Castoreum

April 10, 2023
by
Castoreum; Deutsches Apothekenmuseum, Heidelberg Castle, Heidelberg, Germany.

Castoreum is a yellowish exudate from the castor sacs of mature beavers. Beavers use castoreum in combination with urine to scent mark their territory. Both beaver sexes have a pair of castor sacs and a pair of anal glands, located in two cavities under the skin between the pelvis and the base of the tail. The castor sacs are not true glands (endocrine or exocrine) on a cellular level, hence references to these structures as preputial glands, castor glands, or scent glands are misnomers.

For the fungus genus, see Castoreum (fungus). Not to be confused with Castor oil.

It is used as a tincture in some perfumes and was sometimes used as a food additive in the early 1900s.

Beaver Butt Vanilla Lattes? Oh dear.

The internet suggests ‘One ingredient that Starbucks often uses in their flavoured drinks is called castoreum, which is the secretion of a beavers castor and anal glands.’ When asked what it tastes like, the internet suggests ‘Beavers have two scent glands used for marking their territory and yes one of them smells and tastes like vanilla. This beaver-produced vanilla-like goo/secretion is called castoreum and is a mixture of different chemicals.’ Another article suggests it is a common ingredient where vanilla, raspberry and strawberry flavors are concerned.

The sacs brought C$92–$180/kg ($2.62–$5.10/oz) when auctioned at the May–June 2016 North American Fur Auction.

Chemical composition

At least 24 compounds are known constituents of beaver castoreum. Several of these have pheromonal activity, of which the phenols 4-ethylphenol and catechol and the ketones acetophenone and 3-hydroxyacetophenone were strongest. Five additional compounds elicit a weaker response: 4-methylcatechol, 4-methoxyacetophenone, 5-methoxysalicylic acid, salicylaldehyde, and 3-hydroxybenzoic acid. There are also oxygen-containing monoterpenes such as 6-methyl-l-heptanol, 4,6-dimethyl-l-heptanol, isopinocamphone, pinocamphone, and two linalool oxides and their acetates. Other compounds are: benzoic acid, benzyl alcohol, borneol, o-cresol, 4-(4′-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone, hydroquinone, phenol. All those compounds are gathered from plant food. It also contains nupharamine alkaloids and castoramine, and cis–cyclohexane-1,2-diol.

  • Pheromonal activity of single castoreum constituents in beaver, Castor canadensis., Müller-Schwarze, D and Houlihan, P.W., Journal of Chemical Ecology, April 1991, Volume 17, Number 4, Springer Netherlands, doi:10.1007/BF00994195
  • Neutral compounds from male castoreum of North American beaver, Castor canadensis. Rong Tang, Francis X. Webster, Dietland Müller-Schwarze, Journal of Chemical Ecology, November 1995, Volume 21, Issue 11, pages 1745–1762, doi:10.1007/BF02033674
  • The Beaver: Its Life and Impact. Dietland Muller-Schwarze, 2003, page 43 (book at Google Books)
  • Stereoselective synthesis of enantiomerically pure nupharamine alkaloids from castoreum. Stoye A, Quandt G, Brunnhöfer B, Kapatsina E, Baron J, Fischer A, Weymann M and Kunz H, Angew Chem Int Ed Engl., 2009, volume 48, issue 12, pages 2228–2230, doi:10.1002/anie.200805606
  • Zur Kenntnis der stickstoffhaltigen Inhaltsstoffe von Castoreum. B. Maurer and G. Ohloff, Helvetica Chimica Acta, 2 June 1976, Volume 59, Issue 4, pages 1169–1185, doi:10.1002/hlca.19760590420
  • cis-Cyclohexane-1,2-diol in the beaver gland. Z. Valenta, A. Khaleque, M. H. Rashid, Experientia, 1961, Volume 17, Issue 3, page 130, doi:10.1007/BF02160827

Uses

In perfume

In perfumery, the term castoreum refers to the resinoid extract resulting from the dried and alcohol tinctured beaver castor. The dried beaver castor sacs are generally aged for two or more years to mellow.

Castoreum is largely used for its note suggesting leather, typically compounded with other ingredients including top, middle, and base notes. Some classic perfumes incorporating castor are Emeraude, Chanel Antaeus, Cuir de Russie, Magie Noire, Lancôme Caractère, Hechter Madame, Givenchy III, Shalimar, and many “leather” themed compositions.

