Absinthe’s Kick Came from Ethanol Alone

Absinthe was the drink of choice for such cultural luminaries as Alistair Crowley, Vincent Van Gogh and Oscar Wilde. Known as the “Green Fairy,” it had a reputation for causing hallucinations because it contained thujone, a ketone found in wormwood. A new study of old absinthe shows that there wasn’t enough thujone in the stuff to be noticed. Absinthe was, however, 140 proof, substantially more ethanol than most other hard liquors.

Up until 1908, absinthe was commonplace in the French-speaking world, was popular in Eastern Europe, and could be had in the US. Switzerland was the first to ban this green distilled spirit with a flavor derived from anise, wormwood and other botanicals. By 1915, the French got rid of it, arguing that absinthe drinking had caused the poor performance in the first year of the Great War. In the US, any food or drink with more than 10 parts per million of thujone has been illegal to sell or produce from about that time (interestingly, absinthe is not banned by name, and current European-made absinthe can be imported legally because it is just under the limit for thujone).

Naturally, all sorts of stories attached to absinthe before the ban, and they were magnified by the illicitness of the drink. “Absinthe madness” was said to cause hallucinations, tics, dementia and numbness. Researcher Dirk Lachenmeier, a chemist with the Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Laboratory of Karlsruhe in Germany, said of these tales, “Today it seems a substantial minority of consumers want these myths to be true, even if there is no empirical evidence that they are.”

He would know. He and his team got hold of 13 sealed bottles of pre-ban absinthe from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain Switzerland and the US. His team broke the seals and subjected the contents to chemical analysis (and perhaps had a sip or two -- shame to waste the stuff). Newsweek summed up the results, “Analyses of the 13 pre-ban bottles showed thujone concentrations of 0.5 and 48.3 mg/L, with an average of 25.4 20.3 mg/L. The highest was 48.3 mg/L, in a Pernod Fils absinthe.” Not enough to have one hallucinating, according to experts.

So whence came the symptoms of absinthe madness? If one studies the list of effects, they are all the hallmarks of alcohol withdrawal – good old fashioned delirium tremens. At 70% ethanol, which is the concentration Dr. Lachenmeier found in those 13 bottles, one glass of absinthe is about double a shot of whiskey in potency. Another myth bites the dust.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home