Moby Dick in the World of Perfumes

10/18/07 12:30:39

Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is a toothed whale that is, due to its length of 18 meters and weight of 50 tons, the biggest animal on the Earth. The head of this whale contains a milky-white substance that was mistaken for sperm, so it was named spermaceti.

It is not really known when exactly people started hunting whales. The oldest archeological data on whaling were found in Korea. Drawings engraved in stones, created about 7.000 years BC, present the Stone Age people hunting whales by using boats and spears. Whaling had a significant impact on development of many cultures, as well as on their environment. Spermaceti was considered to be a very valuable substance and demand for it was very high in the 18th, 19th and 20th century. It was used for various purposes, such as production of watch oil, lubricants for photographic lenses, motor oil additives, all the way to production of cosmetics, detergents and vitamins.

And to the world perfumes, the great sperm whales that were, like the famous albino whale Mocha Dick which wrecked many whale-ships among which the whale-ship Essex near the South American coast, so fearlessly confronting and fighting the whale hunters, have given an exceptional and invaluable gift – ambergris.

Ambergris, or grey amber (Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, ambergrease) 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, animalistic, powdery odor with sweet nuance of musk and the sea. It is a biliary secretion of the intestines of the sperm whale. Ambergris can be found floating upon the sea, or in the sand near the coast, and sometimes in the abdomens of the whales. It appears in the Atlantic Ocean, on the coasts of Brazil and Madagascar, on the coast of Africa, of the East Indies, mainland China, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand and the Molucca islands. However, most commercially collected ambergris came from the Bahamas and Providence Island.

While fresh, ambergris is dark, with flabby consistency and a nauseating odor. Under the simultaneous action of sea water and the atmosphere, amber takes on a lighter and lighter tinge, silver-grey to golden yellow, and at last it becomes almost white. Its smell becomes refined, sweet, very pleasant and characteristic. It has been used in perfumery since the ancient of times as a fixative component for delicate fragrances in perfumes, since it has the effect of making other fragrances last much longer than they would otherwise. Some sources say that a drop 0f ambergris tincture applied on a piece of paper and then put between the sheets of a book can remain fragrant for 40 days. When touched by fingers, it remains on skin for several days despite hand washing.

It was known and appreciated in Africa and China before 1.000 AD. Chinese called it 'lung sien hiang', meaning 'the smell of dragoon's saliva'. They believed that ambergris was saliva that was dropping from mouth of dragoons while they were sleeping on the sea rocks. Ancient Egyptians used it as frankincense, while Greeks added it to vine in order to enhance its effect. It was used in perfumery of the Middle East and in Roman Empire. It was included in recipes of the pharmacopoeia. Arabs used it as medicine for heart and head. In Asian cuisine ambergris was used as a spice. Turks considered the most pleasing offering to Allah to bring with them on their life pilgrimage to Mecca.

Arabs knew ambergris as ‘anbar’ and used it as a medicine, especially for brain and heart. They also believed that raw ambergris was coming from the wellsprings beside the sea. The ambergris was included in their stories as well, such as ‘The Arabian Nights’ (1001Nights): Sindbad shipwrecked on a desert island and discovered a source of crude bad-smelling ambergris that was flowing to the sea like a liquid wax, and the big fish were swallowing it and spitting back into the sea in a form of fragrant lumps to be found on the seashore.

In the 10th century an Arabian trader Ibn Haukal classified its value on the level of black slaves and gold. He also claimed that ambergris had aphrodisiac properties. In the Middle East and Roman Empire, ambergris was widely used for perfume production. It was included in pharmacopoeia recipes. In Asian cuisine it was used as a spice. Turks were taking it on their pilgrimage to Mecca as it was considered an offering most pleasing to Allah.

It can be said that the legends of ambergris were lasting for thousands of years. Marco Polo was the first western chronicler who connected ambergris with a sperm whale that he saw caught at the Soicotra Island in the Indian Ocean. But he also thought that it was a stomach content that the whale vomited after he ate in the depths of the sea. Only in 1783 the great botanist Joseph Banks presented the paper of German physician Dr. Franz Xavier Schwediawer who at the time was living in London. That paper, presented to the Royal Society, has for ever ended the confusion and wrong beliefs about ambergris and its origin. Dr. Schwediawer correctly identified ambergris as a secretion of sperm whales' intestines produced due to intestinal problems caused by indigestible beaks of squid and cuttlefish.

In 1820 two French chemists, Joseph-Bienaimé Carentou and Pierre-Joseph Pelletier, for the first time isolated and characterized the principal active fragrant component of ambergris, and named it ambrein. Since then many facts were discovered and published about chemical compounds of scents similar to ambergris, especially on oxidant ambrein derivates, such as ambrox. Those are all labdanoid terpenes that appear in a variety of plants, animals and microorganisms. Beautiful plant Monarda didyma L. is often used as herbal substitute for ambergris. Other classical sources of labdanum are Cistus ladanifer L., commonly known as rock rose, Bee Balm (Oswego Tea) and Angelica.

Real ambergris is still used in the modern perfume industry up to some extent, but due to its high price it is often replaced by botanical components containing ambrein. Those and other botanical extracts are also used as fixatives for other delicate and unstable fragrant components.

Today, as a source of woodsy and sweet ambry nuances the modern perfumery uses synthetic instead of natural substances. So, thanks to chemistry we are still able to enjoy the fragrant ambry notes in our perfumes. And the magnificent Moby Dick, still living in the stories, reminds us of all the members of his kind that have given us, the perfume lovers, their invaluable gift. So now, I hope, they are peacefully and freely playing in the world's deep seas.