• Question: what chemicals go in to a regular medicine (calpol)?

    Asked by guineapigs&me to Anna, Hayley, Iain, Rebecca on 19 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Iain Bethune

      Iain Bethune answered on 19 Jun 2015:

      The main active ingredient is paracetamol, which is an analgesic (pain-killer). In calpol (or the own-brand versions you can get from the supermarket), it’s in a fairly low concentration designed for children. Adult paracetamol tablets have a higher dose as adults have a larger body mass for the drug to affect.

      There are also lots of other things like sugar (or a non-sugar sweetener), colouring and flavouring added too.

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