'Elixir of Long Life' recreated using 19th century recipe
The secret to everlasting life may have been found, if this 19th century ‘miracle cure’ proves to be the real deal, the Daily Mail reported.
In May, archaeologists found bottles beneath a hotel construction site in New York that once contained medicinal remedies.
One of these, called the 'Elixir of Long Life' was once believed to be capable of cheating death, and the team are now preparing to make it and try the miracle cure for themselves.
The find of hundreds of bottles detailing drinking and eating habits from 150 years ago was made during an excavation under the construction site in Chinatown, New York.
The site had previously been a German beer garden and music hall established in 1858 called the Atlantic Garden.
One of the bottles found was a small greenish bottle that, upon closer inspection, seemed to have once contained a drink intended to grant the consumer a longer life.
The team behind the find at Chrysalis Archaeology decided to find out for themselves what exactly the drink was.
They tracked down the recipe from a medical guide and found it contained ingredients still in use today.
‘We decided to engage in our own brand of experimental archaeology,’ president of Chrysalis Alyssa Loorya told DNAinfo.
‘We wanted to know what this stuff actually tasted like.’
The drink itself contains a few herbs and a lot of alcohol, with the team suggesting it is best to drink it one drop at a time rather than in gulps.
A second drink, known as Dr Hostetters Stomach Bitters, another popular medicine used to apparently cure ailments, was also unearthed.
This contains gentian root, orange peel, cinnamon, anise, coriander seed, cardamom seed, peruvian bark, gum kino, grain alcohol, water and sugar.
The team are planning to recreate both drinks in the coming weeks - although they’ve also released recipes for both so that people can make the cocktails themselves.
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