Castoreum
Castoreum
- Known today as
- The scent gland secretion of the beaver.
- Kind
- Animal, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- phenolic compounds, nupharamine alkaloids, oxygen-containing monoterpenes
- Earliest authority here
- Pliny and the bestiaries (AD 23/24–79)
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Castoreum: what was it used for?
For the nerves, the womb, hysteria, and the falling sickness; in fumigations.
Castoreum: what does modern science say?
Its strong smell comes in part from large amounts of phenolic compounds; it has flavoured food for at least eighty years and is used in perfumery.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- phenolic compoundsin large amounts, part of the scent
- nupharamine alkaloids
- oxygen-containing monoterpenes
- Mechanism
- The beaver’s castor sacs hold a strong-smelling paste with which it marks its territory, its odour owed in part to large amounts of phenolic and neutral compounds.
- Toxic dose
- Non-toxic by mouth and on the skin in animal tests; a permitted flavouring.
- Standing
- Generally recognised as safe as a food flavouring in the United States; its scent is in perfumery.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
What Medicine Makes of It
- The Wandering Womb and the ConvulsionsSuffocation of the mother, hysteria, and functional neurological disorder.
Castoreum: what did the older authorities say?
- Pliny and the bestiaries
- Repeat the fable that the beaver, hunted for its castoreum, bites off its own testicles to escape; but Pliny, in another book, reports Sextius’s denial.
Sources
- Pliny, Natural History VIII. Read in part · the text read
- Pliny the Elder. Natural History XXXII.13, trans. J. Bostock and H. T. Riley (1855). Perseus Digital Library. Read in part · the text read
- Badke, D. The Medieval Bestiary: “Beaver: source texts.” bestiary.ca. Read in full · the text read
- Burdock, G. A. (2007). Safety assessment of castoreum extract as a food ingredient. International Journal of Toxicology 26: 51–55. Abstract read · the text read
- Tang, R., Webster, F. X., and Müller-Schwarze, D. (1993). Phenolic compounds from male castoreum of the North American beaver, Castor canadensis. Journal of Chemical Ecology 19: 1491–1500. Abstract read · the text read
- Tang, R., Webster, F. X., and Müller-Schwarze, D. (1995). Neutral compounds from male castoreum of North American beaver, Castor canadensis. Journal of Chemical Ecology 21: 1745–1762. Abstract read · the text read
- Stoye, A., et al. (2009). Stereoselective synthesis of enantiomerically pure nupharamine alkaloids from castoreum. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 48: 2228–2230. Abstract read · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 7 cited: 1 read in full, 2 read in part, 4 abstract read. 4 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Castoreum.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/castoreum.
- MLA
“Castoreum.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/castoreum. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Castoreum. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/castoreum
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See Also
Also in Pliny the Elder
Catmint in Pliny the Elder · Cassia wood in Pliny the Elder · Centaury in Pliny the Elder · Caper spurge in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Drawing on the same sources: Pliny, Burdock
Cinnabar · Caesar’s mushroom · Cinnamon · Sandalwood · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Caterpillar fungus (sending up a slender stalk) · Castor-oil plant, seeds of (Ricinus communis) · Cassia, flower of (the Indian laburnum) · Cattail · Carmelite water (with lemon peel, nutmeg, coriander, and angelica, distilled in spirit)
Historical description, not medical advice.