Controlling the Green Fairy

The controversial herbal drink of 19th century artistes, said to produce hallucinogenic levels of intoxication and inspire the Green Muse, is well under control in Germany. But high alcohol content means warnings are still de rigeur​.

The alcoholic beverage absinthe contains the neurotoxin ingredient thujone - a natural ingredient extracted from Artemisia absinthium​, otherwise known as wormwood.

Legend has it that absinthe was born in the 18th century, when a French doctor used wormwood, together with anise, fennel, hyssop and various other herbs distilled in an alcoholic base as a herbal remedy for his patients.

The Pernod familiy discovered the recipe, and the rest is history, as they say.

But investigations in the 19th century into the effects of the thujone ingredient on the mental state, today hotly debated, led a host of countries to ban the drink.

French wine producers joined the lobby to have absinthe banned, and it was banned in several countries including the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium and France between 1912 and 1915. Absinthe's current importers discovered recently that England was not among the countries that originally imposed the ban, leading to a resurgence of a somewhat watered down version of the Green Fairy at the end of the 1990s.

A recent study in Germany that investigated the levels of thujone in spirits found that producers are well within the law, falling below thujone levels of less than 10mg per litre.

Carried out by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR)the study determined the thujone content of 20 absinthe beverages on the market in Germany. The results confirm that most of the spirits examined contain less than 10 mg/l thujone and comply with the statutory provisions.

All the same, among the absinthe beverages examined, there were also three bitter spirits which clearly exceed the statutory maximum limit of 35mg per litre, with contents of up to 44.9mg per litre of thujone.

Scientists in our modern times suggest that there is no evidence that absinthe ever contained the high concentrations of thujone, once feared by governments, that would have led to detrimental effects or that it has hallucinogenic or mind altering properties. The health problems experienced by chronic users were likely to have been caused by adulterants in inferior brands and by the high levels of alcohol present.

Today, the natural ingredient can be found in 24 direct food additives according to the FDA's PAFA database. Dalmation sage oil and cedar leaf oil are stated as containing the highest concentration of thujone. Absinthe, Absente, vermouth, Benedictine, Elisir du D.R. and Chartreuse all contain small amounts of thujone.