Ambergris

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Ambergris_Caye

Ambergris (Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, ambergrease, or grey amber) is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish color, with the shades being variegated like marble. It possesses a peculiar sweet, earthy odour not unlike isopropyl alcohol. Now largely replaced by synthetics, it is occasionally still used as a fixative in perfumery.

Source

Ambergris occurs as a biliary concretion in the intestines of the sperm whale, and can be found floating upon the sea, on the sea-coast, or in the sand near the sea-coast. Because lumps of ambergris with embedded beaks of giant squid have been found, scientists have theorized that the whale's intestine produces the substance as a means of facilitating the passage of hard, sharp objects that the whale might have inadvertently eaten. Ambergris can be found in the Atlantic Ocean; on the coasts of Brazil and Madagascar; also on the coast of Africa, of the East Indies, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Molucca islands. However, most commercially collected ambergris came from the Bahama Islands, Providence Island, etc. It is also sometimes found in the abdomens of whales.

Physical properties

Ambergris is found in lumps of various shapes and sizes, weighing from ½ oz (14 g) to 100 or more pounds (45 or more kg). When initially expelled by the whale or removed from it, the fatty precursor of ambergris is pale white in colour (sometimes streaked with black), soft in consistency, with a strong fecal smell. Following months to years of photo-degradation and oxidation in the ocean, this precursor gradually hardens, developing a dark grey or black colour, a crusty and waxy texture, and a peculiar odour that is at once sweet, earthy, marine, and animalic. Its smell has been described by many as a vastly richer and smoother version of isopropanol without its stinging harshness.

In this developed condition, ambergris has a specific gravity ranging from 0.780 to 0.926. It melts at about 62 °C to a fatty, yellow resinous-like liquid; and at 100 °C it is volatilized into a white vapour. It is soluble in ether, and in volatile and fixed oils. Ambergris is relatively unreactive to acid. White crystals of a substance called ambrein, which closely resembles cholesterol, can be separated from ambergris by heating raw ambergris in alcohol then allowing the resulting solution to cool.

Replacement compounds and economics

Historically, the primary commercial use of ambergris has been in fragrance chemistry, although it has also been used for medicinal and flavoring purposes. Ambergris is one of the most important amber type odorants and is highly sought. However, it is difficult to get a consistent and reliable supply of high quality ambergris. Due to demand for ambergris and its high price, replacement compounds have been sought out by the fragrance industry and chemically synthesized. The most important of these is Ambrox, which has taken its place as the most widely used amber odorant in perfume manufacture. The oldest and most commercially significant synthesis of Ambrox is from sclareol (primarily extracted from Clary sage), although syntheses have been devised from a variety of other natural products, including cis-abienol and thujone. Procedures for the microbial production of Ambrox have also been devised.

Depending on its quality, raw ambergris fetches approximately USD$20 per gram. In the United States, possession of any part of an endangered species — including ambergris that has washed ashore — is a violation of the Endangered Species Act of 1978.

In popular culture

Literature

Alexander Pope observed, "Praise is like ambergris; a little whiff of it, by snatches, is very agreeable; but when a man holds a whole lump of it to his nose, it is a stink and strikes you down."

Ambergris is also a fictional city, named for "the most secret and valued part of the whale", appearing in Jeff Vandermeer's books City of Saints and Madmen and An Afterword.

Ambergris is mentioned in the conversations between Marcel and Claude LeFever in the Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume.

In Miguel de Cervantes epic novel Don Quixote, ambergris is frequently cited as a sweet smelling perfume, most often worn by the rich or noble. When Don Quixote, standing to Sancho Panza, suspects his squire of having recently relieved himself he cites his proof to Sancho saying "Because just now thou smellest stronger than ever, and not of ambergris".

The word also appears in Ezra Pound's poem Portrait d'une Femme.

Chapter ninety-one of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick relates the extraction of ambergris from a dead sperm whale. In the next chapter, the narrator, Ishmael, in his typically associative, semi-scientific manner, discusses ambergris and its properties.

During his sixth voyage Sinbad the Sailor is shipwrecked and washes ashore in a land whose beaches are covered in ambergris, "its rich perfume scenting the entire region".

In the Encyclopedia Brown series of children's detective stories, there is a story called "The Case of Smelly Nellie and the Ambergris".

Ambergris is mentioned in The Far Side of the World, one of the Aubrey-Maturin series novels by Patrick O'Brian.

Ambergris is mentioned in "With no one as witness" by Elizabeth George.

Ambergris is one of the main plot subjects in Island at the Top of the World, a book by Ian Cameron, formally known as The Lost Ones. It was later turned into a 1974 film produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

Cinema

In the 2001 motion picture Hannibal, Dr. Lecter's secret location in Florence, Italy was determined after FBI Agent Clarice Starling received a letter from him that was scented with a hand-engineered fragrance containing ambergris. Agent Starling consulted a team of fragrance industry experts who identified the presence of ambergris by smelling the letter and lamented their inability to work with this substance in the United States due to its prohibition.

Ambergris is mentioned during the Futurama episode Three Hundred Big Boys when the whale Mushu is caused to vomit by the rotten fish it ingests when Leela swims with it. Later, there is a cameo by Roseanne Barr explaining ambergris and its uses.

The Killer Whale episode of The Avengers (with Cathy Gale) is about ambergris smuggling.

A whale-sized block of ambergris plays a central role in artist Matthew Barney's film Drawing Restraint 9

Other

There was also a rock band called Ambergris, who released one self-titled album in 1970 through ABC Records.

In the World of Warcraft video game, players occasionally receive an item called Threshadon Ambergris from defeating Loch Ness Monster-like sea creatures.

The John Singer Sargent painting "Fumee d'Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris)", 1880 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts, USA

External links

Perfumery | Whale products | Animal glandular products

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