Absinthe: what's your poison?
BMJ 1999; 319 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1590 (Published 18 December 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;319:1590All rapid responses
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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
Kansas City.
Competing interests: No competing interests
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
SHO
Poole General Hospital,
Longfleet Road,
Poole,
Dorset BH15 2JB
Competing interests: No competing interests
Thujone concentration in pre-ban absinthe
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
Competing interests: No competing interests