List of alchemical substances

Alchemical studies produced a number of substances, which were later classified as particular chemical compounds or mixtures of compounds.

Many of these terms were in common use into the 20th century.

Metals and metalloids

• Antimony/Stibnium – Sb
• Bismuth (German: Wismuth) – Bi
• Copper/Cuprum – associated with Venus. Cu
• Gold/Aurum – associated with the Sun. Au
• Iron/Ferrum – associated with Mars. Fe
• Lead/Plumbum – associated with Saturn. Pb
• Quicksilver/Hydrargyrum – associated with Mercury. Hg
• Silver/Argentum – associated with the Moon. Ag
• Tin/Stannum – associated with Jupiter. Sn

Minerals, stones, and pigments

• Bluestone – mineral form of copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate, also called blue vitriol.
• Borax – sodium borate; was also used to refer to other related minerals.
• Cadmia/Tuttia/Tutty – probably zinc carbonate.
• Calamine – zinc carbonate.
• Calomel/Horn Quicksilver/horn mercury – mercury(I) chloride, a very poisonous purgative formed by subliming a mixture of mercuric chloride and metallic mercury, triturated in a mortar and heated in an iron pot. The crust formed on the lid was ground to powder and boiled with water to remove the calomel.
• Calx – calcium oxide; was also used to refer to other metal oxides.
• Chalcanthum – the residue produced by strongly roasting blue vitriol (copper sulfate); it is composed mostly of cupric oxide.
• Chalk – a rock composed of porous biogenic calcium carbonate. CaCO₃
• Chrome green – chromic oxide and cobalt oxide.
• Chrome orange – chrome yellow and chrome red.
• Chrome red – basic lead chromate – PbCrO₄+PbO
• Chrome yellow/Paris Yellow/Leipzig Yellow – lead chromate, PbCrO₄
• Cinnabar/Vermilion – refers to several substances, among them: mercury(II) sulfide (HgS), or native vermilion (the common ore of mercury).
• Copper Glance – copper(I) sulfide ore.
• Cuprite – copper(I) oxide ore.
• Dutch White – a pigment, formed from one part of white lead to three of barium sulfate. BaSO₄
• Flowers of antimony – antimony trioxide, formed by roasting stibnite at high temperature and condensing the white fumes that form. Sb₂O₃
• Fool's gold – a mineral, iron disulfide or pyrite; can form oil of vitriol on contact with water and air.
• Fulminating silver – principally, silver nitride, formed by dissolving silver(I) oxide in ammonia. Very explosive when dry.
• Fulminating gold – a number of gold based explosives which "fulminate", or detonate easily.
  • – gold hydrazide, formed by adding ammonia to the auric hydroxide. When dry, can explode on concussion.
  • – an unstable gold carbonate formed by precipitation by potash from gold dissolved in aqua regia.
• Galena – lead(II) sulfide. Lead ore.
• Glass of antimony – impure antimony tetroxide, SbO₄ formed by roasting stibnite. A yellow pigment for glass and porcelain.
• Gypsum – a mineral; calcium sulfate. CaSO₄
• Horn Silver/Argentum Cornu – a weathered form of chlorargyrite, an ore of silver chloride.

• Luna cornea – silver chloride, formed by heating horn silver till it liquefies and then cooling.

• King's yellow – formed by mixing orpiment with white arsenic.
• Lapis solaris (Bologna stone) – barium sulfide – 1603, Vincenzo Cascariolo.
• Lead fume – lead oxide, found in flues at lead smelters.
• Lime/Quicklime (Burnt Lime)/Calx Viva/Unslaked Lime – calcium oxide, formed by calcining limestone

• Slaked Lime – calcium hydroxide. Ca(OH)₂

• Marcasite – a mineral; iron disulfide. In moist air it turns into green vitriol, FeSO₄.
• Massicot – lead monoxide. PbO

• Litharge – lead monoxide, formed by fusing and powdering massicot.
• Minium/Red Lead – trilead tetroxide, Pb₃O₄; formed by roasting litharge in air.
• Naples yellow/Cassel yellow – oxychloride of lead, formed by heating litharge with sal ammoniac.

• Mercurius praecipitatus – red mercuric oxide.
• Mosaic gold – stannic sulfide, formed by heating a mixture of tin filings, sulfur, and sal-ammoniac.
• Orpiment – arsenic trisulfide, an ore of arsenic.
• Pearl white – bismuth nitrate, BiNO₃
• Philosophers' Wool/nix alba (white snow)/Zinc White – zinc oxide, formed by burning zinc in air, used as a pigment
• Plumbago – a mineral, graphite; not discovered in pure form until 1564
• Powder of Algaroth – antimony oxychloride, formed by precipitation when a solution of butter of antimony and spirit of salt is poured into water.
• Purple of Cassius – formed by precipitating a mixture of gold, stannous and stannic chlorides, with alkali. Used for glass coloring
• Realgar – arsenic disulfide, an ore of arsenic.
• Regulus of antimony
• Resin of copper – copper(I) chloride (cuprous chloride), formed by heating copper with corrosive sublimate.
• Rouge/Crocus/Colcothar – ferric oxide, formed by burning green vitriol in air.
• Stibnite – antimony or antimony trisulfide, ore of antimony.
• Turpeth mineral – hydrolysed form of mercury(II) sulfate.
• Verdigris – Carbonate of Copper or (more recently) copper(II) acetate. The carbonate is formed by weathering copper. The acetate is formed by vinegar acting on copper. One version was used as a green pigment.
• White arsenic – arsenious oxide, formed by sublimating arsenical soot from the roasting ovens.
• White lead – carbonate of lead, a toxic pigment, produced by corroding stacks of lead plates with dilute vinegar beneath a heap of moistened wood shavings. (replaced by blanc fixe & lithopone)
• Venetian White – formed from equal parts of white lead and barium sulfate.
• Zaffre – impure cobalt arsenate, formed after roasting cobalt ore.
• Zinc Blende – zinc sulfide.

