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absinthe
- Charles Hugh-Jones (20 December 1999)
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absinthe quote
- Wilfred Niels Arnold (22 December 1999)
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Thujone concentration in pre-ban absinthe
- Dirk W. Lachenmeier (16 April 2007)
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Charles Hugh-Jones
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Sir, I was interested to read Professor Strang’s Christmas article on absinthe and Toulouse-Lautrec (of infamous brothel repute). Surely a case of “Absinthe makes the tart grow fonder”? Charles Hugh-Jones
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Wilfred Niels Arnold, Professor University of Kansas Medical Center
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Charles Hugh-Jones neglected to mention the origin of his quote. The
Englishman Ernest Dowson was a writer of prose poems. He was reasonably
accomplished for his short span of 33 years but is best known for his
double pun upon the aphrodisiacal rumor, "I understand that absinthe
makes the tart grow fonder." [Flower D & Maas H. 1967. The
Letters of Ernest Dowson. p 35, (letter to Arthur Moore, February 15,
1889), Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses.] Dowson popped back and forth between London and Paris and sometimes had difficulty remembering the trips. However, there is no evidence for absinthe being an aphrodisiac. In common with other alcoholic beverages, it increases the sexual ambition but lowers the performance. Wilfred Niels Arnold |
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Dirk W. Lachenmeier, Food Chemist CVUA Karlsruhe, D-76187 Karlsruhe, Germany
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The authors of the article claim that “the thujone content of old absinthe was about 0.26 g/l” and Duplais’ French distilling guide (1) is given as reference. This citation is misleading. Duplais’ recipes merely give the wormwood content used for absinthe making, and there is no mention of thujone (or any other terpene) in both volumes of Duplais’ work. In this context, it must also be pointed out that the exact composition of wormwood oil was unknown in Duplais’ time. The composition of wormwood oil was first studied by Leblanc in 1845 (2), and a constituent with the empirical formula C10H16O was identified. The substance was called absinthol by Beilstein and Kupffer in 1873 (3). It was later proven by Wallach in 1902 (4) that absinthol in wormwood was the same substance as both tanacetone found by Semmler (5) in tansy oil, and a compound in thuja oil that Wallach (6) had named thujone. The correct structure was discovered by Semmler in 1900 (7). Only at the beginning of the 20th century, therefore, did it become common knowledge that thujone is a constituent of wormwood oil as documented in Gildemeister’s and Hoffmann’s classic textbook of the volatile oils (8). Knowledge of the exact composition of wormwood oil has become available only with modern chromatographic methods. The first systematic gas chromatographic (GC) study of wormwood oils was conducted by Chialva et al. (9). Here, the pre- GC view that thujone is the chief constituent of wormwood was shown to be over-simplified as there are a number of different wormwood chemotypes - a fact that is willingly ignored even in current literature. As there was no mention of 0.26 g/l in Duplais’ book it can only be presumed how Strang et al. derived this concentration. Most probably they meant by the 1855 citation, that an educated guess as to the thujone content of absinthe can be made from Duplais’ recipe. However, the authors failed to mention the wide variations in the oil content of wormwood and the even wider variations of the thujone content in the oil determined in Chialva’s and other GC studies. Therefore, it can be concluded that the calculation of 260 mg/l was done with exceptionally high values for both parameters and was an overestimation. Experimental evidence pointing to this overestimation was provided by a number of studies. Absinthes produced according to historic recipes only contained relatively low concentrations of thujone (mean: 1.3 ± 1.6 mg/l, range: 0 - 4.3 mg/l) (10). Concentrations below 10 mg/l were also found in a number of tests of vintage absinthes (10-12). In contrast, experimental evidence is still lacking to confirm the calculation of a high thujone content presented by Strang et al. With the end of absinthe’s prohibition and rising public interest in the product, the misinformation about thujone was transferred to the popular press. The 260 mg/l is presented as common knowledge, and it is given as fact that the thujone content in the mid-nineteenth century was significantly greater than it is today. In the worst cases, totally unsubstantiated recommendations are given to consumers, e.g. that “it is only true absinthe if it contains the wormwood with thujone (the psychoactive ingredient of wormwood)”. Nowadays, this is so widely accepted that most absinthe manufacturers advertise the thujone content and supposed psychoactive or aphrodisiac properties of their products on their websites or even on the bottle labels (13). Most modern absinthe has been created from a mixture of aroma and colouring with no reference to the original product and is marketed on the basis of the thujone hype. Furthermore, those who search for the mythical thujone are offered so-called absinthe essences (with high thujone contents of 750 mg/l) to „enhance“ their normal absinthes above the European Union’s maximum limits. So much attention is focused on absinthe’s myths and supposed effects that almost everyone has forgotten that it was once a gourmet product with all the finesse of the best high-quality spirits. The figure of 260 mg/l of thujone that was repeated over and over might have kept producers at the beginning of the absinthe renaissance in the 1990s from using historical recipes such as those of Duplais. Only in recent years, have a number of authentic distilled absinthes become available on the market. Our analyses showed that such products easily do comply with the thujone maximum limits and this fact may also prove the prior overestimation of the thujone contents (14). Now, only the consumer has yet to learn that absinthe should be enjoyed purely for its taste like any other spirit. References 1. Duplais P. Traité des liqueurs et de la distillation des alcools ou le liquoriste & le distillateur modernes. Paris, France: Lacroix- Comon; 1855. 2. Leblanc F. Composition de l'essence d'absinthe. Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie 1845; VII:379. 3. Beilstein FK, Kupffer C. Ueber Wermuthöl. Justus Liebig's Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie 1873; 170(3):290-297. 4. Wallach O. Zur Kenntnis der Terpene und der ätherischen Öle (Fünfundfünfzigste Abhandlung). Justus Liebig's Annalen der Chemie 1902; 323(3):333-373. 5. Semmler FW. Ueber Campherarten, welche die Ketongruppe CO.CH3 enthalten. Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft 1892; 25:3343- 3352. 6. Wallach O. Zur Kenntniss der Terpene und der ätherischen Öle; zweiundzwanzigste Abhandlung. I. Über die Bestandtheile des Thujaöls. Justus Liebig's Annalen der Chemie 1893; 272(1):99-122. 7. Semmler FW. Ueber Tanaceton und seine Derivate. Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft 1900; 33(2):275-277. 8. Gildemeister E, Hoffmann F. The volatile oils. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1913. 9. Chialva F, Liddle PAP, Doglia G. Chemotaxonomy of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium L.) I. Composition of the essential oil of several chemotypes. Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 1983; 176:363-366. 10. Lachenmeier DW, Emmert J, Kuballa T, Sartor G. Thujone-Cause of absinthism? Forensic Sci Int 2006; 158(1):1-8. 11. Hutton I. Myth, reality and absinthe. Curr Drug Discov 2002; 9:62 -64. 12. Schaefer I, Bindler F, Lugnier A. Toxicological rehabilitation of absinthium liqueur. Toxicol Lett 1994; 74 Suppl. 1:75. 13. Padosch SA, Lachenmeier DW, Kröner LU. Absinthism: a fictitious 19th century syndrome with present impact. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy 2006; 1(1):14. 14. Lachenmeier DW, Walch SG, Padosch SA, Kröner LU. Absinthe - a review. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 2006; 46: 365-377. Competing interests: None declared |
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