Chemical Properties
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.
Chemical Properties
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.
Chemical Properties
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.
Physical properties
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.
Definition
Extractives and their physically modified derivatives such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, inorganic ions, etc. obtained from Castor, Castoridae.
Essential oil composition
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).
