ELIXIR

Elixir is a term used in pharmacology to describe a sweetened, hydroalcoholic liquid dosage form intended for oral administration. It typically contains one or more medicines dissolved in a mixture of ethanol and water, often with flavoring agents and sugar to improve palatability. The word derives from Medieval Latin elixīr, from Arabic al-iksīr, reflecting its historical association with medicinal tonics and restorative preparations.

Elixirs are designed to dissolve certain drugs that are soluble in hydroalcoholic solvents and to mask unpleasant tastes. They are distinct from syrups, which are chiefly viscous sugary solutions, and from tinctures, which are alcoholic extracts of plant or other materials. In practice, elixirs may be formulated to provide precise dosing and relatively quick absorption.

Historically, elixirs are linked to alchemical and medicinal traditions, including the elixir of life or philosopher’s stone, concepts that permeated medieval and early modern medicine. In that context, elixirs were sometimes promoted as universal remedies, though many claims were later viewed with skepticism.

Today, the term elixir remains in use in some pharmacopoeias and for certain medicines, but many preparations are described as syrups or solutions. Regulations typically address the quality of the solvent, the concentration of active ingredients, palatability, and safety, including alcohol content and suitability for children or individuals avoiding alcohol.

Elixir is also the name of a programming language created by José Valim and released in 2011. It runs on the BEAM virtual machine (the Erlang runtime) and is a dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable, fault-tolerant applications. It emphasizes concurrency through lightweight processes and supervision trees. The language is commonly used with the Phoenix web framework and uses the Mix build tool and Hex package manager.