Pinimenthol

Pinimenthol is a German line of over-the-counter herbal medicines for cold symptoms, built around essential oils from eucalyptus, pine needles and peppermint. Developed by the pharmacist Professor Wolfram Spitzner, it has been on the market since 1949 [10], beginning with a cold ointment and followed shortly afterwards by a cold bath. Today the range covers an ointment, a milder balm for children, two bath additives and a steam inhaler, and it is sold through pharmacies, both in person and online.

The brand has belonged to the Schwabe group of Karlsruhe since 1985, when the group took over Arzneimittelfabrik Spitzner, the company that made it [9]. It sits in the borderland between personal care and medicine: its products are rubbed on the chest, added to bath water or inhaled, but they are licensed medicines rather than cosmetics, and they carry the regulated indications and warnings that go with that status.

Pinimenthol began with Wolfram Spitzner, a pharmacist who held the title of professor. The ointment came first; a cold bath followed a short time later. Both drew on the same basic idea that still defines the range: a blend of eucalyptus oil, pine needle oil and menthol, applied to the skin or breathed in as vapour to ease the discomfort of a cold.

The product was made by Arzneimittelfabrik Spitzner, a pharmaceutical maker founded in 1949, the same year Pinimenthol reached the market. German Wikipedia describes Pinimenthol as that company's best-known product [9]. Where Spitzner itself was based is not documented.

For its first decade Pinimenthol was an adult product. In 1960 the range was extended with Pinimenthol Erkältungsbalsam mild, a gentler balm for young children, made without the menthol and camphor that the adult products used. The split between adult and children's formulas has shaped the brand ever since.

The 1985 takeover by the Schwabe group moved Pinimenthol into a much larger family-owned pharmaceutical business. For a time it continued to appear under the Spitzner name: a 2013 trade-press report on a consumer test still listed the ointment as "Pinimenthol (Spitzner)" [12].

A regulatory change came in August 2019, when the adult cold bath went on sale as a traditionally registered herbal medicinal product. That status means it is registered for supportive treatment of colds on the basis of long-standing use, not on the basis of new clinical trials. At the same time, the minimum age for the liquid bath additive was raised from two years to twelve [10].

In August 2020 the brand introduced new packaging. The ointment and the children's balm moved from plastic tubes to aluminium ones, and the cartons were redesigned. Children's products gained colourful lettering and a koala, making them easier to tell apart from the adult range, while the packs for adults and teenagers over twelve show a eucalyptus branch instead. A pharmacy-trade publication covering the change described the ointment and balm as "the classic Pinimenthol".

Pinimenthol is owned by the Dr. Willmar Schwabe group, headquartered in Karlsruhe. The group's parent, Dr. Schwabe Deutschland Holding, makes and sells homeopathic medicines, herbal medicines and food supplements through its subsidiaries. According to German Wikipedia, the business was founded in 1866 by Carl Emil Willmar Schwabe in Leipzig and resettled in Karlsruhe after the Second World War. Its other well-known brands include Tebonin, Umckaloabo, Prostagutt and Lasea, alongside Pinimenthol [9]; Hametum and DHU are sister brands in the same group.

The name on the product has changed over the decades. In 2013, APOTHEKE ADHOC named Spitzner as the maker of the Pinimenthol ointment [12]. The brand's current website and mandatory product texts name Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH & Co. KG in Karlsruhe as the responsible company [1]. The two are not in dispute so much as consecutive: Spitzner was the Schwabe subsidiary that made Pinimenthol after 1985, and German Wikipedia records that the former subsidiaries Spitzner and ISO Arzneimittel were later sold or merged into the parent company [9]. By 2019 trade coverage was already attributing the brand to Dr. Willmar Schwabe.

The operating company is a limited partnership with Dr. Traugott Ullrich and Dr. Frank Waimer as managing directors. Its own product pages describe Schwabe as a family company and credit the formulas to more than 70 years of research and development there.

Pinimenthol presents itself as a family remedy for colds. The website's tagline asks whether the reader has caught a cold and promises freer breathing with Pinimenthol, and the brand sums up its approach in three words: natural, reliable and fast. According to the company, the products clear the airways, ease coughing and loosen mucus, helping people get through the day and sleep through the night.

The brand's central selling point is concentration. Schwabe states that its cold ointment contains 40.5 g of essential oils per 100 g, which it describes as the highest share of any cold ointment in Germany [1]. The company also says the active ingredients meet high quality standards and are well tolerated, and the ointment is marketed as free of colourings and preservatives.

