Guayaco (guaiac, the palo de las Indias)

The first American remedy to become a European blockbuster, and the first to be discredited. Guaiac wood reached Spain by 1508 as the pox spread, was sold as lignum sanctum, was cornered by the Fuggers in return for a loan to the crown, landed at Seville by the ton — and did not work. It belongs in the record of the American materia medica beside cinchona, because the transfer that failed is what makes the transfer that succeeded measurable.