Spiritus, Alcohol
Spiritum Vitae, Spiritus Vini (Brandy)Jiu (Spirit, ‘Wine’); Bai Jiu (White Spirit) (TCM)
Kahul (Arabic)
Sharaab (Hindi)
AlcoholDioscorides Materia Medica, Ruellio, 1549
Wine-makingLustgarten der Gesundtheit, Ryff, 1546
Chemical name:
Alcohol. C2H5OH; Ethanol
Parts used:
Typical Alcohol content of various alcoholic drinks:
Ale, Beer, Cider: 4–6%
Strong Ale, Stout: 7–8%
Wine: 10–14%
Fortified Wine (Port, Sherry): 18–20% or more
Spirit (Vodka, Brandy etc): 38–40% (typically, but up to 50% or more)
Absinthe: 65–75% (or more)
Rectified Spirit may be 70–95%
Types of Wines Mentioned in Traditional European texts:
i) Canary: a sweet wine, similar to Madeira, from the Cananry Islands
ii) Mallago
iii) Allicant: a Greek Wine
iv) Tent: a deep, red, sweet Spanish wine, used in sacraments
v) Sherry: sweet, fortified red wine
vi) Port: fortified red wine
vii) Rhenish: Rhine riesling
viii) Florence: an Italian wine
ix) French
Sweet and Fat wines are more nourishing, and better restoratives in wasting or consumption; these include Canary, Mallago, Alicant, and Tent.
The best wines for extracting Essences and Tinctures are Canary, Sherry, Port, and Rhenish wines. Florence wine is good for a weak Stomach and Head.
The dilute Alcohols of the BP may be prepared by adding water to the specified amount of Rectified Alcohol (95%) below to make 1 liter:
Alcohol (90%): Rectified Spirit: 947mls;
Alcohol (80%): 842mls;
Alcohol (70%): 737mls;
Alcohol (60%): 632mls;
Alcohol (50%): 526mls;
Alcohol (40%): 474mls;
Alcohol (25%): 263mls.
Temperature & Taste:
Wine is Warm and Moist. Sweet and Sour
‘fresh wine is less warming than old wine’ (Galen)
Alcohol is Hot, dry. Pungent
Uses:
1. Promotes Digestion:
-a little alcohol taken with food benefits digestion, aids absorption, and promotes appetite (esp Red Wine etc.).
-most useful in the old, weak or debilitated, and those tired from overwork.
-Brandy has been given in the past for Diarrhea.
(Alcohol is not used for acute dyspepsia)
2. Warms the Body, Promotes Sweat
-as a Stimulant in acute diseases with Debility, including acute Fevers, acute Infections, Typhoid Fever, Pnuemonia, Influenza, as well as Sepsis
-also for exposure to Cold etc.
3. Warms the Body, Benefits Yang
–‘restores any part of the body which is constrained by cold’ (Galen)
-‘Cherishes the Natural Heat’ (Salmon)
-‘the right nature of wine is, that it being moderately drunken, does preserve and sustain the natural warmth, and strengthen the powers of men’ (Wirtzung).
-Shock, Collapse, Fainting, Syncope, and for the wasting of chronic illnesses such as Consumption.
-‘Taken moderately, it nourishes the Body’ (Salmon);
-‘In moderation it acts as a food, and saves tissue waste’ (Squires).
4. Moves the Blood, Clears Stasis:
-‘Quickens the Circulation of the Blood’ (Salmon)
-‘Dark and sweet Wines nourish the Blood’. (Galen)
-Alcohol is good to warm, invigorate, and move the blood. It is therefore used for Menstrual pain or poor Blood flow when associated with Coldness.
-Chest pain, circulatory failure, trauma, and various joint disorders where the blood needs to be moved.
-used externally in liniments and lotions to move the Blood and ease Pain.
-Alcohol, Wine etc can be added to Decoctions; Tinctures are also used for this purpose
5. Promotes Urine:
-Edema, Fluid retention
6. Calms the Mind, Benefits the Spirit, Relieves Tension:
-Alcohol is Hypnotic and Narcotic in moderate doses
-useful for Insomnia in old people, a calming herbal wine being best for these cases.
-also for Tremors.
-‘Wine in its own body is Cordial, a comforter of the Heart, and an elevator of the Spirits’ (Salmon).
