Absinthe is strong alcoholic liqueur made with an herbal extract including wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). It is an emerald green drink (due to the presence of chlorophyll) which is very bitter (due to the presence of absinthin) and is therefore traditionally diluted with cold water which is poured over a perforated spoonful of sugar into a glass containing a shot of absinthe. Absinthe, in French, means wormwood. Two kinds of absinthe, or wormwood, are used in making the liqueur, the great and the small, the first, for its bitter qualities, and the last, which is gathered immature, chiefly to act in giving the delicate green colour. The other plants employed in the distillation are balm, caraway, anise, and hyssop. Balm is classed medicinally as an antinervine, an important antidote in a liquor considered generally as acting too forcibly on the nervous system. The qualities of caraway and anise are familiar to every one. The last is greatly used in medicine and in many other ways for its flavour and perfume. The caraway used at Pontarlier comes from the south of France; the best anise from southwestern France and from Andalusia, in Spain. The flowers of hyssop are regarded as stimulating and expectorant.

The drink then turns into an opaque white as the essential oils precipitate out of the alcoholic solution, forming a colloidal suspension. In addition to its effects in heavy drinkers, there were several social reasons why absinthe was ultimately banned. Absinthe�s popularity seems to have been part of a general increase in alcohol consumption, particularly in the form of distilled liqueurs. Since wine was considered a healthy drink and absinthe was the most popular liqueur of its time, absinthe was blamed for many alcohol-related problems and became the main target of early prohibition efforts in France. Absinthe was subsequently banned in many countries in the early 1900�s. Nonetheless, it is clear that absinthe had toxic effects when consumed with sufficient quantities and regularity. It is highly plausible that thujone and related terpenes played an important role in this toxicity, but there are also other possible sources of toxicity. When used in sufficient quantities, ethanol has profound toxic effects. If it is likely that absinthe was toxic to heavy users, it is less clear that the liqueur was uniquely psychoactive. Until more conclusive research is carried out, theories of absinthe�s special psychoactivity remain interesting speculation and anecdotes.


Wormwoods (Artemisia Absinthium) constituents
Duke, in the CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs gives the constituents of wormwood as: "the essential oil (up to 1.7%) contains phellandrene, pinene, thujone (3 to 12%), thujyl alcohol, thujyl acetate, thujyl isovalerate, bisabolene, thujyl palmitate, camphene, cadinene, nerol, and azulene (chamazulene, 3,6-dihydrochamazulene, 5,6-dihydrochamazulene). Formic and salicyclic acids occur in the saponification lyes of wormwood oil. The herb also contains bitter glucosides absinthin, absinthic acid, anabsinthin, astabsin, artametin, succinic acid together with tannin, resin, starch, malates, and nitrates of potassium and other salts. Lactones include arabsin, artabin, and ketopelenolide (a germacranolide). (Duke 1985, p. 67)".
Wormwood oil is produced by steam distillation of the leaves and flowering tops of dried wormwood. In terms of smell, appearance, and flavour Wormwood oil is a very dark green, brownish-green or bluish green coloured liquid with an odour that is intensely herbaceous-green, warm and deep, and a sharp and fresh top note, reminiscent of cedarleaf oil. The body-note is very warm and dry-woody, long lasting and highly interesting as a unique perfume note. The flavour of wormwood oil is intensely bitter, and has an astringent mouthfeel and a long-lasting unpleasant aftertaste. The flavour is pleasant, green-herbaceous, somewhat reminiscent of hop and chamomile only in very high dilution. (Arctander 1960, p. 662).
It is possible to buy wormwood oil from companies that sell essential oils. Caution should be exercised with these oils since they can contain significant amounts of pharmacologically active and/or toxic compounds. Some of these compounds may be absorbed through the skin. If enough essential oil is absorbed or ingested, life-threatening medical problems, including convulsions, kidney failure, and muscle disintegration may result.

Pharmacology!
Wormwood has been used medicinally since antiquity but these days is rarely prescribed, and its measurable toxicity prevents modern herbalists from recommending it. As its name implies, wormwood has been used to expel worms from people and animals until last century.
Wormwood leaves are used traditionally in Pakistan as an antipyretic (anti-fever). Dilute (1:1000) oil of wormwood has some antimicrobial activity. Kaul, Nigam and Dhar (1976) found that the dilute oil inhibited the growth of 4 (out of 7) different types of bacteria. Wormwood is also hepatoprotective (liver protecting).



