Tiger Balm () is an

analgesic An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic (American English), analgaesic (British English), pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used to achieve relief from pain (that is, analgesia or pain management). It ...

heat rub Liniment (from la, linere, meaning "to anoint"), also called embrocation and heat rub, is a medicated topical preparation for application to the skin. Some liniments have viscosity similar to that of water; others are lotion or balm; still other ...

manufactured and distributed by

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an company Haw Par Healthcare. It is used for external pain relief.

History

A precursor to Tiger Balm called Ban Kin Yu ( zh, t=萬金油, l=Ten Thousand Golden Oil) was developed in the 1870s in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, during the British colonial era by the practising Chinese herbalist

Aw Chu Kin Aw Chu Kin (Chinese: 胡子钦 ? – 1908 in Rangoon, British Raj) was a Burmese Chinese herbalist. He is best known as the original inventor of Tiger Balm. Aw's father was a Chinese herbology practitioner in Xiamen and a Hakka Chinese with a ...

, son of Aw Leng Fan, a Chinese

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

herbalist in Zhongchuan,

Fujian Province Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. His father had sent him to Rangoon in the 1860s to help in his uncle's herbal shop. Eventually, Aw Chu Kin himself set up a family business named Eng Aun Tong ("Hall of Everlasting Peace"). On his deathbed in 1908, he asked his sons

Aw Boon Haw Aw Boon-Haw (; 1882 in Rangoon, British Raj – 1954 in Hawaii), OBE, was a Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as founder of Tiger Balm. He was a son of Hakka herbalist Aw Chu-Kin, with his ancestral home in Yongding County ...

and

Aw Boon Par Aw Boon Par (; 1888 in British Raj Burma – 1944) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for introducing Tiger Balm. He was a son of Hakka herbalist Aw Chu-Kin.Beverland, Michael (2009) ''Building Brand Authenticity: 7 Habits of I ...

to perfect the product. In 1918, the product was renamed "Tiger Balm" in order to gain broader appeal. By 1918, the Aw family had become one of the wealthiest families in Rangoon. By the 1920s, the brothers had turned Eng Aun Tong into a very successful business empire that produced and marketed pharmaceutical products, including the Tiger Balm medicinal ointment. Tiger Balm sold well in Burma, and was exported to China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. The brothers moved to Singapore in the 1920s due to problems with the colonial British government. They set up a branch first at Amoy Street then moved to Cecil Street and finally to 89

Neil Road Neil Road ( Chinese: 尼路) is a one-way road in Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar in the planning areas of Outram and Bukit Merah in Singapore. The road starts at the junction of South Bridge Road, Maxwell Road and Tanjong Pagar Road and ends at Ka ...

between 1924 and 1926, at the junction of Neil and Craig Road. The Aw family founded the

Tiger Balm Garden Tiger Balm Gardens are public gardens that existed or continue to exist in three East Asia locations. They are also known as Haw Par Villa gardens. All three Tiger Balm Garden locations were built by the Aw family (Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par). T ...

s in Hong Kong in 1935, Singapore in 1937 and Fujian Province in 1946 to promote the product. Boon Haw also established newspapers in China and Singapore; his daughter said that he spent so much money on advertising that "he thought it would be cheaper to just open a few newspapers". In 2013, a lawsuit filed by Haw Par against the Indian company Rangoon Chemical Works, asserting that the latter's "Flying Tiger" balm with similar branding infringed on the Tiger Balm trademark, reached the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. As a result, Rangoon Chemical Works made changes in the branding of its product. In 2018, there were 10 products being sold under the Tiger Balm brand, in over 100 countries. Tiger Balm generated in revenues in 2015. Haw Par's revenues from Tiger Balm sales in India were in 2018. The product sold in India is manufactured in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

by Makson and marketed by

Alkem Laboratories Alkem Laboratories Limited is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai, that manufactures and sells pharmaceutical generics, formulations and nutraceuticals in India and globally. Company Alkem set up its resear ...

. Between 1993 and 2011, it had been manufactured and marketed by Elder Pharmaceuticals.

Composition

The remainder is a

petroleum jelly Petroleum jelly, petrolatum, white petrolatum, soft paraffin, or multi-hydrocarbon, CAS number 8009-03-8, is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons (with carbon numbers mainly higher than 25), originally promoted as a topical ointment for its h ...

and

paraffin Paraffin may refer to: Substances * Paraffin wax, a white or colorless soft solid that is used as a lubricant and for other applications * Liquid paraffin (drug), a very highly refined mineral oil used in cosmetics and for medical purposes * Alkane ...

base. The packaging label states that the active ingredients are menthol and camphor. The original Tiger Balm Red and Tiger Balm White have 25% of camphor. A new product named Tiger Balm White HR uses eucalyptus oil instead of cajuput oil.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.tigerbalm.com Ointments Singaporean brands Drug brand names 1870s establishments

History

Composition

See also

Explanatory notes

References

External links