A second theme is the separation of adult and children's use. The brand explains that not all essential oils suit a child's more sensitive skin and mucous membranes, and it offers two products specifically for children from the age of two, neither of which contains menthol as an active ingredient [8].

The current range consists of five products, all built on a small set of plant oils.

- Pinimenthol Erkältungssalbe (cold ointment) combines eucalyptus oil, pine needle oil and menthol. It is approved for external use and inhalation to relieve symptoms of colds affecting the airways, such as an uncomplicated runny nose, hoarseness and uncomplicated bronchial catarrh. It can be rubbed on the chest and upper back or dissolved in hot water and inhaled; inhalation is limited to children aged twelve and over. - Pinimenthol Erkältungsbalsam mild (mild cold balm), for children from two, contains eucalyptus and pine needle oils without menthol. - Pinimenthol Erkältungsbad (cold bath) is a liquid bath additive with eucalyptus oil, natural camphor and levomenthol, sold for adults and children from twelve. - Pinimenthol Erkältungsbad für Kinder ab 2 Jahren is a children's bath made with eucalyptus oil alone. - Pinimenthol Inhalator is a steam inhaler with a hot-water retention system intended to prevent scalding, for adults and children from six.

The brand publishes the oil content of each formula. Per 100 g, the ointment holds 20 g of eucalyptus oil, 17.78 g of pine needle oil and 2.75 g of menthol, for a total of 40.5 percent essential oils. The mild balm contains 10 g each of eucalyptus and pine needle oil, or 20 percent. The adult bath combines 13.35 g of eucalyptus oil, 2.15 g of camphor and 0.65 g of menthol, while the children's bath contains 14 g of eucalyptus oil and nothing else [5].

The company's own explanations of these oils are brief. It describes eucalyptus as loosening mucus and improving circulation in the lining of the airways, pine needle oil as helping to cough up mucus and relax the bronchi, camphor as loosening thick mucus, and menthol as cooling and pain-relieving. It advises against camphor and menthol for young children, which is why the children's line leaves them out.

For daily use, the brand suggests inhaling one to three times during the day, taking a bath in the evening and applying the balm or ointment to the chest and upper back before bed. No third-party certifications are documented for the range.

Pinimenthol has twice appeared in tests by the German consumer magazine Öko-Test, with mixed results.

In 2013, Öko-Test examined 20 cold balms and reached a harsh overall verdict: only one product received the top grade, and eight were rated "insufficient" or "deficient". The testers objected to ingredients with an unfavourable balance of benefit and risk, to potential allergens and to what they called an overly varied mixture of essential oils. The Pinimenthol ointment, then listed under Spitzner, landed in the middle of the field, alongside products such as Wick VapoRub, Tiger Balm White and Grippostad [12].

The 2019 test of cold baths was less kind. Öko-Test and the expert Professor Manfred Schubert-Zsilavecz tested 20 cold baths, 13 of them medicines and seven cosmetics, and no product scored better than "satisfactory". The magazine argued that the evidence for essential oils in colds rests mainly on folk experience rather than evidence-based herbal medicine, and it marked down every product on that basis. Baths containing camphor lost further points, because the testers considered its side effects potentially serious, especially for infants and small children. The Pinimenthol cold bath from Dr. Willmar Schwabe was rated "deficient", with efficacy only partly proven and camphor among its ingredients [11].

The company's own wording reflects the regulatory position behind that criticism. Its mandatory text for the adult bath states that it is a traditional herbal medicine registered for supportive treatment of colds exclusively on the basis of long-standing use.

The 2020 move to aluminium tubes is the brand's only documented environmental measure. Dr. Willmar Schwabe said at the time that the new tubes did not need an extra composite foil for a tamper seal and were almost entirely recyclable, and that the aluminium protected the contents from light and loss of active ingredients. The company also pointed to practical benefits: the tubes can be emptied almost completely, dosing is more precise, and the balm is no longer sucked back into the tube as a plastic tube springs back into shape [10].

Pinimenthol is active. Its German-language website was being maintained in 2026, with customer ratings on its product listings dated 29 May 2026, and five products are currently on sale through pharmacies and online pharmacies. The brand remains part of the Dr. Willmar Schwabe group in Karlsruhe.