Frequently referred to nowadays as the "drug of choice" among Hollywood celebrities and popular personalities, Botox achieved a certain legitimacy in the medical field to complement its status as a popular cosmetic treatment drug.
Those who've received Botox injections-administered in the face--swear it helps smoothen out lines in the forehead thus giving older people a youthful look.
But interestingly despite its popularity among the wealthy clique, Botox has less than glamourous origins.
According to the online encyclopedia site wikipedia.com botox, the name brand of an exceptionally potent neuro-toxin known as botulin toxin was discovered by the German physician and Poet Justinus Kerner.
The good doctor thought up of a therapeutic use for the drug which he dubbed as "sausage poison"-quite fitting for a guy who lives in the land of frankfurters and beer.
Interestingly another German doctor named Muller coined the term botulism, a rare form of paralysis caused by the botulin toxin which is why Botox is also known as botulinum toxin.
The Latin word botulus also means sausage. (As a side note haven't you wondered what it feels like to apply Botox on your, uhm, sausage? Okay hold that sausage, I mean thought).
Fastforward to the 1940s where another doctor Edward Schantz cultured Clostridium botulinum and isolated the toxin and later on in 1949, a group discovered that botulinum toxin blocks neuromuscular transmission.
The toxin was later used experimentally in the 50s for the medical cosmetic treatment of politicians with then actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan said to be one of the earliest recipients of this procedure.
By gaining Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, it was only a matter of time before Botox would eventually be used for treating other ailments like migraine headaches.
And it would later find its way among the glam set of Hollywood and Beverly Hills where people would organize Botox parties at some of the trendiest places.
Not bad for a drug once dubbed as "sausage poison." Then again, this "sausage poison" was once used by assassins on cigars meant to smoke out Cuban dictator Fidel V. Castro.
Now that's something to chew on.