Alchemy of Drug Testing in Pharmacy

This is how pharmacists used to test drugs, and it looks like straight-up alchemy. Forget modern machines.

Back in the day, quality control was a wild chemistry experiment. To check a drug's

purity, they'd boil it with strong sodium hydroxide solution under reflux. For another test,

they'd spot a substance on a plate and then develop it in a chamber of iodine vapor until a spot

magically appeared. They even used toxic reagents to see if a yellow, flaky precipitate

would form after boiling. It was all hands-on chemistry, making sure your

medicine was safe, one crazy reaction at a time.