Ambergris

For other uses, see Ambergris (disambiguation).

Ambergris

Ambergris (/ˈæmbərɡriːs/ or /ˈæmbərɡrɪs/, Latin: Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, ambergrease or grey amber) is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. The word amber is derived from the Arabic word 'anbar'(عنبر).

Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, faecal odour. However, as it ages, it acquires a sweet, earthy scent commonly likened to the fragrance of rubbing alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency. Although ambergris was formerly highly valued by perfumers as a fixative (allowing the scent to last much longer), It has now largely been replaced by synthetic ambroxan.

Sources

Ambergris occurs as a bile duct secretion of the intestines of the sperm whale and can be found floating upon the sea, or lying on the coast. It is also sometimes found in the abdomens of whales. Because the beaks of giant squids have been found embedded within lumps of ambergris, scientists have theorised that the substance is produced by the whale's gastrointestinal tract to ease the passage of hard, sharp objects that the whale might have eaten. The sperm whale usually vomits these, but if one travels further down the gut, it will be covered in ambergris.

Ambergris is usually passed in the fecal matter. It is speculated that an ambergris mass too large to be passed through the intestines is expelled via the mouth, leading to the reputation of ambergris as primarily coming from whale vomit. It takes years for ambergris to form. Christopher Kemp, the author of Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris, says that It is only produced by sperm whales, and only by an estimated one percent of them. Once expelled by a whale, it must float for years, then it must make landfall, avoid being broken into pieces by rough seas, and someone must find it. In other words, the odds of finding ambergris are extremely small. The very small chance of finding ambergris and the legal ambiguity involved led perfume makers away from ambergris.

Ambergris can be found in the Atlantic Ocean and on the coasts of South Africa, Brazil, Madagascar, the East Indies, The Maldives, China, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Molucca Islands. In rarer cases, it can be found in other locations. Most commercially collected ambergris comes from the Bahamas in the Caribbean, particularly New Providence. Fossilised ambergris from 1.75 million years ago has also been found.

A 1.1 kg (2.4 lb) piece of ambergris found on a beach at Anglesey, Wales, was sold for £11,000 at an auction in Macclesfield, England, on 25 September 2015 to a French buyer.

A 13kg ambergris was found by two Omanis from the guts of a dead sperm whale that washed up on the Fooshi shores of Sadah province in southern Oman, in November 2015.

Physical properties

Ambergris is found in lumps of various shapes and sizes, usually weighing from 15 g (~½ oz) to 50 kg (110 pounds), sometimes more. When initially expelled by or removed from the whale, the fatty precursor of ambergris is pale white in colour (sometimes streaked with black), soft, with a strong fecal smell. Following months to years of photodegradation 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 generally described 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 liquid; and at 100 °C (212 °F) it is volatilised into a white vapour. It is soluble in ether, and in volatile and fixed oils.

Chemical properties

Ambergris is relatively nonreactive to acid. White crystals of a terpene known as ambrein can be separated from ambergris by heating raw ambergris in alcohol, then allowing the resulting solution to cool. Breakdown of the relatively scentless ambrein through oxidation produces ambroxan and ambrinol, the main odor components of ambergris.

ambrein  ambroxan  ambrinol

Ambroxan is now produced synthetically and used extensively in the perfume industry.

Applications

Ambergris has been mostly known for its use in creating perfume and fragrance much like musk. Perfumes can still be found with ambergris around the world. It is collected from remains found at sea and on beaches, although its precursor originates from the sperm whale, which is a vulnerable species.

Ancient Egyptians burned ambergris as incense, while in modern Egypt ambergris is used for scenting cigarettes. The ancient Chinese called the substance "dragon's spittle fragrance". During the Black Death in Europe, people believed that carrying a ball of ambergris could help prevent them from getting the plague. This was because the fragrance covered the smell of the air which was believed to be a cause of plague.

This substance has also been used historically as a flavoring for food and is considered an aphrodisiac in some cultures. During the Middle Ages, Europeans used ambergris as a medication for headaches, colds, epilepsy, and other ailments.

Legality

Main article: International Whaling Commission § 1986 moratorium

From the 18th to the mid 19th century, the whaling industry prospered. By some reports, nearly 5,000 whales, including sperm whales, were killed each year. Due to studies showing that the whale populations were being threatened, the International Whaling Commission instituted a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. Although ambergris is not harvested from whales, many countries also ban the trade of ambergris as part of the more general ban on the hunting and exploitation of whales.

Urine, faeces and ambergris (that has been naturally excreted by a sperm whale) are waste products not considered parts or derivatives of a CITES species and are therefore not covered by the provisions of the Convention.

Illegal

• Australia – Under federal law, the export and import of ambergris for commercial purposes is banned by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The various States and Territories have additional laws regarding ambergris.
• United States – The possession and trade of ambergris is prohibited by the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

Legal

• United Kingdom
• France
• Switzerland

In culture

A serving of eggs and ambergris was reportedly King Charles II of England's favorite dish.

In chapter 91 of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Stubb, one of the mates of the Pequod, fools the captain of a French whaler (Rose-bud) into abandoning the corpse of a sperm whale found floating in the sea. His plan is to recover the corpse himself in hopes that it contains ambergris. His hope proves well founded, and the Pequod's crew recovers a valuable quantity of the substance. Melville devotes the following chapter to a discussion of ambergris, with special attention to the irony that "fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale."

In the 2001 film Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter sends Clarice Starling a letter which he writes while intentionally wearing a hand lotion containing ambergris, correctly assuming that this would lead her to discover his location in Florence, Italy, due to lotion utilizing ambergris being legal in only a few countries.

Ambergris plays a prominent role in the plot of the 2003 Futurama episode "Three Hundred Big Boys." The episode guest-stars Roseanne Barr, who appears as a hologram of herself, reading the dictionary definition of "ambergris."

The 1969 book The Lost Ones by Ian Cameron, later made into Disney's 1974 film The Island at the Top of the World depicts a dirigible trip to the 'Whale Graveyard' where they find so much ambergris that it becomes a point of contention.

In the 1956 episode "Whale Gold" of the British television series The Buccaneers, a crew of eighteenth-century pirates led by Captain Dan Tempest (actor Robert Shaw) find large pieces of ambergris at sea and on a beach, discoveries that lead to quarrels and death due to "whale gold fever."

The plot of The Avengers 1963 episode Killer Whale revolves around an ambergris smuggling operation.

In the 2014 episode "Ambergris" of the television program Bob's Burgers, a lump of ambergris found on the beach plays an important role, as Louise, Tina, and Gene attempt to sell the ambergris illegally for $30,000.

In "The Sixth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor" in "The Arabian Nights" by Sir Richard Burton, Sinbad finds vast quantities of Ambergris after being shipwrecked on an unknown island after setting sail from Bassorāh.

In "A Romance of Perfume Lands or the Search for Capt. Jacob Cole", F. S. Clifford, October 1881, the last chapter concerns one of the novel's characters discovering an area off of remote island which contains large amounts of ambergris. He hopes to use this knowledge to help make his fortune in the manufacture of perfumes.

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Further reading

• http://montalvoeascinciasdonossotempo.blogspot.sg/2011/10/peter-borschberg-o-comercio-de-ambar.html (accessed 21 August 2015)

External links

• Natural History Magazine Article (from 1933): Floating Gold -- The Romance of Ambergris
• Ambergris - A Pathfinder and Annotated Bibliography
• On the chemistry and ethics of Ambergris