caretaker who appreciated its value and its reputation. On November 14, 1986 Rexall Corp. was dissolved. Stanley B. Leedy and Howard Vander Linden were president and vice pres. of Rexall at the end. Larry Weber had resigned four years earlier.

With all connection to the original United/Rexall Drug Companies severed, the Rexall brand nevertheless remained active in the marketplace, shepherded by a succession of nutritional supplement enterprises.

In June 1991, Rexall Group was merged into Sundown Vitamins, and over-the-counter products bearing the Rexall label, including vitamins, were assigned to the new Rexall Consumer Products Division. The previous year Sundown launched a network marketing subsidiary, Rexall Showcase International (RSI), organized to sell 150 nutritional and health care products including Bios Life, Cellular Essentials, and Aestival. RSI was headed by Damon DeSantis, Carl’s son. In May 1993, Sundown Vitamins reincorporated as Rexall Sundown, Inc., and in mid-1994 moved its headquarters and other facilities to Boca Raton, Florida. By 1995 RSI’s percentage of Rexall Sundown’s overall sales had reached 37%; and in 1996 RSI expanded its multilevel marketing activity to South Korea and Mexico, and to Hong Kong the following year.

Garlic and Parsley Oil, harvest label, The Rexall Group, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 1986.

Super Plenamins Extra Strength, Rexall Consumer Products Division, Boca Raton, FL, 1994.

More acquisitions and mergers ultimately resulted in the combination of Rexall Showcase with multilevel vitamin marketer Enrich International to form Unicity Network in 2001. Two years later Rexall Sundown’s operations in Florida were sold to NBTY (Nature’s Bounty), a U.S. vitamin producer headquartered in Bohemia, NY. As for the successor to RSI, Unicity Network was sold to management members in July 2003 who renamed their privately held company Unicity International Inc., based in Orem, Utah.

Super Plenamins Plus, trademarked label, Rexall Sundown Inc., 2009.

In May 2019, the Rexall Sundown facilities in South Florida (Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, and Boca Raton) began laying off workers, while the parent firm, Nature’s Bounty Company, centralized its vitamin production at Long Island, New York. Rexall-branded vitamins and other nutritional supplements continue to be manufactured by Nature's Bounty for distribution through Dollar General Corp. of Goodlettsville, Tennessee.

Ceramic tile promotional, c.1976.

Super Plenamins "Flying Saucer" frisbee premium, 1977.

My sincere thanks to Juntai Song and David Meinz for their shared interest, and for supplying several of the images used in this monograph.

Celluloid pinback button, c.1955.