Mead of the Bell Beaker Culture (c. 2800–1800 BCE). The earliest surviving description of mead is in the hymns of the "Rigveda", one of the sacred books of the historical Vedic religion and (later) Hinduism dated around 1700–1100 BC. During the Golden Age of ancient Greece, mead was said to be the preferred drink. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) discussed mead in his "Meteorologica" and elsewhere, while Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) called mead "militites" in his "Naturalis Historia" and differentiated wine sweetened with honey or "honey-wine" from mead. The Hispanic-Roman naturalist Columella gave a recipe for mead in "De re rustica", about
Active ingredient Active ingredient An active ingredient (AI) is the ingredient in a pharmaceutical drug or pesticide that is biologically active. The similar terms active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and bulk active are also used in medicine, and the term active substance may be used for natural products. Some medication products may contain more than one active ingredient. The traditional word for the API is pharmacon or pharmakon (from , adapted from pharmacos) which originally denoted a magical substance or drug. The terms active constituent or active principle are often chosen when referring to the active substance of interest in a plant (such