Authentification Of Absinthe - The Bitter Truth About A Myth

Absinthe is a spirit drink with a certain bitter taste, which should origin from the bitter substances of the wormwood plant (Artemisia absinthium L.). In this study, besides the principal component thujone, further characteristic components of the essential oil of wormwood are determined in absinthe and the analysis results are interpreted using multivariate statistics to authenticate the spirit drink. An efficient sample preparation using solid-phase extraction (SPE) was performed to separate the lipophilic terpenes from the alcoholic spirit matrix. Gas chromatography in combination with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used for separation and quantification of the analytes. The PGA scores plot of 70 absinthes showed discrimination between high-quality absinthes, which were manufactured by distillation of wormwood, and such of inferior quality, made by using small portions of wormwood extracts, macerates, oils or totally without wormwood. Quantitatively determined, 6 absinthes had a thujone content of less than 2 mg/l and in 35 products no thujone was detectable at all. In addition, the typically wormwood taste was missing and the products belonged to the inferior category "without wormwood content". The labelling of the products as "absinthe" was considered to be a deception of the consumer. Summarized, absinthe raises fewer problems in health protection than in the protection of the consumer from deception. Due to extensive control measurements of the official food control in the last years, the maximum limit of thujone is observed by all products. However, due to missing legal requirements on absinthe, a legal uncertainty exists utilised by many manufacturers selling deteriorated products.