Text 13150, 96 rader
Skriven 2008-09-01 13:54:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE
Ärende: Re: Absinthe 1
======================
-=> Quoting Dave Sacerdote to Jim Weller <=-

 DS> There really isn't that much difference between the Edwardian and
 DS> modern absinthes, Jim.  Nearly all of the horror stories originated
 DS> with the Temperance movement of the time, and the legislation banning
 DS> absinthe was also heavily lobbied in Europe by the wine industry
 DS> (which had a vested interest in getting rid of a competitor - in
 DS> France, absinthe sales had cut into wine sales sharply.)

 DS> It's my opinion that absinthe's bad reputation is the result of its
 DS> high proof (always having been in the 130+ range) and the same sort of
 DS> moralistic nannyism that exists against marijuana today.

An interesting article from www.thujone.info:

The distinctive herb in absinthe is grand wormwood (Artemesia
absinthium), and the chemical name for the principle active
ingredient in wormwood is thujone. Thujone is a terpene and is
related to menthol, which is known for its healing and restorative
qualities. In its chemically pure form, it is a colourless liquid
with a menthol-like aroma. Oil of Artemesia absinthium (or wormwood
oil as it's usually called) is approximately 40-60% thujone.

Thujone - pronounced "thoo-jone" with a soft 'J' - is a naturally
occurring substance, also found in the bark of the thuja, or white
cedar, tree, and in other herbs besides wormwood - including tansy
and the comon sage used in cooking. Aside from absinthe, other
popular liquors, including vermouth, Chartreuse, and Benedictine,
also contain small amounts of thujone. In fact, vermouth, which was
originally made using the flower heads from the wormwood plant,
takes its name from the German "wermut" ("wormwood").

Extremely high doses of thujone are dangerous, and have been shown
to cause convulsions in laboratory animals, but the concentration of
thujone actually found in absinthe is many thousands of times lower
than this.

Thujone's mechanism of action on the brain is not fully understood
although certain structural similarities between thujone and
tetrahydrocannabinol (the active component in marijuana) led to some
speculation in the 1970's that both substances have the same site of
action in the brain. Doubt was cast on this hypothesis almost
immediately, and more recent scientific research has completely
discredited this idea.

Some researchers have now hypothesised that the reputed "secondary
effects" of absinthe have nothing directly to do with thujone at all
- if they in fact exist at all, they may be caused by the
interaction of some of the other constituent herbs (fenchone in
fennel, pinocamphonethe in hyssop, and the anethole in anise, have
all been shown to cause epileptiform convulsions in laboratory
animals when administered in very large doses).

The effect of well-made absinthe varies from person to person, but
is typically no more marked than the mild "buzz" one gets from
drinking tequila. Generally, it can best be described as a kind of
heightened clarity of mind and vision, warmed by the effect of the
alcohol. This seems to wear off after 20 or 30 minutes. Some users
report unusually vivid dreams. Since absinthe is 55% -72% alcohol,
the alcohol's effects will in any event limit the amount of thujone
you can ingest. Most modern "legal" absinthes, in keeping with EU
regulations, contains less than 10mg of thujone per litre, and
recent research has shown that pre-ban Pernod Fils, contrary to
speculation by several authors, including Strang and Arnold in a
widely quoted 1999 British Medical Journal article, also had
relatively low thujone levels.

Increasingly it seems clear in fact that well-made absinthes
following authentic traditional recipes seldom have thujone levels
much in excess of 35mg/l, the EU standard for thujone in bitters (a
category that can, in practice, include absinthe), and many quite
naturally fall under the 10mg/l level. It seems that irrespective of
the quantity of wormwood used, relatively little thujone makes it
through the distilling process into the final distillate. So the
entire historical demonization of absinthe based on its allegedly
high thujone content now appears to have been based on a wholly
false premise.

The high thujone levels claimed by many Czech and German made
"absinths" are invariably false (in fact, some of these products,
when analysed by gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer, show no
detectable thujone at all). As a rule of thumb, any absinthe
claiming exceptionally high thujone levels should be avoided, as
it's almost certainly a poor quality oil-mix, supported by bogus
marketing hype.



Cheers

YK Jim


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