Confection of alkermes
Confectio alkermes
- Known today as
- A cordial confection colored with kermes, with apple juice, rose water, sugar, ambergris, and gold.
- Kind
- Compound, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- kermesic acid, sucrose, ambrein and muscone, and 2 more
- Earliest authority here
- Florence
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.
Confection of alkermes: what was it used for?
The great cordial: to comfort the heart and revive the faint.
Confection of alkermes: what does modern science say?
Sugar, scent, and an insect dye. The Italian liqueur alchermes, coloured with the same insect, which Chambers’s Cyclopaedia took for a modification of the confection, still soaks the sponge of the dessert zuppa inglese.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- kermesic acidthe red of the kermes insect, later cochineal
- sucrose ChEMBLthe bulk
- ambrein and musconeambergris and musk
- gold leaf and pearl
- cinnamon and rose water
- Mechanism
- A sugar confection coloured with an insect dye and scented with musk, ambergris, and cinnamon, to which Culpeper gave every cordial virtue while warning that it might prove “too heavy for the purse.” The Italian liqueur alchermes, coloured with kermes, was taken by Chambers’s Cyclopaedia for a modification of it.
- Toxic dose
- Culpeper gave ten grains to children and twenty or thirty to men, mixed with other cordials.
- Standing
- In the London Pharmacopoeia of 1653, after Mesue’s confection of kermes; Chambers’s Cyclopaedia of 1827 still described the confection; a liqueur since.
- Gentilcore, D. (2016). Food and Health in Early Modern Europe. Bloomsbury. Verified against its record · doi:10.5040/9781474219563
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.
The Recipe
The recipe: 6 ingredients, each linked to its entry. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.
Confection of alkermes: what did the older authorities say?
- Florence
- The friars of Santa Maria Novella were already making alchermes in Florence in the fifteenth century, the Italian Wikipedia records, and the Medici prized it.
Sources
- Culpeper, N. (1653). Pharmacopœia Londinensis. Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Alchermes,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia (it), “Alchermes,” it.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Kermes (dye),” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Ambergris,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in full · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Musk,” en.wikipedia.org (read 2 October 2026). Read in part · the text read
- Mesue (1589). I libri di Gio. Mesue de i semplici purgativi, et delle medicine composte, ed. G. Rossetto. Venice. Read in part · 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
- 8 cited: 5 read in full, 2 read in part, 1 verified against its record. 1 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
“Confection of alkermes.” 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/confection-of-alkermes.
- MLA
“Confection of alkermes.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/confection-of-alkermes. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Confection of alkermes. (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/confection-of-alkermes
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See Also
Sharing kermesic acid, sucrose
Drawing on the same sources: Culpeper, Wikipedia, Gentilcore
Confection of hyacinth · Cochia pills · Coral, red · Compound fumitory · Corn smut · Snail · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Concealed shoes · Contact relics · Copal · Common ink cap (A grey mushroom that dissolves into black ink as it ages) · Common earthball (yellow-brown ball with a black interior, of acid woodland)
Historical description, not medical advice.