Other plants containing Thujone
According to W. N. Arnold�s Scientific American article:
"Thujone occurs in a variety of plants, including tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and sage (Salvia officinalis), as well as in all the trees of the arborvitae group, of which the thuja (Thuja occidentalis), or white cedar, is one. It is also characteristic of most species of Artemisia, a genus within the Compositae, or daisy, family. Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and Roman wormwood (Artemisia pontica) were the main sources of the thujone in absinthe (Arnold, 1989, p. XX)."
In the picture the Thujone molecule.



Production method
There were two general ways in which absinthe was made. The first method, which was more traditional, is described in some detail below. This was the method used by more established and larger absinthe producers. The second method involved flavouring industrially produced (and often impure) ethanol with essential oils extracted from the plants listed below. This second method probably came into practice later and seems to have been used mainly by smaller manufacturers.


Absinthe as a cordial?
There seems to be no doubt that absinthe as a cordial was made by the French confiseurs of the eighteenth century, but only as a flavour for other beverages. It does not appear to have become a common potation until about the beginning of the reign of Louis Philippe. The balance of evidence would seem to show that the Algerian campaign, in the days when the princes of the Orleans family were fighting so bravely in North Africa, and when the favourite song of the French troops was La Casquette du Pcre Bugeaud, had a great deal to do with absinthe among military men. The operations of war had to be carried out not only under a burning sun, but in all seasons, at all hours, and very often on marshy ground. Nothing is more probable than that some military surgeon, observing the ravages made by brandy on the health of the troops in such a climate as that of Algeria, prescribed as a stimulant diluted absinthe. The soldiers may have made wry faces at first at a beverage which to the uninitiated tastes very like "doctor�s stuff," but with disastrous celerity they soon grew to like it and to drink it in excess. >From a camp tonic dispensed to recruit exhausted strength, absinthe became the favourite pick-me-up in the Algerian caf�s. It soon recrossed the Mediterranean, left its traces at Marseilles and Toulon, and with terrible quickness became domiciled in Paris.

Master and man go off their different ways intent on meeting their friends at a restaurant. They do not fall immediately to eating, but sit at the little caf� tables sipping their drink. That drink is absinthe. The practice is repeated on closing business for the night. Another absinthe is taken as an appetizer for dinner. Perhaps more than one is taken. We are assured that the dinner hour in Paris is growing later and later. Men who formerly dined at 6 or 6:30 P.M. now wait until 7 or 7:30. They wish to sit another hour before their second or third glass. It has been a long-standing complaint that the theatres are suffering from the late dining following on late drinking in the afternoon. The religion of the ap�ritif lives in more vigour in the south of France than in the capital. This exaggerated consumption of absinthe prevails equally in the mining countries of the south. In many of the districts absinthe has become the current drink. It is drunk even at the table, mixed with water. Thus absinthe has become an important factor in social life.

Although absinthe was sometimes drunk straight or in a variety of mixed drinks, the classic method of drinking it involves pouring cold water over a slotted spoon which contains sugar into a glass containing a shot of absinthe. As the water hits the absinthe, the oils precipitate out, and the drink changes from a clear emerald colour to an opaque, milky white.

A variation of the traditional drinking ritual is apparently used in Prague (see picture) where absinthe is currently available. In this variation, a heaping teaspoon of sugar is briefly wet in the glass of pure absinthe, then lit on fire and held over the glass. As the alcohol burns off, the sugar melts into the glass. When the fire gets low, the remaining sugar is stirred into the drink and the drink is quickly drunk. Obviously, this is a method for drinking quickly rather than savouring absinthe�s taste.


Artists and Absinthe
Although Vincent Van Gogh is now highly acclaimed, he received little recognition in his lifetime. Instead, he lead a difficult life which included depression, bizarre psychiatric symptoms, and finally suicide. Van Goghs difficult life ,with all its romantic and tragic elements, has been the focus of much medical speculation. His unusual painting style, psychiatric internment, and voluminous correspondence have proven fertile ground for the theories of modern physicians seeking to diagnosis his ailments. Some of these theories have suggested that some kind of drug-induced intoxication was responsible for his painting style and medical symptoms. Other artists have been known to find inspiration in drug use. When Van Gogh began to drink absinthe, he probably did so in a caf� frequented by writers and artists. Famous absinthe users include: Edouard Manet, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway.
It is impossible to separate the artistic influence of that stimulating social environment from whatever effects absinthe could have had on his perception and creativity.
In the Picture Edgard Dega�s Absinte drinkers.



Some alcoholic beverages related to Absinthe
Herb Sainte and Pernod are names of modern wormwood-free absinthes. Typically, additional star anise is added to balance the flavour. Herb Sainte is manufactured in New Orleans. Pernod is named after Henri-Louis Pernod, who founded the most important absinthe distillery in France in the early 1800s.