In food

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration lists castoreum extract as a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) food additive. In 1965, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association‘s GRAS program (FEMA 2261 and 2262) added castoreum extract and castoreum liquid. The annual industry consumption is very low, around 100 kilograms (300 lb), whereas vanillin is over 1.2×106 kg (2.6×106 lb) annually.

Castoreum has been traditionally used in Sweden for flavoring a variety of schnapps commonly referred to as “Bäverhojt” (literally, beaver shout).

Other

Castoreum was also considered for use to contribute to the flavor and odor of cigarettes.

  • United States Patent Application Publication

Medieval beekeepers used castoreum to increase honey production.

‘A great remedy for hysteria’

A great remedy for hysteria. Prostration marked. Hysterical symptoms. Day-blindness; cannot endure the light. Nervous women who do not recover fully, but are continually irritable, and suffer from debilitating sweats. Spasmodic affections after debilitating diseases. Constant yawning. Restless sleep with frightful dreams and starts. Tongue.–Swollen. Rounded elevation size of a pea in center, with drawing sensation from center to hyoid bone. Female.–Dysmenorrhoea; blood discharged in drops with tenesmus. Pain commences in middle of thighs. Amenorrhoea, with painful tympanites. Fever.–Predominant chilliness. Attacks of chilliness with ice-coldness in back. Relationship.–Compare: Ambra; Moschus; Mur acid; Valeriana. Antidote: Colch Dose.–Tincture, and lower potencies.

