In the 1830s, Americans bought tomato ketchup as medicine after a physician claimed tomatoes could treat indigestion and diarrhoea; pills made from tomato extract were sold across the country before the craze collapsed.

In the 1830s, Dr John Cook Bennett suggested that tomatoes had medicinal properties for treating digestive issues. This led to the creation of tomato extract pills sold as medicine by various entrepreneurs. The competition between manufacturers Archibald Miles and Dr Guy R. Phelps became known as the Tomato Pill War. Their public dispute was widely reported in newspapers and attracted significant attention.