Pastis is a similar liqueur to absinthe and was also originally made with wormwood. However, the dominant flavour in pastis is liquorice (rather than the star anise of modern Pernod or Herb Sainte). Pastis brands include Ricard, Duval, Jeannot, Casanis, and Henri Bardouin.
Vermouths, Chartreuses, and Benedictine all contain small amounts of thujone. In fact, vermouth, which is made using the flower heads from wormwood, takes its name from the German wermuth ("wormwood"). There are, of course, many other essential oil containing drinks, such as Ouzo and Jagermeister. Wormwood is popular as a flavouring for Brannvin (an alcoholic drink made from potatoes - see picture) in Sweden.


Legal or illegal?
The European Community Codex Committee on Food Additives has restricted the levels of thujone to 0.5 ppm (mg/kg) in food and beverages, 10 ppm (mg/kg) in alcoholic beverages containing more than 25% alcohol, 5 ppm (mg/kg) in weaker alcoholic beverages, and 35 ppm in bitters.

Absinthe & Thujone
Absinthe, a high proof, controversial herbal liqueur, is available again in Britain after an 85-year absence. Twice the strength of most other spirits, the emerald green tipple of choice for 19th-century artists and intellectuals -- along with millions or ordinary Europeans -- has been banned in France, Belgium, Switzerland and the US since just prior to the first world war. Now, to the horror of some but the delight of many, a few British companies have secured contracts with tiny Spanish and Czech absinthe producers after discovering that the drink was never formally prohibited in the United Kingdom.
Green Bohemia market �Hill�s Absinth� -- the Czech spelling is idosyncratic --as an exotic and supposedly potent way of celebrating the new millennium for those desperately seeking a new kick. Critics call Hill�s �Windex� and �gargle�. The liquor contains no detectable thujone.

Other companies such as New Millenium Products are importing Deva Absenta from Spain. This is a more solid product. Sebor UK imports the best of the Czech labels, but traditionalists dislike its lack of much anise base flavor.

The green drinks revival has provoked astonishment among alcohol-awareness campaigners who accuse such firms of giving young people the ammunition to drink to dangerous excess. However, other high proof spirits sich as 151 Bacardi rum and 136 proof Chartreuse Green liqueur -- a close cousin of absinthe, were already on the market. Adolescents out to seriously abuse their hepatic systems usually prefer cheap 95% grain neutral spirits and grape juice, a concoction known as Purple Passion. These absinthes are simply out of that price class. 40 to 76 sterling for a liter of 55 to 70 proof absinthe simple can�t compete for the cheap-drunk market.

Imported from Switzerland (where it started as a patent medicine) to France in 1797 by Henri Louis Pernod, the light green drink is made by steeping dried herbs, including some common wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), in ethyl alcohol and then distilling the steep liquor. The distillation is esential as wormwood contains extraordinarily bitter compounds called absinthins which must be excluded from the distillate. Fortunately absinthins are alcohol insoluble, while the rest of the essential oil is volatile with alcohol vapor. The principal herbs are familiar culinary spices anise and fennel, their essential oils being mainly anethole. The product is then treated with Roman wormwood (A.pontica) and other herbs in a delicate and difficult final step. These add finishing flavors and fragile chlorophyllic green pigment -- easily denatured by light or heat. Less traditional brands use food coloring and usually go for a dramatic emerald green (or blue, yellow, even red!) Really authentic absinthe is a pale vivid green like the gemstone Peridot. A New Orleans chemist and microbiologist, Ted Breaux, has spent seven years studying absinthe and has replicated the recipe for one of the most important Belle Epoch brands, Eduoard Pernod. Breaux is a perfectionist about absinthe making, and owns two bottles of century old premium Pernods, which greatly facilitated his efforts. Breaux� absinthe (soon to be commercialized outside of the US) is believed by many to be the finest the world has seen since 1915.

The presumed active ingredient in wormwood�s oils, alpha-thujone, has a similar molecular structure to menthol, a-pinene, eucalyptol, camphor and other monoterpenes. Formerly believed to have a THC (cannabinoid) structure-activity relationship and mechanism, a-thujone is now known to modulate only an entirely different receptor site, the GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) system. GABA moderates the firing of neural synapses; a-thujone mildly antagonizes such inhibition.

