Hamburg, Germany - The legend of absinthe as a mind-altering
drug-of-choice for Bohemian artists has been dealt a sobering jolt by
German scientists who say it contained no mind-altering substances
whatsoever - aside from an incredibly high alcohol content.
Picasso, van Gogh, Proust and others praised the strong spiritual
qualities of this strong spirit. France banned absinthe in 1915 in
the wake of anecdotal evidence of hallucinations and mental
aberration as a result of imbibing the green beverage.
Over the years, experts came up with theories that 'The Green
Fairy' contained a chemical called thujone in wormwood, one of the
herbs used to prepare absinthe and the one that gives the drink its
green colour.
Thujone was blamed for 'absinthe madness' and 'absinthism,' a
collection of symptoms including hallucinations, facial tics,
numbness and dementia.
The problem facing scientists was the fact that absinthe had not
been produced since 1915. A modern-day version of absinthe, on the
market for the past 20 years, is only a very tame and sanitized
version of the original.
But the new study is based on 13 pre-ban sealed bottles of the
genuine article, which were found in France, Switzerland, Italy,
Spain, the Netherlands and the United States.
A team of chemical analysts led by Dr. Dirk Lachenmeier of the
Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Laboratory of Karlsruhe in
Germany discovered the 100-year-old bottles of absinthe did indeed
contain some thujone.
However, the amount of thujone was comparable to the modern-day
post-ban level and thus harmless.
What the German researchers discovered, however, was that absinthe
was incredibly high in ethanol alcohol content.
The century-old absinthe contained about 70 per cent alcohol,
giving it a 140-proof kick. In comparison, most gins, vodkas and
whiskys are just 80- to 100-proof.
'All things considered, nothing besides ethanol was found in the
absinthes that was able to explain the syndrome of absinthism,'
Lachenmeier says in a report published in the May 14 issue of the
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Critics immediately condemned the new findings as non-
representative. They pointed out that the 13 bottles might have been
cheap imitations of the potent original. After all, the critics say,
copyright infringement was commonplace in those days.
But Lachenmeier and his team say that the study is based on the
best marques and that cheap rip-off absinthe usually was sold by the
cask, not by the bottle.
Lachenmeier says the fact that these bottles were lovingly put
away for safe-keeping is evidence that their original owners
considered them to be precious.
'The majority of the unopened pre-ban bottles of absinthe that
have surfaced in recent times are representative of the most widely
distributed and most respected marques,' he writes.
'The bias of surviving examples toward the better marques can be
explained not only by the fact that many of them were among the
largest producers, but also by the circumstance that those who
possessed the luxury of long-term suitable storage (e.g., wine caves)
had the means to accumulate the better brands,' he adds.
Lachenmeier speculates that the 1915 ban on absinthe prompted
well-heeled aficionados to horde their absinthe caches as a
remembrance of a disappearance age.
'It seems reasonable to assume that, upon the interdiction and
disappearance of absinthe in Europe and the advent of World War I,
those who were in possession of such bottles preserved them as
keepsakes and mementos of a happier period,' he says.
'Many of these bottles were forgotten following the casualties of
two wars and the passage of decades of time, which helps explain why
some have remained preserved undisturbed in their cellars until the
present day,' Lachenmeier writes in the publication.
He says there is little chance that the bottles represent cheap,
watered-down, rip-off brands of absinthe for a number of compelling
reasons.
'In contrast, those dubious and short-lived marques, usually of
Parisian origin, that represented the cheapest, most likely
adulterated examples were purchased by those of lower socioeconomic
status, in urban areas where storage space would be at a premium, and
the prospects of long-term storage were thus far less likely,' Dr.
Lachenmeier notes.
He theorizes that earlier studies were biased by the mythical
legends surrounding absinthe. Scientists interpreted their findings
to suit their prejudiced opinions that absinthe must have contained
some secret mind-altering substance.
Lachenmeier hints that the true mind-altering substance was just
plain ethanol drinking alcohol in huge concentrations. He says the
symptoms of 'deranged behaviour' are indistinguishable from severe
alcohol intoxication.
'Today it seems a substantial minority of consumers want these
myths to be true, even if there is no empirical evidence that they
are,' Lachenmeier writes.
'These consumers seem to feel that absinthe, in view of its fabled
and exotic reputation, ought to be dangerous, even in the absence of
evidence that it is.
'It is to be hoped that this paper will go some way to refuting at
least the first of these myths, conclusively demonstrating that the
thujone content of a representative selection of pre-ban absinthe,
including the largest and most popular brands, fell within the modern
EU limit.'
USA
Your Talkback on this Story