Posted on 08/01/2002 11:50:58 PM PDT by chance33_98
Sorry about the formatting - is a PDF through google/unclesam
A German girl I was seeing for a while turned me on to a cool whiskey drink that she called 'honey whiskey'. You get a small jar of honey, a pint or so bottle of whiskey (depending on how strong you want it) and some dried (not powdered) anise (maybe an ounce or two, I don't remember).
Slowly heat the honey in a saucepan over low heat. Keep the heat very low to avoid evaporating the alcohol out as you add the whiskey to the honey. Mix until even consistency and pour in a suitable sized bottle with the anise 'sprigs' in the bottom. The longer you leave it before you drink it the more the 'sprigs' of anise release their flavor into the honey and whiskey. I kept it in the fridge and don't know how it would behave at room tempurature. It's good warm right off of the stove or cold.
I knew that Absinthe was agin being manufactured; however, without the wormwood. I really wonder just how correct this info is... that some Absinthe, now has wormwood in it. There have been cahches of ORIGINAL Absinthe, which some people have bought, at late as the 1980's; but, it was an "underground" sort of thing.
WHAT IS THE ACTIVE COMPONENT IN ABSINTHE?
This issue is not entirely resolved. Alcohol is definitely one main component. However, another candidate is the monoterpene, thujone, which which is considered a convulsant. Thujone's mechanism of action is not known, although structural similarities between thujone and tetrahydrocannabinol (the active component in marijuana) have led some to hypothesize that both substances have the same site of action in the brain. Thujone makes up 40 to 90% (by weight) of the essence of wormwood, from which absinthe is made (2). Thus, thujone would appear to be a good candidate for a second active component in absinthe. Indeed, thujone has long been considered to be the neurotoxic cause of absinthism.However, the direct evidence to support this idea is scant. Absinthe is 75% alcohol. Therefore, alcohol's effects will limit the amount of thujone one can ingest. Quite simply, you can only drink a moderate amount of absinthe before you become very drunk from the alcohol. Thujone would have to be active at a very low dose or be present in high quantities in order to have any appreciable effect. In the "This and That" column in Trends in the Pharmacological Sciences, "B. Max" made the following dose calculations:
How much thujone was present in absinthe? Steam distillation of wormwood yields 0.27-0.40% of a bitter, dark-green oil (3) In a typical recipe for absinthe, 2.5 kg of wormwood were used in preparing 100 liters of absinthe (4). Typically, 1.5 oz was consumed (diluted with water) per tipple (5). This is equivalent to 4.4 mg wormwood oil per drink, or 2-4 mg thujone. This is far below the level at which acute pharmacological effects are observed. Even chronic administration of 10 mg/kg thujone to rats does not alter spontaneous activity of conditioned behavior (6). The literature on the pharmacology of thujone is, to put it bluntly, second rate, and conclusions as to its effects have been extrapolated far beyond the experimental base (7).
Furthermore, the symptoms of absinthism do not appear to be that unlike those of alcoholism. Hallucinations, sleeplessness, tremors, paralysis, and convulsions can also be noted in cases of alcoholism. This suggests that the syndrome "absinthism" mayy well have been caused by alcohol. Because absinthe is no longer popular, little research has been done into its effects on health. Reports on thujone's/absinthe's toxicity seem to rely mostly on case reports from the beginning of the century or earlier. Lacking more recent research, it seems most reasonable to take reports of absinthe's toxicity with skepticism. Essentially, there is little good data to suggest that absinthe's active components were anything other than alcohol.
(In fairness, I should mention that several individuals who have taken home-made absinthe or who have drunk it where it is legal have claimed to me that it produced an intoxication unlike that of alcohol.)
In addition to alcohol and thujone, absinthe sometimes contained methanol (wood alcohol), which could have contributed to the symptoms of absinthism. Calamus (acorus calamus) and nutmeg (myristica fragrans) were also sometimes used in making absinthe. Both plants have reputations for being psychedelics, although to my best of knowledge only nutmeg's psychedelic properties have been well established. However, it seems unlikely that either plant would have been added in the quanitities necessary to produce psychoactive effects.
In 1872, the British medical journal, THE LANCET , stated that the principle effects of wormwood oil, was epileptiform attacks.
In 1889,two French scientists, M. Cadeac and A. Mueunier studied ALL the components of Absinthe, and found that the other herbs used, besides wormwood, also had powerful, damaging qualities </B., as well.
As to the thujone, there's lots of info on that, which completely contridicts the article you found and posted.
Since I am typing from the above mentioned book, and not just CCPing some random Goggle search, I shan't post any more. Just know, that what you are taking as gospel, on some random website, found in Goggle, is NOT , by a long shot, the deffinative authority, on this topic.
There are better things to drink... in my opinion, absinthe was the 19th century equivilent of huffing gasoline fumes.
Some people have conjectured that Napoleon's armies were half-nuts on this stuff. Pernod shows up in many Hemingway novels, notably the first two. Johnny Depp's opium-addicted character in "From Hell" spikes his glass of absinthe with laudanum (opium derivative).
Just do a search for it on the internet. It's pretty available outside the U.S. (no, never had it, never will).
So, would it be as strong as LSD or mescaline or mushrooms for example- or would it be less potent? I'm not particularly interested in running out and trying the stuff (foaming at the mouth doesn't sound like too much fun) but I'm interested in it and what it does for general trivial value.
Oh yes...one last thing. Absinthe is historically consumed for considerable effect. No one sits around sipping it for taste since the taste is considered by most rather vile.
Best Regards.
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