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Drink Chianti and Live Forever

Italian Elixir of Life Recreated

When a Tuscan pharmacist found a centuries-old recipe for a potion to live forever he decided to recreate it. Now the Chianti-based elixir will be produced on a commercial scale.

AP

A scenic place to become immortal: the Chianti region of Tuscany, Italy.

Giovanni de Munari said one of his Tuscan ancestors dreamed up the recipe, according to Italian news agency ANSA. He found the old formula behind a shelf when he was renovating his pharmacy in Asciano, a town near Siena in Tuscany. The elixir's main ingredient is Chianti, a Tuscan red wine.

"They may not have known the names of the chemicals back then, but they were sure red wine, and Chianti in particular, was a boon for old age," he told ANSA on Tuesday.

The elixir's recipe resonates with recent scientific studies that credit antioxidants in red wine with helping to stave off heart disease and other age-related illnesses.

De Munari and his wife mixed up the beverage immediately upon finding the recipe.

"We achieved such a convincing result that we're now collaborating with a Treviso-based distillery to make the elixir on an industrial scale," said the pharmacist.

rbn -- with wire reports

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