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| A fanciful legend
The laboratories marketing Swedish Bitters have all inspired their research on Maria Treben's formula, a well-known Austrian chemist during the 60s, who claimed to have rediscovered the recipe registered by a Swedish doctor named Jonathan Samst. But in fact, Maria Treben was misled by false documents.
She tells in a book that while in Bavaria, after the war, she suffered from typhoid and botulism and that a woman whom she didn’t know brought her " a phial filled with a very nice-smelling liquid, together with the copy of an antique manuscript where, in 46 points, was described how these herbs cured any ailment ".
This formula would have travelled from remote times, in Babylon and in Egypt, where many stories refer to a mysterious remedy able of ensuring eternal life to kings and priests. Some time later in Rome, Nero would have ordered Hippocrates to find the recipe of this famous elixir...
This explanation, which lacks any logic, intrigued Michel Bontemps. If its origin was Egyptian, Babylonian or Greek, if its current formula had been completed in Germany, why then would this remedy be called “Swedish Bitters "?
Analyzed through a historical filter, Maria Treben's formula turns out to be a complete fantasy!
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The truth: an alchemical formula
It is in Sweden, thanks to the help of Doctor Mats Ringdahl who agreed to open for him the archives of the Faculty Karolinska’s Library in Stockholm, that Michel Bontemps discovered historical documents that narrated the story of the real remedy.
In fact, the Swedish Bitters formula was developed for King Gustav II of Sweden, who came to the throne in 1611. He had asked his personal physician, Dr Laurentius Erici, to find the means which would enable him to never be tired or sick.
Erici was a renowned physician and teacher at the Faculty who had written the reference book " Radh och läkedom " (Advice and treatments against the plague and its consequences), published in Upsala in 1602. Trained in medicine by Paracelsus concepts, he took up the big formula of the famous alchemist – the Theriac - which he then quantified and modified.
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SAccording to the alchemical texts, The Theriac is composed of 43 plants, the cabalistic number for perfection:
4 + 3 = 7
The number 7 corresponds to a complete cycle, which has reached its objective, and which contains all the stages of a process: God rests on the 7th day of the creation, the 7th chakra crowns the ascent of vital energy, the paths of ecstasy lead to the 7th house...
These 43 plants have synergic functions: "They have to correct and soften the action of other simple ones endowed with powerful virtues; they have to increase the virtue of several others; they have to unite by the blending and maturation of all the Components so as to result in just one and only; and finally they must allow the preparation to keep for a long time, preserving all of its properties ".
Dr Erici recommended to add the specific plants required for the condition to be treated, to the 43 plants of the Paracelsus Theriac. Plants must be harvested at precise dates linked with the phases of the Moon, according to Johannes Kepler's indications, astrologer at the University of Uppsala.
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| The secret of a great conquering king
King Gustav II had his Elixir made in great quantities for the soldiers of his elite guard force, the magnificent Blue Guard (the colour of their eyes and of their uniform), considered to be invincible.
This remedy, which they were compelled to take morning and evening as well as apply to their wounds, would have given them the necessary physical and mental strength to dismantle the Prussian, Russian, Austrian and Polish armies, conquer Europe, reach Constantinople and envisage the conquest of the Ottoman Empire...
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| Convinced of the effectiveness of his Elixir, the monarch used it in case of:
Bruises, in cataplasm
 Wounds, lotion and bandage
"To solder again bones ", in a bandage
To improve vision, in a lotion diluted in water
As fortifying bath
As daily foot-bath to relieve his feet bruised by long walks
As hip bath - do not laugh! – The King rode from 12 to 18 hours a day
As gargle
And above all, he drank a spoonful in the morning and evening, every day!
The chronicles of the time report that throughout his reign, the King - and his guard - never rested for more than four hours a night. Tireless, he slept under all weathers, on the ground, on the ice-cold stone. He washed himself nude every day in frozen lakes and rivers.
King Gustav II the Great showed all of his life an outstanding power and vitality. He died on November 6th 1632 in the battle of Lützen, in Poland, lethally wounded by the bullet of a pistol. Up to the last moment, he asked to have his wound soaked with the Swedish Bitters Elixir, the only remedy in which he had confidence...
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