User:Skittleys/Sandbox/Elixir

In modern use, an elixir (From Arabic,الإكسير Al-Ikseer) is a sweetened, clear, homogenous solution used in pharmaceutical compounding to create an oral liquid dosage form suitable for drug delivery. Elixirs are primarily made of water and ethanol. The term is often misapplied to various syrups.

Pharmaceutics
Elixirs are a solution of the active ingredient (the drug) dissolved in water and an alcohol (usually ethanol), often along with other excipients such as preservatives, flavouring agents and other alcohols, depending on the drug's solubility. They are technically a nonaqueous solution due to their use of alcohol as a cosolvent.

Drugs
An important consideration in pharmaceutical compounding is the chemical properties of the drug and its excipients, namely the solubility of these compounds. Alcohol will cause numerous substances to precipitate, especially chemical salts. As well, alcohols tend to emphasise the salty taste of bromide and other salts. Because many oral drugs are only stable in their hydrochloric salt form,, the drugs that can be compounded in an elixir form are limited.

Some common medications that are manufactured in an elixir form include:
 * Dexamethasone
 * Phenobarbitol

Excipients
Often, an elixir has more ingredients than just the drug, water and ethanol. Sometimes, the drug can not be well dissolved in a water/ethanol solution. Glycerin and plain syrups are standard pharmaceutical additives used for increasing drug solubility by _________. Both are also sweetening agents, and can help mediate the pharmacological effects of the ethanol. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) may be used in an elixir as a substitute for both glycerin and ethanol.

elixirs often contain glycerin, sorbitol, polyethylene glycol or syrups.

Sweetners
Elixirs are always sweetened, but rarely contain sucrose. This is because sucrose makes a solution much more viscous or thick, an undesirable property in an elixir. Many other sweetners can be used, including aspartame, carboxymethylcellulose and its derivatives, saccharin, cyclamate, and acesulfame potassium. However, none of these sweetners are considered truly safe; in fact, cyclamate and saccharin are banned in several countries.

Comparison with syrups
As described above, elixirs are sweetened, clear, homogenous liquid solutions taken by mouth. However, that description also applies to syrups. In fact, the only strict difference between the two is that an elixir must always contain alcohol, whereas a syrup may or may not use an alcohol for solubility purposes. Elixirs are meant to always be a clear liquid, whereas syrups can contain various natural or artificial dyes.

In general, elixirs are less viscous than syrups due to their higher alcohol content and their minimal use of sucrose and other viscosity-improving agents.

As well, because alcohol tends to make taste saltier, syrups are often used for those drugs.

"Strictly a solution of a potent or nauseous drug in a clear, sweetened solution."

used in compounding medicines to be taken orally in order to mask an unpleasant taste and intended to cure one's ills.

When used as a pharmaceutical preparation, it contains an active ingredient (such as morphine) that is dissolved in a solution that contains some percentage (usually 40-60%) of ethyl alcohol and is designed to be taken orally. Elixirs are often made from vodka or grappa.

Alchemy and early medicine
The concept of an elixir was first developed in the early history of alchemy. One major goal of alchemy was to transmutate a baser metal into gold (chrysopoeia). An elixir was said to be the only substance that could transmutate other substances. There was said to be many elixirs, each with a specific function. There was also the legendary "master" elixir—also known as the elixir of elixirs, the elixir of life, the philosopher's stone, and numerous other names— that would transmutate anything. Throughout the middle ages, human concepts such as marriage, conception, birth, age, torture, death and resurrection were often also linked to metals—an elixir's action on a metal triggers a development process likened to birth, two metals in combination are married, and the baser metals underwent torture and then death to be resurrected as gold. The connection was also described in reverse: man underwent transmutation to become a higher-order being.

These ideas led to the belief that the elixir of life would grant its drinker eternal life or eternal youth. Because eternal life included eternal health, it was sought for this purpose as well, and led to the concept of a panacea, an elixir that cures all ills.

In today's society, traditional medicine is often viewed as modern alchemy, with a drug being the necessary ingredient for the transmutation of the sick into the hale. The term "panacea" is heard in the pharmaceutical industry.