Elixirs

ELIXIRS (elksiry), complex medicinal preparations that are mixtures of tinctures (see), usually with the addition of extracts, resins, etc. In the practice of French pharmacy, elixirs are sweetened mixtures of tinctures. The name 'elixir' originated during the alchemical period; it was used to denote a life-prolonging or youth-restoring preparation, and unlike essences (quintessences), materia prima, etc., which in the imagination of alchemists were supposed to represent purified, simple substances, elixirs were conceived as mixtures of 'the most powerful medicines' (see Alchemy). At present, elixirs are considered alcoholic preparations, differing from complex tinctures only in that in complex tinctures raw materials are mixed and their mixture is extracted with alcohol, while in elixirs ready-made tinctures are mixed. The Pharmacopoeia VII lists the following elixirs: 1) Elixir with Extr. Glycyrrhizae (see Licorice); 2) Elixir Aurantiorum comp. or Elixir viscerale Hoffmanni, stomach or orange elixir—since 1929, no longer prepared, following a circular of the People's Commissariat of Health regarding the removal of imported medicines lacking therapeutic value; 3) Elixir ad longam vitam or Tinctura Aloes comp. (see Aloe); in 1934, the zedoaria root included in the prescription was replaced by calamus root; 4) Elixir acidum Halleri (see Haller's elixir)—a name incorrectly assigned (by the German pharmacopoeia) to a mixture of alcohol with sulfuric acid; according to the authentic prescription, this elixir also contained a tincture of red poppy flowers or raspberry syrup.