-The Traditional Ayurvedic text Astanga Hrdaya said Wine is the best medicine in grief; the same text also said Wine and bathing was best in Fatigue
7. Externally:
-bruises, trauma
-skin inflammation, erysipelas, burns, scalds, incipient suppuration
-itching of the Anus or Vulva
-rheumatic and other pains.
-applied externally to bed sores and cracked nipples.
-used to sterilise the skin before acupuncture, surgery etc.
8. Use in Pharmacy:
-Alcohol is a chief preservative, and is therefore a very good way to preserve organic material including fresh or dried plants, plant juices, aromatics, animal products etc.
-a very good solvent, being used in Alchemy and Medicine for many purposes.
9. Used to prepare medicines:
Alcohol has the following effects when used to prepare medicines:
a) Moves the Blood, Promotes Circulation (eg. Dang Gui, Zedoary)
b) Moderate the Coldness of Certain herbs (Rhubarb, Gentian etc)
c) Guide Medicines to the Blood (eg. Rhubarb can purge heat from the blood when prepared with Alcohol)
d) Relieves Foul smell and Taste (eg. Viper flesh)
Dose:
Taken in small doses it is a nervous and circulatory stimulant; large doses are depressant and narctic.
Alcohol (95%): 4–15cc
Brandy: 1 teaspoonful–1 tablespoonful (or 5–30mls)
Wine (incl. Herbal Wines): half–wineglassful, once or twice daily
Main Combinations:
Alcohol is used, mainly as a vehicle, in many formulas in Traditional Medicine which may be found on this site.
1. ‘Wine is excellent for maintaining a healthy body when it is drunk with moderate amounts of water, for then it both nourishes and can protect one’s health against illness’. (Galen)
2. ‘Honey and wine alone maintains regularity of the bowels, and warms them’. (Galen)
3. Pepper or Spices added to Wine make it more warming, good to clear Cold, promote digestion and circulation, and warm the Yang.
4. Raisins added to Wine strengthens Stomach and Digestion, promotes Urine, and strengthens the Lungs.
5. Wine with Mastic added strengthens the Stomach and Bowels.
6. Wine with Wormwood added stimulates digestion, purges the Bowels, and clears Bile Humor..
7. Wine with Rose added cools, benefits the Heart, regulates urination and maintains healthy bowels.
Major Formulas:
Cautions:
1. Should not be used in the very Young or during Pregnancy.
2. ‘Of all the ways to bring self destruction, drinking is the most harmful’. From the traditional Ayurvedic text ‘Asthtanga Hridayam’.
3. Not used in Hot bodies.
4. Strong Alcohol is not used for acute Dyspepsia.
5. Do not use if there is bleeding
6. Large doses of Alcohol, especially of undiluted Spirits are very irritant to the gastric mucosa; long term use is associated with gastritis, cirrhosis of the Liver, etc.
7. Be cautious of giving Alcohol to people who are recovering alcoholics. (Although some Physicians have relieved symptoms of people going through alcohol withdrawal by giving Tinctures of appropriate herbs, or adding a little Alcohol to Decoction etc.)
Antidote:
1. Cabbage juice and Sauerkraut have been used as traditional remedies for drunkenness and hangover.
2. Dates macerated in water and drunk is used in India.
3. 2-4 oz. of Pumpkin juice, taken with crude Sugar.
4. Swedish Bitters has been credited with quickly restoring an intoxicated person if 1–2 tablespoonfuls are given.
Main Preparations used:
Mulsum, Spirit of Wine, Vitriolated Spirit of Wine, Tartarized Spirit of Wine, Alcalized Spirit of Wine, Philosophers Water.
MULSUM.
Mulsum is an ancient Roman drink prepared by mixing wine and honey. It is freshly made, not aged.
Traditionally, 1 liter of Wine and 3 liters of Honey was mixed while heating, and when just coming to the boil, some cold wine was added and it was removed from the heat, then the scum is removed. This was repeated twice more, removing the scum each time. Let it rest a day, then skim again. If a spiced Mulsum was wanted, Pepper 4 drams, Mastic 3 scruples, Spikenard, Bay leaf, Saffron of each 1 dram, and roasted Date stones soaked in wine to soften them 5 drams, were added. Once steeped and strained, 9 liters of light Red Wine is added. It was then clarified by adding crushed charcoal.
Other similar recipes used other herbs such as Thyme or Cinnamon.
In modern times, it has been simplified: half a cup of Honey is warmed, then mixed well with a bottle of dry white wine. When well mixed, it is poured back into the bottle and kept for use. Traditionally served cold.
