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Castoreum is a secretion from the male or the female beaver. The name designates the dried follicles and the glandular secretion. The animals are widely encountered in Alaska, Canada and Siberia. Castoreum is removed from the animal during the skinning period and is dried in the sun or sometimes over burning wood. The fresh pouch contains a yellowish, butter-like mass with a fetid, sharp, aromatic odor. The dried product is dark-brown, hard and resinous. Canadian pouches are wrinkled, pear-shaped, almost flat, from 6 to 15 cm long and 4 to 8 cm wide. Siberian pouches are ovoid and smooth, slightly larger in size, but valued less commercially. The part used is scent gland secretion from castor sacs (dried and ground). Castoreum has a warm, animal-sweet odor, becoming more pleasant on dilution. Sometimes a birch, tar-like, musky odor is also perceptible.

Castoreumis an unpleasantly sharp-smelling, oily substance secreted by special glands of beavers, Castor fiber L. (Castoridae), living in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. Both sexes secrete the substance, which accumulates in an abdominal pouch, also called castoreum. Dilute castoreum (e.g., as a tincture in ethanol) smells pleasantly of birch tar and musk and is slightly fruity.
Castoreum is a by-product of the fur industry. The beaver pouches are dried in the air or over a wood fire, the color of their contents then changes fromyellow to dark brown, and the consistency froma butter-like to resinous character.
In addition to alcoholic tinctures, castoreum is available in the form of resinoids, which are prepared by extracting dried, comminuted poucheswith suitable solvents.
The intense, leathery odor of castoreum obtained from Siberian beavers is caused largely by phenolic compounds (e.g., 4-alkylphenols and catechol derivatives), which the beavers take in with their food and excrete into their abdominal pouches. Castoreum was used mainly in fine fragrances for its characteristic, long-lasting odor, particularly for delicate leather nuances.

Prepared by direct extraction with hot alcohol. It is not a true absolute and it is not clearly soluble in cold alcohol. The yield by hot alcohol extraction is about 75 to 80% of a dark-brown, soft, unctuous mass. Extract is used as flavor components (particularly in vanilla flavorings) in most food and beverages. For other details of description, also see Castoreum.

Castoreum when fresh is yellow and of the consistency of syrup; when dry it is dark red or brown and of the consistency of hard wax.

Extractives and their physically modified derivatives such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, inorganic ions, etc. obtained from Castor, Castoridae.

A resinous and crystalline material (1 to 2%) has been identified in castoreum, together with a butter-like portion containing albumins, fats, urates, salts and probably cholesterols. Castoreum contains castorin (0.33 to 2.5%), volatile oil (1 to 2%), benzoic acid, salicylic acid, cinnamic acid, phenols, chavicol, betuligenol, ketone, ionone derivative, castoramines, quinolizine alkaloids (CoE, 2000).