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Castoreum is the name given to the exudate from the castor sacs of the mature North American Beaver
American Beaver

The American Beaver is a species of beaver native to Canada, much of the United States, and parts of northern Mexico. It was introduced in the most southern province of Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, and it adapted to its temperate forests many years ago....
 Castor canadensis and the European Beaver
European Beaver

The European beaver is a species of beaver which was once widespread in Europe, where it was hunted both for fur and for castoreum, a secretion of its scent gland believed to have medicinal properties....
, Castor fiber. Within the zoological realm, castoreum is the yellowish secretion of the castor sac in combination with the beaver's urine, used during scent marking of territory. Both male and female beavers possess a pair of castor sacs and a pair of anal glands located in two cavities under the skin between the pelvis and the base of the tail.






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Castoreum is the name given to the exudate from the castor sacs of the mature North American Beaver
American Beaver

The American Beaver is a species of beaver native to Canada, much of the United States, and parts of northern Mexico. It was introduced in the most southern province of Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, and it adapted to its temperate forests many years ago....
 Castor canadensis and the European Beaver
European Beaver

The European beaver is a species of beaver which was once widespread in Europe, where it was hunted both for fur and for castoreum, a secretion of its scent gland believed to have medicinal properties....
, Castor fiber. Within the zoological realm, castoreum is the yellowish secretion of the castor sac in combination with the beaver's urine, used during scent marking of territory. Both male and female beavers possess a pair of castor sacs and a pair of anal glands located in two cavities under the skin between the pelvis and the base of the tail. The castor sacs are not true glands (endocrine or exocrine) on a cellular level, hence references to these structures as preputial glands or castor glands are misnomers.

Today, it is used in trapping
Trapping (Animal)

The activity of animal trapping has two separate but related meanings. It describes the hunting of mammals to obtain their furs, which are then used for clothes and other articles, or sold / bartered ....
, as a tincture
Tincture

In medicine, a tincture is an alcoholic extract or solution of a non-Volatility substance; . To qualify as a tincture, the alcoholic extract is to have an ethanol percentage of at least 40-60% ....
 in some perfume
Perfume

Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell....
s, or touted as an aphrodisiac
Aphrodisiac

An aphrodisiac is a substance which is used in the belief that it increases sexual desire. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek mythology of sensuality....
.

Castoreum in perfume

In perfume-making, the term castoreum is more liberally applied to denote the resinoid extract resulting from the dried and alcohol tinctured beaver castor. The dried beaver castor sacs are generally aged for two or more years to mellow and for their raw harshness to dissipate. In perfumery, castoreum has largely been used as an animalic note suggesting leather, compounded with other ingredients including top, middle, and base notes as a composition. Some classic perfumes incorporating castor are Emeraude, Coty Chanel Cuir de Russie, Magie Noire, Lancôme Caractère, Hechter Madame, Carven, Givenchy III, Shalimar, and many "leather" themed compositions. Twenty four compounds known to be constituents of beaver castoreum were individually screened for pheremonal activity. These are the phenols 4-ethylphenol and 1,2-dihydroxybenzene and the ketones acetophenone and 3-hydroxyacetophenone. Five additional compounds noted are 4-methyl-1,2-dihydroxybenzene, 4-methoxyacetophenone, 5-methoxysalicylic acid, salicylaldehyde, and 3-hydroxybenzoic acid.

Medicinal use of castoreum


Although modern medical use of castoreum is rare, the dried pair of scent glands (the "castors") may still be worth more than a beaver pelt itself. Castoreum appeared in the materia medica
Materia medica

Materia medica is a Latin medicine term for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing....
 until the 1700s, used to treat many different ailments, including headache
Headache

In medicine a headache or wiktionary:cephalalgia is a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and sometimes neck. Some of the causes are benign while others are medical emergencies....
, fever
Fever

Fever is a frequent medical sign that describes an increase in internal body temperature to levels above normal. Fever is most accurately characterized as a temporary elevation in the body's thermoregulatory set-point, usually by about 1?2 ?C ....
, and hysteria
Hysteria

Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses. The fear is often caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part or most commonly on an imagined problem with that body part ....
. The Romans believed the fumes produced by burning castoreum could induce an abortion
Abortion

An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death....
; Paracelsus
Paracelsus

Paracelsus was a Medieval physician, botanist, alchemy, astrologer, and general occultist. Born Phillip von Hohenheim, he later took up the name Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, and still later took the title Paracelsus, meaning "equal to or greater than Celsus", a Roman encyclopedist, Aulus Cornelius Celsus fro...
 thought it could be used in the treatment of epilepsy; and medieval beekeeper
Beekeeper

A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen; pollination fruits and vegetables; raising Queen and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity....
s used it to increase honey production.

Castoreum, an anal gland secretion, appears to be used by beavers to mark their territory.

Castoreum is also used in small amounts to contribute to the flavor and odor of cigarettes.

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