Related animal products

  • Taxea, a secretion of the badger‘s subcaudal glands comparable in its medicinal use to the better-known castoreum
    • There is no Taxea Wikipedia page available at this time but I found a mention here:
      • The name Tasgetius derives from Gaulish tasgos, also tascos or taxos, “badger,” an element found in many other Celtic personal names from inscriptions, such as Tascos, Tasgillus, Tassca, and Tasciovanus (“Badger Killer”), as well as in place names. Moritasgus (“Great Badger” or “Sea Badger”) was the name of a ruler of the Senones contemporary with Tasgetius, and was also the name of a Celtic healing deity in territory within the Aeduan sphere of influence (see Moritasgus). Another Celtic word for “badger,” broccos, also yields a number of personal and place names.
        • Taisson is a French dialectal variant for “badger,” usually blaireau; see also Italian tasso and Spanish tejon. These are often derived from late Latin taxus, but the usual word for badger in Latin is meles, maeles or melo, melonis (mil, millonis in the Gallic medical writer Marcellus Empiricus, De medicamentis 33.7), and taxus is likely a borrowing from Gaulish. The word has also been related to Basque azkoin or asku, “badger,” with loss of the initial t from a reconstructed “pre-Basque” form *(t)askone. The Gaulish is sometimes thought to have been borrowed from Germanic (modern German Dachs), but the borrowing is more likely to have gone the other way. See discussion by Victor Hehn, The Wanderings of Plants and Animals from Their First Home (John Benjamins, 1976), pp. 493–494 online.
        • Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), pp. 292–293.
        • If Moritasgus is construed as “Sea Badger,” it may be a name for another animal (cf. “sea lion” in English) such as a seal or sea otter; see John T. Koch, Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 231 online.
        • Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 5.54.
        • Delmarre, Dictionnaire pp. 90–91.
      • The European badger, in Gaulish tasgos: source for the pharmacological ingredient taxea
      • The substance taxea or adeps taxonina, “badger fat,” was regarded as medically potent and traded by Germanic and Celtic peoples to the Greeks and Romans. The 4th-century medical writer Marcellus, who was from Bordeaux and whose book De medicamentis is a unique source for Gallic herbology and lore, includes badger fat as an ingredient in his pharmacological recipes. A short 5th-century treatise De taxone deals with the magico-medical properties of the badger, and prescribes the correct incantations to utter when dissecting the animal. It is perhaps a reference to the badger’s medicinal or mythic properties that the Irish saint Molaise descended to hell dressed in badger skins to rescue a leper.
        • Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 20.2.24.
        • Marcellus, De medicamentis 36.5, in a multi-ingredient preparation for podagram, “gout,” to be compounded for greatest efficacy in the month of August.
        • Joshua T. Katz, “Hittite tašku- and the Indo-European Word for ‘Badger’,” Historische Sprachforschung 111 (1998) 61–82.
        • Marcellus, De med. 33.7, 36.5.
        • The Epistula de taxone (also Epistola or Liber) is framed as a letter from a fictional Egyptian ruler named Idpartus (or Hidpartus) to the emperor Octavianus Augustus. See Maria Amalia D’Aronco, “Gardens on Vellum: Plants and Herbs in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts,” in Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden (Boydell, 2008), p. 122 online; H.J. Rose, A Handbook of Latin Literature from the Earliest Times to the Death of St. Augustine (Routledge, 1936, 1996), p. 429 online; sample passages in Alf Önnerfors, “Magische Formeln im Dienste römischer Medizin,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 2.37.1 (1993), p. 212 online. It is part of the 5th-century compilation Medicina de Quadrupedibus attributed to Sextus Placitus, and also exists in an Old English translation in an 11th-century manuscript; see R.D. Fulk and Christopher M. Cain, A History of Old English Literature (Blackwell, 2003), p. 157 online. Constantinus Africanus summarizes the contents in Medici de animalibus liber, “De taxione,” p. 115 (ed. Ackermann) online. Among the collections of the Science Museum (London) is a 16th-century Italian jar used to store badger fat, which may be viewed online.
        • John B. Cunningham, “Tracking down St. Molaise,” The Fermanagh Miscellany 2 (Enniskillen, 2008), p. 18 online.
      • Although Isidore of Seville understands the word as equivalent to Latin lardum, “bacon, lard,” taxea is a secretion of the badger’s subcaudal glands comparable in its medicinal use to the better-known castoreum, an ingredient from the scent sacs of the beaver. Only the European species of badger possesses these subcaudal glands, which produce a pale-yellow fatty substance with a gentle musky scent. Like the beaver, the badger was regarded in the classical tradition as one of the hermaphroditic animals.
        • Isidore, Etymologiae 20.2.24: taxea lardum est Gallice dictum, “‘taxea’ is what lard is called in Gaulish.”
        • The anal glands, which the European badger shares with other badger species, secrete a rank and overpowering musk; see Julie Bonner Bellquist, “‘Badger’ in Indo-European,” Journal of Indo-European Studies 21 (1992) 331–346.
        • Luc Brisson, Sexual Ambivalence: Androgyny and Hermaphroditism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity (University of California Press, 2002), pp. 136–137 online.
      • Primary among the medical uses of taxea was the treatment of impotence, which casts a different swagger on a phrase from the Latin comic poet Afranius: “The cloaked Gaul, fattened up on badger grease.” The Gaulish word tasgos may be related to an Indo-European root meaning “peg, stake,” because of the badger’s pointed nose; it has been argued that the root can also have a phallic meaning, and that the use of taxea for impotence was thus a form of sympathetic magic.
        • Catherine Rider, Magic and Impotence in the Middle Ages (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 26 online.