The traditional method of �presentation� (drinking) involves charging a perforated absinthe spoona with a sugar cube and placing it over an �absinthe glass� which greatly resembes a modern parfait ice cream glass. The glass has a line around it demarking the proper amount of absinthe it should contain so that when full, the glass will hold the proper 5 parts of water fo 1 part absinthe -- almost no one ever drinks this liqueur neat, save for a few show-offs. The water is trickled from a carafe or absinthe fountain over the sugar cube which slowly dissolves. As the sugary water dilutes the alcohol, the herbal oils in the high proof alcohol solution come out of solution, being almost insoluble in water. This liberates the hugely floral bouquet and produces a milky off-white drink similar to Greek ouzo or Mideastern arak or European anisette -- all anise based drinks like absinthe. The clouding effect is termed the louche, and is of great aesthetic appeal to absintheurs. Modern variations involving setting the absinthe alight are mere cheap melodrama.

Absinthe rose to popularity in the mid 19th century only after the decades long phylloxera blight of the vineyards caused the price of wine to soar and its availability to plummet. By the late 1800s, La F�ee Verte - the Green Fairy as absinthe was nicknamed - was being consumed with such fervour by the Parisian artistic and literary set (and nearly everyone else) that the cocktail hour was renamed Heure Verte. Among its devotees were Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Pablo Picasso, Artur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Alistair Crowley, and Charles Baudelaire. Van Gogh�s ear-cutting incident is popularly attributed to absinthe intoxication. However, Van Gogh was also fond of eating his oil paints and drinking turpentine (principally a-pinene) and had long been highly unstable and self-destructive.

The advent of the prohibition and Christian-temperance movements coincided with the success of the vintners in reconstituting their industry with New World cuttings immune to the insect blight. The vintners next urgently sought a way to recover their millions of customers and woo them from the Fairys embrace. They joined forces with the anti-alcohol movements, who had arisen in response to the "Great Binge" of the Belle Epoch. Pamphleteers (notably Zola) and journalists were enlisted or employed; politicians and legislators cajoled or suborned. A massive anti-absinthe campaign in the press along with some lurid murder cases -- conveniently but unconvincingly laid at the Fairys door -- led to the domino effect of European bans between 1910 (Switzerland) and 1915 (France).

But were wormwood and its active agent, a-thujone, such menaces? A.absinthium has been used for millenia as a vermifuge and digestif tonic. And contrary to general opinion, a-thujone does not only occur in wormwood. It is a major component of the essential oils of such homely culinary herbs as sage, tansy, and tarragon. No one seems to be having neurotoxic problems from eating these commonplace spices. Absinthe was never banned in Spain, Portugal and a few other European countries, and its production and consumption in those places never ceased. In Switzerland�s francophone Jura region bootleg absinthe called La Bleue has been produced clandestinely ever since 1910; estimates put its bootleggers at about 130, making more than 50,000 liters a year, little of which ever leaves Switzerland. Yet the folks in Neuchatel seem no worse for the wear. Those mountains are famous for ergotism not absinthism.

The EU allows absinthe of commerce to contain up to 10 mg/Kg -- equivalent to parts per million -- which is mild compared to the estimated 60-90 mg/Kg of premium Belle Epoch absinthes. But several modern Spanish and Czech brands actually contain no detectable thujone (and therefore can be presumed to have been made without A.absinthium) while some pastis -- fake absinthes introduced after the bans -- may contain more than 30 mg/Kg. Some vermouths -- the name is a derivative and corruption of wormwood which is used in flavoring these blended wines -- contain more a-thujone than many absinthes. Thus the martini is a chemical cousin of absinthe!

a-Thujone meanwhile is an important component in salves, perfumes, creams, etc. usually as a counter-irritant. The familiar Vicks Vap-O-Rub one�s mother rubs on their chest for rlief from a cold contains thujone and other terpenes. So does Absorbine Jr. The anti-insect and preservative properties of white cedar used for clothes chests is due to the thujone in the wood; the classical name for white cedar is Thuja, whence the terpene gets its name. Van Gogh�s doctor sentimentally planted a thuja tree at Vincent�s grave.

In summary, thujone and absinthe were unjustly maligned and demonized, for a combination of commercial and ideological (even religious) reasons. Switzerland where cannabis is legal (and often steeped in vodka) still bans absinthe despite its ready availability. The USA still prohibits absinthe but does not presently make any special effort to interdict small quantities entering for personal use. In Europe, Pernod-Ricard survives as the continent�s major beverage producer, but to afficianados, the name Pernod will always conjur up the Green Fairy and her �opal wand�. Taken in moderation as all alcoholic drinks should be, absinthe is just one of many pleasant aperitifs, albeit one with a far more interesting history than most.
Don Walsh, who undertook the update of this page, is an organic chemist living in Bangkok, Thailand, where he serves as managing director of Jade Liqueurs Co.,Ltd. He was, some three decades ago, a research assistant to Prof.Emeritus Jack H.Stocker of the University of New Orleans -- which city, also his home town, was center of American absinthe culture until the ban in 1915.