Panacea (medicine)
Universal remedy / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Cure-all?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
A panacea (/pænəˈsiːə/) is any supposed remedy that is claimed (for example) to cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. Named after the Greek goddess of universal remedy Panacea, it was in the past sought by alchemists in connection with the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone, a mythical substance that would enable the transmutation of common metals into gold. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, many "patent medicines" were claimed to be panaceas, and they became very big business. The term "panacea" is used in a negative way to describe the overuse of any one solution to solve many different problems, especially in medicine.[1] The word has acquired connotations of snake oil and quackery.[2]
A panacea (or panaceum) is also a literary term to represent any solution to solve all problems related to a particular issue.[3]