        • Gallum sagatum pingui pastum taxea, quoted by Isidore, Etymologiae 20.2.24 (Com. Fragm. v. 284 Rib.)
        • Joshua T. Katz, “Hittite tašku- and the Indo-European Word for ‘Badger’,” Historische Sprachforschung 111 (1998) 61–82. Katz notes that Epiphanius of Salamis called a heretical Christian sect from Galatia the Taskodrougitai, “Badger-snouts” or “Peg-noses,” referring to their attitude at prayer, with pointed finger touching nose. Galatia was formed in the 3rd century BC by migrating Celts, who continued to speak a Celtic language in the region as late as the time of Jerome.
      • Although its cultural significance among the Celts of Gaul is murky, the badger appears much later as a totem animal for Tadhg mac Céin, a legendary insular Celtic king whose name contains an Old Irish form for “badger.” In Welsh lore, a number of games involved “playing badger,” including in the first book of the Mabinogion where the game Broch ygkot (“a badger in a bag”) is explained cryptically as “let him who is a head be a bridge.” The narrative is presented as an aetiology of the game, involving two rivals for Rhiannon, her first husband Pwyll who carelessly loses her to Gwawl, and a magic bag that is Rhiannon’s gift to Pwyll. The bag cannot be filled no matter how much food is put in it, and generosity can meet only with insatiability. Gwawl thinks that he can gain some infinite quality by climbing into the bag himself; thus captured, he receives beatings instead.
        • Alan Mac an Bhaird, “Tadhg mac Céin and the Badgers,” Ériu 31 (1983) 150–155; Bernhard Maier, Die Religion der Kelten: Götter, Mythen, Weltbid (C.H. Beck, 2001), pp. 69–70 online and p. 193, note 152 on etymology. “The Adventure of Tadhg mac Céin” (Eachtra Thaidhg Mhic Céin) is an early modern Irish voyage tale from the Book of Lismore; see president’s address, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 24 (1895), p. 466 online. The name (see Tadhg) is usually thought to mean “bard” or “poet,” but even this meaning has been connected to “badger” as a characterization of the fierce Celtic satirist of legend; see Delamarre, Dictionnaire de langue gauloise, p. 293.
        • Koch, Celtic Culture, p. 793.
        • Broch is the Welsh derivative of broccos, the other Celtic word for “badger.”
        • A vo penn bit pont; E. Anwyl, “The Value of the Mabinogion for the Study of Celtic Religion,” Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions 2 (1908), p. 238 online.
        • For the significance of the bag in Celtic mythology, see W.M. Parker’s note to his edition of Mabinogion 1, and American, African, and Old European Mythologies, edited by Yves Bonneoy and Wendy Doniger (University of Chicago, 1993), p. 207 online.
      • Bonus Numismatics information:
      • Tasgiitios, with the double i representing vowel lengthening, appears on numerous examples of a bronze coin assumed to be issued by Caesar’s friend. The coin depicts on its obverse a crowned head of “Apollo” with a three-lobed ivy leaf, a usual symbol of Dionysus, and the name or cult title ΕΛΚΕSΟΟΥΙΞ (Elkesovix). A winged horse, usually called “Pegasus” in numismatic literature, appears on the reverse with the name Tasgiitios. The obverse has been seen as imitating a Roman denarius of the gens Titia. Although a winged horse appeared on Celtic coins as early as the 3rd century BC, during the period 60–50 BC the Roman moneyer Quintus Titius issued a series of denarii with Pegasus on the reverse and various figures on the obverse, including Apollo, a winged Victory, and a bearded figure sometimes identified as the Roman phallic god Mutunus Tutunus. The Apollo denarius of Titius may have been the model for Tasgetius’s issue, and the name Elkesovix has been interpreted as an epithet of Apollo, or as that of Tasgetius’s grandfather or other ancestor. The appearance of an Apollo on the coin of the badger-named Tasgetius, and the “badger” semantic element in the name Moritasgus for a god equated with Apollo, raises the question of whether the god of healing was associated in Celtic religion and myth with an animal used in healing. A coin of the Suessiones dated ca. 60–50 BC — that is, roughly contemporary with that of Tasgetius — also depicts a winged horse on the reverse, which appears with the name Cricironus. The profile of the helmeted head on the obverse faces left instead of right. Tasgetius’s series has been studied in connection with the coins of Commius, the Atrebatan king also supported by Caesar. A hoard discovered in 1956 at the fork of a Gallic road included coins of Tasgetius. It is estimated to have been buried in 51 BC. The coins may have been hidden by refugee Carnutes during the last campaigns of the Gallic Wars in Belgica, as narrated by Aulus Hirtius in his continuation (Book 8) of Caesar’s commentaries.
        • Joachim Lelewel, Études numismatiques et archéologiques: Type gaulois, ou celtique (Brussels, 1841), vol. 1, p. 228.
        • For an example, see the gold stater of the Mediomatrici, dated 3rd–2nd century BC, at CoinArchives.com, which is more likely to be modeled after Greek staters.
        • Robert Forrer, Keltische Numismatik der Rhein- und Donaulande (Strassburg, 1908), p. 119.
        • Bunnell Lewis, “Roman Antiquities in South Germany,” Archaeological Journal 58 (1901), pp. 290–291 online. Examples of Quintus Titius’s other denarii with Pegasus on the reverse may be viewed at CoinArchive.com, including the winged Victory and Mutunus Tutunus.
        • Lelewel, Études numismatiques, vol. 1, p. 249 online.
        • This coin of the Suessiones may be viewed at CoinArchives.com, where the winged horse is described as “Celticized Pegasos flying left.”
        • L. de la Saussaye, “Attribution d’une médaille en bronze à Tasget, roi des Carnutes,” Revue de la numismatique françoise 2 (1837), p. 1 online.
        • Jean-Mary Couderc, “Un pont antique sur la Loire en Aval de Tours,” in La Loire et les fleuves de la Gaule romaine et des régions voisines (Presses Universitaires de Limoges, 2001), p. 63 online.
  • Hyraceum, the petrified and rock-like excrement composed of urine and feces excreted by the Cape hyrax (Procavia capensis), and a sought-after material that has been used in traditional South African medicine and perfumery