Salts

• Glauber's salt – sodium sulfate. Na₂SO₄
• Sal alembroth – salt composed of chlorides of ammonium and mercury.
• Sal ammoniac – ammonium chloride.
• Sal petrae (Med. Latin: "stone salt")/Salt of Petra/Saltpetre/Nitrate of potash – potassium nitrate, KNO₃, typically mined from covered dungheaps.
• Salt/Common salt – A mineral; sodium chloride, NaCl, formed by evaporating seawater (impure form).
• Salt of tartar – potassium carbonate; also called potash.
• Salt of hartshorn/Sal volatile – ammonium carbonate formed by distilling bones and horns.
• Tin salt – hydrated stannous chloride; see also spiritus fumans, another chloride of tin.

Vitriols

• Blue vitriol – copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate.
• Green vitriol – a mineral; iron(II) sulfate heptahydrate. (or ferrous sulfate)
• Red vitriol - cobalt sulfate.^[1]
• Sweet vitriol – diethyl ether. It could be made by mixing oil of vitriol with spirit of wine and heating it.^[2]
• White vitriol – zinc sulfate, formed by lixiviating roasted zinc blende.

Waters, oils and spirits

• Aqua fortis/spirit of nitre – nitric acid, formed by 2 parts saltpetre in 1 part (pure) oil of vitriol (sulfuric acid). (Historically, this process could not have been used, as 98% oil of vitriol was not available.)
• Aqua ragia/Spirit of turpentine/Oil of turpentine/Gum turpentine – turpentine, formed by the distillation of pine tree resin.
• Aqua regia (Latin: "royal water") – a mixture of aqua fortis and spirit of salt.
• Aqua tofani – arsenic trioxide, As₂O₃ (extremely poisonous)
• Aqua vitae/aqua vita/Spirit of Wine, ardent spirits – ethanol, formed by distilling wine^[2]
• Butter (or oil) of antimony – antimony trichloride. Formed by distilling roasted stibnite with corrosive sublimate, or dissolving stibnite in hot concentrated hydrochloric acid and distilling. SbCl₃
• Butter of tin – hydrated tin(IV) chloride; see also spiritus fumans, another chloride of tin.
• Oil of tartar – concentrated potassium carbonate, K₂CO₃ solution
• Oil of tartar per deliquium – potassium carbonate dissolved in the water which its extracts from the air.
• Oil of vitriol/Spirit of vitriol – sulfuric acid, a weak version can be formed by heating green vitriol and blue vitriol. H₂SO₄
• Spirit of box/Pyroxylic spirit – methanol, CH₃OH, distilled wood alcohol.
• Spiritus fumans – stannic chloride, formed by distilling tin with corrosive sublimate.
• Spirit of hartshorn – ammonia, formed by the decomposition of sal-ammoniac by unslaked lime.
• Spirit of salt/Acidum salis – the liquid form of hydrochloric acid (also called muriatic acid), formed by mixing common salt with oil of vitriol.

  • Marine acid air – gaseous form of hydrochloric acid.

Others

• Alkahest – universal solvent.
• Azoth – initially this referred to a supposed universal solvent but later became another name for Mercury.
• Bitumen – highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum.
• Blende
• Brimstone – sulfur

• Flowers of sulfur – formed by distilling sulfur.

• Caustic potash/Caustic wood alkali – potassium hydroxide, formed by adding lime to potash
• Caustic Soda/Caustic marine alkali – sodium hydroxide, NaOH, formed by adding lime to natron.
• Caustic volatile alkali – ammonium hydroxide.
• Corrosive sublimate – mercuric chloride, formed by subliming mercury, calcined green vitriol, common salt, and nitre.
• Gum Arabic – gum from the acacia tree.
• Liver of sulfur – formed by fusing^{[clarification needed]} potash and sulfur.
• Lunar caustic/lapis infernalis – silver nitrate, formed by dissolving silver in aqua fortis and evaporating.
• Lye – potash in a water solution, formed by leaching wood ashes.

• Potash – potassium carbonate, formed by evaporating lye; also called salt of tartar. K₂CO₃
• Pearlash – formed by baking potash in a kiln.

• Milk of sulfur (lac sulphuris) – formed by adding an acid to thion hudor (lime sulfur).
• Natron/Soda Ash/Soda – sodium carbonate. Na₂CO₃
• Nitrum flammans – ammonium nitrate.
• Sugar of Lead – lead(II) acetate, formed by dissolving lead oxide in vinegar.
• Thion hudor – lime sulfur, formed by boiling flowers of sulfur with slaked lime.

See also

• Alchemical symbol
• List of alchemists

References

External links

• Eklund, Jon (1975). The Incompleat Chymist: Being an Essay on the Eighteenth-Century Chemist in His Laboratory, with a Dictionary of Obsolete Chemical Terms of the Period (Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology, Number 33). Smithsonian Institute Press.
• Giunta, Carmen. Glossary of Archaic Chemical Terms: Introduction and Part I (A-B). Classic Chemistry.
• Giunta, Carmen. A Dictionary of the New Chymical Nomenclature. Classic Chemistry. Based on Guyton de Morveau, Louis Bernard; Lavoisier, Antoine; Bertholet, Claude-Louis; Fourcroy, Antoine-François de (1788) [1787]. Method of Chymical Nomenclature. Translated by St. John, James. pp. 105-176.