According to the ancients, parfumeurs and Arab royalty, the old saying might as well go: "Worth its weight in whale waste"
By "Cynthia Graber "
A ten-year-old on holiday in Wales stumbles on a standard value of nearly $ 6,000. A 67-year resident of New York gets a candle like rock in the mail from her 80-year-old sister and discovers they are $ 18,000 richer. All because a whale had a little indigestion.
That upset stomach creates amber, a rare substance that was highly valued for thousands of years as an ingredient in perfumes and medicines. Ambergris originates in the intestines of male sperm whales after they dine on squid, whose hard, pointy beaks barns entrails of whales. " Scientists believe that the whales protect themselves by secreting a fatty substance in the intestines to surround the beaks. Eventually the animals threw a huge chunk, up to hundreds of dollars at a time.
But do not refer to it as "whale vomit", scientists propose that whales no amber drive through their mouths. No one has ever seen a sperm whale excrete ambergris, although sperm whale expert Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, admits that it is assumed urination occurs when fecal excretion, because thrown at first, he says, "Well, it smells more like the back end than the front. "
Viscous, black, stinking streets of freshly expelled amber float on the surface of the ocean. Sun, air and salt water oxidize the masses, and the water constantly evaporates. It hardens, break into smaller pieces and eventually becomes gray and waxy, embedded with tiny black squid beaks. The weathered pieces exude a sweet, earthy aroma compared with tobacco, pine or mulch. The quality and value of a given piece depends on how much time it had not spent driving aging, says expert amber broker Bernard Perrin, because "it ages like fine wine."
For thousands of years this sea treasure is highly appreciated. The Middle East historically powdered and taken on strength and virility, combat heart and brains to increase disease or to spice food and drinks. The Chinese called it "dragon saliva smell." Ancient Egyptians burned as incense. A British medical treatise of the Middle Ages informs readers that amber headaches, colds and epilepsy, among other ailments may be banned. And the Portuguese took the Maldives in the sixteenth century in part to the access to the rich abundance of redolent get stuff. Island
Arab Anbar refers to this very whale-based substance and is the root of the word amber. Centuries ago, the French service ambergris and amber jaune (yellow amber and ambergris) to distinguish between animal amber and what today has become the standard in meaning: the golden-hued resin plant.
Like other animal fragrance components (such as musk) amber has a smell all its own-derived from the chemical component ambrein-that it gives to popular perfumes such as Chanel No. 5. It also enriches the other olfactory notes of a perfume, lots of salt enhances the flavors and spices, and, most importantly, it extends a perfume of different scents. As fragrance chemist George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia states, amber molecules are lipophilic (fat loving), like perfume molecules, but the amber molecules are larger and heavier. "The odor molecules have a high affinity for the other lipophilic molecules, so that they remain in connection with the amber molecules and not all go in the vapor phase at the same time," said Preti.
American perfume companies no longer interfere in their amber scents, probably due to confusing legalities surrounding are for sale here. Internationally, but the trade is legal and Perrin has no problem finding French perfume companies to buy his shares. "We sell it to a royal family in the Middle East, and they use it as an aphrodisiac. Apparently they take some milk, some honey, and ground into small amounts of amber and put it in as well," he says.
Many aspects of amber remain a mystery. Why is amber found in the southern hemisphere, but sperm whales often vary all the seas of the world? Why is it only sperm whales and sperm whales in particular male-that makes it? How did ancient Middle East decided to start using the medicine, or decide that "eau de whale" would be a compelling fragrance
Some, but not all synthesized, amber fragrance qualities, so continue to the original value. With whale songs from the estimated 1.1 million prior to whaling to approximately 350,000 today, less ambergris floats on the seas. Yet Whitehead says the population slowly recovering, and although most findings appear to rocks or wax or other ocean detritus, beachcombers and fishermen are still the sand and waves barns in the hope of stumbling across a weathered piece of this sea of gold.
By "Cynthia Graber "
A ten-year-old on holiday in Wales stumbles on a standard value of nearly $ 6,000. A 67-year resident of New York gets a candle like rock in the mail from her 80-year-old sister and discovers they are $ 18,000 richer. All because a whale had a little indigestion.
That upset stomach creates amber, a rare substance that was highly valued for thousands of years as an ingredient in perfumes and medicines. Ambergris originates in the intestines of male sperm whales after they dine on squid, whose hard, pointy beaks barns entrails of whales. " Scientists believe that the whales protect themselves by secreting a fatty substance in the intestines to surround the beaks. Eventually the animals threw a huge chunk, up to hundreds of dollars at a time.But do not refer to it as "whale vomit", scientists propose that whales no amber drive through their mouths. No one has ever seen a sperm whale excrete ambergris, although sperm whale expert Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, admits that it is assumed urination occurs when fecal excretion, because thrown at first, he says, "Well, it smells more like the back end than the front. "
Viscous, black, stinking streets of freshly expelled amber float on the surface of the ocean. Sun, air and salt water oxidize the masses, and the water constantly evaporates. It hardens, break into smaller pieces and eventually becomes gray and waxy, embedded with tiny black squid beaks. The weathered pieces exude a sweet, earthy aroma compared with tobacco, pine or mulch. The quality and value of a given piece depends on how much time it had not spent driving aging, says expert amber broker Bernard Perrin, because "it ages like fine wine."
For thousands of years this sea treasure is highly appreciated. The Middle East historically powdered and taken on strength and virility, combat heart and brains to increase disease or to spice food and drinks. The Chinese called it "dragon saliva smell." Ancient Egyptians burned as incense. A British medical treatise of the Middle Ages informs readers that amber headaches, colds and epilepsy, among other ailments may be banned. And the Portuguese took the Maldives in the sixteenth century in part to the access to the rich abundance of redolent get stuff. Island
Arab Anbar refers to this very whale-based substance and is the root of the word amber. Centuries ago, the French service ambergris and amber jaune (yellow amber and ambergris) to distinguish between animal amber and what today has become the standard in meaning: the golden-hued resin plant.
Like other animal fragrance components (such as musk) amber has a smell all its own-derived from the chemical component ambrein-that it gives to popular perfumes such as Chanel No. 5. It also enriches the other olfactory notes of a perfume, lots of salt enhances the flavors and spices, and, most importantly, it extends a perfume of different scents. As fragrance chemist George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia states, amber molecules are lipophilic (fat loving), like perfume molecules, but the amber molecules are larger and heavier. "The odor molecules have a high affinity for the other lipophilic molecules, so that they remain in connection with the amber molecules and not all go in the vapor phase at the same time," said Preti.
American perfume companies no longer interfere in their amber scents, probably due to confusing legalities surrounding are for sale here. Internationally, but the trade is legal and Perrin has no problem finding French perfume companies to buy his shares. "We sell it to a royal family in the Middle East, and they use it as an aphrodisiac. Apparently they take some milk, some honey, and ground into small amounts of amber and put it in as well," he says.
Many aspects of amber remain a mystery. Why is amber found in the southern hemisphere, but sperm whales often vary all the seas of the world? Why is it only sperm whales and sperm whales in particular male-that makes it? How did ancient Middle East decided to start using the medicine, or decide that "eau de whale" would be a compelling fragrance
Some, but not all synthesized, amber fragrance qualities, so continue to the original value. With whale songs from the estimated 1.1 million prior to whaling to approximately 350,000 today, less ambergris floats on the seas. Yet Whitehead says the population slowly recovering, and although most findings appear to rocks or wax or other ocean detritus, beachcombers and fishermen are still the sand and waves barns in the hope of stumbling across a weathered piece of this sea of gold.