See also

References

  1. Walro, J.M. and Svendsen, G.E., “Castor sacs and anal glands of the North American beaver (Castor canadensis): their histology, development, and relationship to scent communication“. Journal of Chemical Ecology, Volume 8, Number 5 / May 1982, Department of Zoology and Microbiology, Ohio University,
  2. Müller-Schwarze, Dietland (1992). “Castoreum of beaver (Castor canadensis): function, chemistry and biological activity of its components“. Chemical Signals in Vertebrates IV, 457–464, Plenum Press.
  3. Johnston, Robert E.; Sorenson, Peter W.; and Müller-Schwarze, Dietland (1999). Advances in Chemical Signals in Vertebrates, Springer, 1, 282. ISBN 0-306-46114-5.
  4. Svendsen, G.E., Huntsman, W.D, “A field Assay of Beaver Castoreum and Some of its Components”. American Midland Naturalist, Vol. 120, No. 1 (Jul. 1988), pp. 144–149, University of Notre Dame. JSTOR 2425894.
  5. International Perfume Museum, Grasse, France, Website: “Welcome in the International Perfume Museum: Raw materials”. Archived from the original on 2007-06-24. Retrieved 2006-02-28.
  6. Burdock, G. A. (2007-01-01). “Safety assessment of castoreum extract as a food ingredient”. International Journal of Toxicology. 26 (1): 51–55. doi:10.1080/10915810601120145. ISSN 1091-5818. PMID 17365147. S2CID 39977652. 
  7. “May-June 2016 Wild Fur Sales Report North American Fur Auctions” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-22. Retrieved 21 February 2016 – via Fur Institute of Canada.
  8. Pheromonal activity of single castoreum constituents in beaver, Castor canadensis., Müller-Schwarze, D and Houlihan, P.W., Journal of Chemical Ecology, April 1991, Volume 17, Number 4, Springer Netherlands, doi:10.1007/BF00994195
  9. Neutral compounds from male castoreum of North American beaver, Castor canadensis. Rong Tang, Francis X. Webster, Dietland Müller-Schwarze, Journal of Chemical Ecology, November 1995, Volume 21, Issue 11, pages 1745–1762, doi:10.1007/BF02033674
  10. The Beaver: Its Life and Impact. Dietland Muller-Schwarze, 2003, page 43 (book at Google Books)
  11. Stereoselective synthesis of enantiomerically pure nupharamine alkaloids from castoreum. Stoye A, Quandt G, Brunnhöfer B, Kapatsina E, Baron J, Fischer A, Weymann M and Kunz H, Angew Chem Int Ed Engl., 2009, volume 48, issue 12, pages 2228–2230, doi:10.1002/anie.200805606
  12. Zur Kenntnis der stickstoffhaltigen Inhaltsstoffe von Castoreum. B. Maurer and G. Ohloff, Helvetica Chimica Acta, 2 June 1976, Volume 59, Issue 4, pages 1169–1185, doi:10.1002/hlca.19760590420
  13. cis-Cyclohexane-1,2-diol in the beaver gland. Z. Valenta, A. Khaleque, M. H. Rashid, Experientia, 1961, Volume 17, Issue 3, page 130, doi:10.1007/BF02160827
  14. Hyraceum.com, “Castoreum, Perfumer’s Ancient Intrigue,” http://www.hyraceum.com Archived February 7, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  15. Burdock GA (2007). “Safety assessment of castoreum extract as a food ingredient”. International Journal of Toxicology. 26 (1): 51–5. doi:10.1080/10915810601120145. PMID 17365147. S2CID 39977652. 
  16. Recent Progress In the Consideration Under of Flavoring Ingredients the Food Additives Amendment (1965)
  17. Burdock, George A., Fenaroli’s handbook of flavor ingredients. CRC Press, 2010. p. 273-5.
  18. Burdock, George A., Fenaroli’s handbook of flavor ingredients. CRC Press, 2010. p. 674.
  19. Baron Ambrosia (26 February 2015). “Tales from the Fringe: Beaver Gland Vodka”. PunchDrink.com. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  20. “BVR HJT”. Archived from the original on 2013-08-26. Retrieved 2013-09-16.
  21. [1] United States Patent Application Publication

External links

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As of 10 April 2023 this is from a Wikipedia page that was last edited on 7 April 2023 except for that Starbucks thing. That comes up on an internet search for ‘Castoreum Canadense’…and the hysteria remedy which also comes up on an internet search for the same.

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