I received this comment from AngelicDawn yesterday in response to my blog about wormwood:

Artemisia absinthium is a wonderful plant . Her magic can be released by infusion as well [reference: http://www.absolutelyabsinthe.com/, a company that sells absinthe making kits]. Calamus is also a hidden part of many absinthe recipes…a medieval witchcraft favourite.

[The following recipe is from] The Independent Liquorist: OR, The Art of Manufacturing and Preparing All Kinds Of Cordials, Syrups, Bitters, Wines, Champagne, Beer, Punches, Tinctures, Extracts, Essences, Flavorings, Colorings, Worcestershire Sauce, Club Sauce, Catsups, Pickles, Preserves, Jams, Jellies, Etc, Etc. by L. Monzert, Practical Liquorist and Chemist, Published by Dick & Fitzgerald, 18 Ann Street, New York, 1866, [p. 151]:

Absinthe

Take 26 ounces of fennel seed.
5 ounces anise-seed.
13 ounces liquorice root.
8 gallons alcohol 95 per cent.
6 do. water
4 ounces peppermint.
12 ounces wormwood.

Let the whole infuse ten days. Press it in a fruit-press, and filter through a paper pre-pared filter. (See filter No. 1.)

Wikipedia has this to say about absinthe kits and I am in total agreement:

There are numerous recipes for homemade absinthe on the Internet, many of which center around soaking or mixing a kit or store-bought herbs and wormwood extract with high-proof liquor such as vodka or Everclear. Even though these do-it-yourself kits have gained in popularity, it is simply not possible to produce absinthe without distillation.

Besides being unpleasant to drink and not authentic distilled absinthe, these homemade concoctions do contain [an unmeasured amount of] thujone and can sometimes be poisonous, especially when using wormwood extract. Many of these recipes call for the use of liberal amounts of wormwood extract or essence of wormwood in the hopes of increasing the believed psychoactive effects. Consuming essential oils will not only fail to produce a high, but can be very dangerous. Wormwood extract can cause renal failure and death from excessive amounts of thujone, which in large quantities acts as a convulsive neurotoxin. It is also a powerful cardiac stimulant. Essential oil of wormwood should never be consumed straight.

And here is what La Fée Verte, home of the Absinthe Buyer’s Guide, has to say on the subject:

DON’T:

…buy absinthe recipes off eBay or anywhere else. They don’t work, and some are potentially dangerous. Don’t listen to wild claims of instant absinthe, “just soak this little bag of herbs in vodka/everclear for a week”. It’s gonna suck and it ain’t absinthe.

…believe the hype about thujone. Despite what you may have heard or read from uninformed sources, thujone was present in only very small quantities in original 19th century absinthe, and has almost nothing to do with product quality or an absinthe’s “absinthe-ness”.

…expect absinthe to be very bitter. Well made absinthe isn’t.

The following article by Corinna Wu from Science News, Vol. 157, No. 14, April 1, 2000, p. 214, illustrates the dangers:

Toxins In Absinthe Makes Neurons Run Wild

In the late 20th century, espressos and caffe lattes became available on every urban street corner. In late 19th-century Paris, absinthe was the favored drink of artists and writers. Some say addiction to the emerald-green liqueur drove Vincent Van Gogh to take his own life. Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pablo Picasso all painted absinthe drinkers, capturing both the drink’s popularity and its dark side.

Doctors at the time recognized that absinthe can cause convulsions, hallucinations, and psychotic behavior. Now, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago have learned how the drink’s toxic component wreaks its neurological effects.

They found that the toxin, alpha-thujone, blocks brain receptors for gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. Without access to GABA, a natural inhibitor of nerve impulses, neurons fire too easily and their signaling goes out of control.

“This paper is very important because it gives the biochemical mechanism for toxicity,” says biochemist Wilfred Niels Arnold of the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.

Berkeley researchers Karin M. Höld, Nilantha S. Sirisoma, and John E. Casida collaborated on the study with Tomoko Ikeda and Toshio Narahashi of Northwestern. The group’s results, reported this week at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco, will appear in the April 11 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists had documented thujone’s effects by 1916, but “nobody had ever figured out exactly where the toxin was working,” says Höld. She and her colleagues conducted tests on fruit flies, mice, and rat neurons to connect alpha-thujone to GABA receptors. They also examined how animals’ liver enzymes break down the compound.

Despite doctors’ warnings about the dangers of absinthe, the beverage became very popular, especially in France. Between 1905 and 1913, Belgium, Switzerland, the United States, and Italy cracked down, banning the liqueur. France followed in 1915.

In some countries, notably the Czech Republic, absinthe is still available, albeit in a less potent form. Old absinthe contained about 260 parts per million of alpha-thujone, says Arnold. “Present-day absinthe generally has less than 10 parts per million,” he says, which is below the maximum concentration permitted by European beverage guidelines. In today’s absinthe, “the most toxic compound is the alcohol,” quips Arnold.

Alpha-thujone comes from the herb wormwood, which flavors absinthe. Although few people now drink the liqueur, “a lot of herbal preparations are available on-line, and one is wormwood oil,” says Höld. People have used this oil since antiquity to treat digestive disorders. The alpha-thujone concentration in the oil is much higher than in absinthe and is a greater potential health concern, says Höld.

Research into absinthe waned after its prohibition, Arnold notes. However, these new results reveal potential uses for alpha-thujone. “A lot of insecticides work on GABA receptors,” notes Höld.

Another group at Berkeley is planning to study long-term effects of the compound in rodents, she adds. That work may provide important information for modern-day absinthe drinkers who ingest low toxin doses over a lifetime.

I still maintain my original position that wormwood should not be ingested; I will, however, go so far as to amend my position to specify that wormwood, by itself alone, should never be ingested without the assistance of a trained and licensed alternative medical practitioner. The difference in dosage between what may aide you and what will kill you is just too close for a layperson to be able to accurately assess.

I mentioned in my wormwood post that absinthe would soon be available in the US market and, indeed, it currently is in the form of a product called Lucid, imported by Viridian Spirits, Manhasset New York.

As described by on-line Shopper’s Vineyard (the only place I could find where the actual amount of thujone is disclosed):

Lucid is an absinthe available for sale in the United States and is currently the only absinthe that can be sold legally. Produced in France for the Viridian Spirits Company of New York, it is made using traditional French methods. The recipe includes Grande Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), along with green anise, sweet fennel, and other herbs and was concocted by T.A. Breaux, an absinthe expert and historian.

Lucid was approved by the FDA for consumption in the United States after a change in the margin of error that allows a thujone containing product to be considered thujone-free if it contains less than 10mg/l.

Lucid is selling for about $60-$70 (before S&H or taxes). The design of the bottle and their advertising is very clever.

New York Times reporter Brendan Koerner described his experience thus: “I sampled the 124-proof liqueur last week, while watching the National Basketball Association playoffs. When diluted with water and a pinch of sugar, the absinthe’s taste is strong and pleasant. And the buzz has an odd way of focusing the mind — I’ve rarely been so entranced by the swish of a basketball net.”

Although the ritual of drinking absinthe naturally lowers/dilutes the amount of absinthe (and therefore the amount of thujone) consumed since water is added to absinthe at a ratio of approx. 3:1 (water is what causes the toxic liquor to form the louche (clouding) that occurs when water combines with anise), great care should always be taken in the consumption of absinthe, even when done properly and with devotion (and should never be consumed if done with the intention of abuse and drunkenness).