Wikipedia has this nice photo of a historical re-enactor dressed as an 1800’s patent medicine broker.
Clark Stanley, likely the most (in)famous snake oil peddler,
After the passage of the pure food and drug act in 1906 championed by Teddy Roosevelt, it was examined and found to have no medicinal value. He was fined and it was removed from the market. Stanley’s product didn’t even contain any snake! It was mineral oil and some other extracts.
I only know about protein-based snake venoms. As long as the snakes don’t pull the usual “biology is all about exceptions” card, we’re all good.
Search hard enough, and you’ll probably find one that is like a fat-soluble vitamin sort of venom. Maybe there also exists a snake that uses arsenic or plutonium as a venom. I mean, biology seems to go with the “why not” option more often than you would imagine.
maybe the real snake oil is just snake garum
Sounds exotic. I guess millionaires would pay to eat that.