Praktické lekárnictvo 2/2021

Benedictine liqueur

The Benedictine liqueur is one of the oldest herbal liqueurs in the world. It has been known since the 16th century thanks to the Benedictine monk Bernard Vincellini of the Fécamp Abbey; the original recipe consists of 27 to 30 herbs. This liqueur became famous later in the 19th century thanks to the French wine merchant Alexandre Prosper Hubert Le Grand, who revived the old recipe with the help of a local pharmacist and sold it under the name Bénédictine ligueur from 1863. In this work, we re-evaluated one approximately 100-years-old prescription in terms of pharmacognosy, phytopharmacology and galenical pharmacy.

Keywords: Bénédictine ligueur, monastic pharmacy, historical prescription