Aurum potabile
Drinkable gold
- Known today as
- Gold dissolved or suspended in liquid for drinking.
- Kind
- Compound, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- gold chloride, colloidal gold, the spirit and oils it was taken in
- Poisoning
- Mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
- Earliest authority here
- Francis Anthony
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Aurum potabile: what was it used for?
A universal medicine, as its makers sold it, to comfort the heart and the vital spirits and to prolong life.
Aurum potabile: what does modern science say?
Anthony claimed to make gold potable “without corrosives,” but at a trial at the College of Physicians in 1609 he failed to dissolve an ounce of gold, and by the process later printed as his the product could not contain any gold; whatever it did as a cordial was, in J. F. Payne’s view, possibly the work of ethers formed in the distillation and of the canary wine it was dissolved in.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- gold chlorideif made by dissolving gold in aqua regia
- colloidal gold ChEMBLif reduced, the purple of Cassius
- the spirit and oils it was taken in
- Mechanism
- Gold dissolves in aqua regia to chloroauric acid, and tin(II) chloride throws it down again as colloidal gold, the purple of Cassius; Anthony’s drinkable gold, by the process printed as his, held no gold at all. The real gold drugs came in the twentieth century: injected gold sodium thiomalate for rheumatoid arthritis after Forestier, and oral auranofin in the 1980s. Their side effects include rashes, kidney damage, and blood dyscrasias, and low-dose methotrexate has largely displaced them.
- Toxic dose
- Anthony gave six grains of his “essence of gold” at a time in a contagious fever; by Payne’s account the product held no gold.
- Syndrome
- Mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
- Standing
- Attacked in its own day as counterfeit, in Cotta’s Antiapology (1623), yet a very popular remedy; auranofin, approved for rheumatoid arthritis in 1985, is now in a clinical trial against lung cancers.
- Kean, W. F., and Kean, I. R. L. (2008). “Clinical pharmacology of gold.” Inflammopharmacology 16. Abstract read · the text read
- Principe, L. M. (2013). The Secrets of Alchemy. University of Chicago Press. Verified against its record · doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226923789.001.0001
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Aurum potabile: what lore surrounds it?
The quest outlived Anthony: Herman Boerhaave was drawn, in letters to J. B. Bassand of 1732 and 1733, into the search for “Gur,” an odd substance held to be the prime matter of metals, on the account of Alfonso-Goldfarb and Ferraz.
Aurum potabile: what did the older authorities say?
- Francis Anthony
- By J. F. Payne’s account, the London chemical physician practised without the licence of the College of Physicians, was fined and imprisoned by it, and grew rich selling his secret remedy, aurum potabile.
Sources
- Anthony, F. (1616). Medicinae chymicae et veri potabilis auri assertio. Book, not indexed
- Payne, J. F. (1885). Anthony, Francis. In Dictionary of National Biography 2. London: Smith, Elder. Read in full · the text read
- Anthonie, F. (1616). The Apologie, or Defence of a Verity Heretofore Published Concerning a Medicine Called Aurum Potabile. London: John Legatt. Text Creation Partnership edition A20238. Read in part · the text read
- Alfonso-Goldfarb, A. M., & Ferraz, M. H. M. (2013). Gur, Ghur, Guhr or Bur? The quest for a metalliferous prime matter in early modern times. British Journal for the History of Science 46: 23–37. Abstract read · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Aqua regia,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Purple of Cassius,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Sodium aurothiomalate,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Auranofin,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 10 cited: 5 read in full, 1 read in part, 2 abstract read, 1 verified against its record, 1 book, not indexed. 2 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Aurum potabile.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/aurum-potabile.
- MLA
“Aurum potabile.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/aurum-potabile. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Aurum potabile. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/aurum-potabile
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See Also
Poisoned alike: mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
Cinnabar · Armenian stone, pills of · Iron and steel · Antimony · James’s powder · White lead · Litharge · White arsenic · the syndrome, with all of them →
Drawing on the same sources: Anthonie, Wikipedia, Kean
Cordial flowers and fruits · Birch polypore · Adder’s-tongue fern · Brewer’s yeast · Gold leaf · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Balm (Melissa officinalis) · Aster (Aster amellus) · Balm of Gilead (The resin of Commiphora gileadensis) · The aspergillum (or perforated ball on a handle, with which holy water is sprinkled) · Balsam of Peru (vanilla-scented balsam from Myroxylon balsamum var) · Asarabacca (wild ginger of European woods) · Barley water (A thin decoction of barley) · Asafoetida (“devil’s dung)
Historical description, not medical advice.