SPIRIT of WINE.
(Spiritus Vini, or Brandy)
‘Distill the Best Wine by Vesica, till the finest parts are ascended (which is known by the last) let it be several times rectified in B.M. drawing off the half, third, or fourth part, till the Spirit is high, and no humidity remains that will flame: where note, that the Orifice of the still being covered with a 4-fold thin paper, or thick cloth, the Spiritual parts will only penetrate, and the watery fall back again; and if you have a Still with A long neck or Serpentine glass, you will rectify it the better’.
‘It is Hot and Dry, a sulphurous, inflammable, piercing, incorruptible, volatile Spirit; Cephalic, Cordial, Alexipharmic and Sudorific, resisting Poison, Putrefaction, Plague, and Pestilential diseases. It cheers the Heart, revives the Spirits, elevates the Mind, comforts Cold stomachs and Constitutions: it is good in Apoplexies, Coma’s, Carus, Lethargies, dissolves cold hard Tumours, and discusses Congealed Blood. It is a good Menstrum to extract ordinary Tinctures with’. (Salmon)
VITRIOLATED SPIRIT of WINE.
(Spiritus Vini Vitriolatus)
Spirit of Wine, Spirit of Vitriol 4 oz. ea.
‘Distill in an Alembick by ashes or Sand, first with a gentle fire, then increase the heat by degrees to so great a strength, that both may pass together through the Alembick; repeat this work thrice, and circulate it for 40 days, so have you a most excellent Spirit both for smell and taste’.
‘It is a wonderful enemy to putrefaction, and a great Vulnerary, it cures all curable wounds at once dressing with it, and is of singular use in burning and malignant Fevers’. (Salmon)
TARTARIZED SPIRIT of WINE.
(Spiritus Vini Tartarizatus)
Spirit of Wine 2 lbs.
Tartar in powder 1 oz.
Distil in a bath filled with sawdust or straw which has been moistened with water, ‘so that the drops may fall leisurely, which cease when the Phlegm begins to come; but if the Phlegm ascends with it, rectify it’.
It may be rectified by several cohobations upon the same Tartar, making a stronger fire at the conclusion (casting away the Phlegm that comes in the middle) which gives a rectified Spirit of Wine Tartarised.
SPIRIT of WINE ALCALIZED.
(Spiritus Vini Alcalizatus)
‘Take good sack, draw off both Spirit and Phlegm, and separate them; calcine the feces, and make a salt of them with the Phlegm, which Salt dissolve in the Spirit’.
‘It is a great Cordial and Restorative’.
PHILOSOPHERS WATER.
(Aqua Philosophorum)
‘Calcine Tartar til it be greenish blue, or sky colored, pour upon Spirit of Wine Tartarised, digest, distill, and at last force it with a violent fire’.
‘This is wonderful in curing diseases arising from Tartar, in the Scurvy, Quartans, Hypochondriac Melancholy, Asthma, Cachexia, Dropsies, and obstructions of the Liver, Spleen, and Bowels: being given with Tincture of Saffron, it causeth rest and ease. It is the best Menstruum to make all purging Tinctures and Extracts, whether out of Vegetables, Minerals, or Animals. If it be circulated in a Bolt Head hermetically sealed, it becomes Balsamick and Sweet scented, and from a Crystalline color is made a Rubine, being as it were a Balsam of Life and Vital powers, exalting Nature to her highest degree of purity and clarity, by quickening the internal fire and heat: Three or 4 drops of it given with the Essence of Saffron gives ease and rest, and restores in Consumptions’. (Salmon)
How to Rectify Spirit of Wine Without Heat
‘Take good Brandy 10 ounces; Salt of Tartar calcined high 4 ounces; shake ‘em well together in a Glass bottle; so will the salt imbibe the phlegm of the Spirit, and sink to the bottom, and the limpid yellowish Spirit swim a top, which decant, and add to it more salt, and do as before; and repeat this Operation again and again, till the salt finding no more phlegm to take hold of, remain dry at the bottom; so shall the Spirit swimming over it be as purely rectified, as if ‘twere done by distillation’.
‘The Communicator saith, it’s a much better Spirit than that rectified by distillation, because it’s acuated with saline Particles, which reserate the Pores of Simples; and therefore is to be preferred, for the extraction of Tinctures from Cinnamon, Saffron, Castor, Myrrh, Aloes, etc’. (Pharmacopoeia Extemporanea, Thomas Fuller, London, 1710)