You can refer to ideas or theories about how something should be done as nostrums, especially when you think they are old-fashioned or wrong in some way.
例句
...clinging to the nostrums of the dying century.对上世纪的招数紧抓不放
N-COUNT
(未经科学证明有效的)灵丹妙药，神药
If you refer to a medicine as a nostrum, you mean that it is not effective or has not been tested in a proper scientific way.
例句
...pills, tablets, and other nostrums claiming to be magic potions.声称包治百病的药丸、药片和其他灵丹妙药
英汉词典释义
n.
妙策
some nostrum peddled as a cure for unemployment鼓吹可解决失业问题的妙策
英英词典释义
Noun
1. hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases; once sought by the alchemists