The Disputed Drugs

LAETRILE, an extract from crushed apricot pits that releases minute amounts of cyanide in the body. The drug's propagandists claim that it helps prevent cancer, reduces tumors and relieves pain. Despite the FDA ban, anyone who wants to eat crushed apricot kernels--sometimes sold as "vitamin B17"--can legally buy them in some health-food stores.

DIMETHYL SULFOXIDE (DMSO), a chemical byproduct of papermaking that purportedly reduces bruises and inflammation, eases pain and relieves ills from bursitis to cold sores. Doctors commonly prescribe DMSO in Australia, Canada and some European and South American countries, but it can be used legally in the U.S. only on animals.

GEROVITAL, a compound based on a well-known painkiller (one trade name: Novocain). Gerovital is sold in several European countries as a fountain-of-youth drug. The FDA has banned it because it has been proved neither safe nor effective.

SACCHARIN. After laboratory rats that consumed enormous amounts of it developed cancer, the FDA proposed banning saccharin from commercially prepared foods and beverages but allowing its sale as a nonprescription drug.

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