Joyoud

Oud Fan
Honestly I don’t think it’s life or let me say I don’t believe it’s life (whatever) just because as Mr.P’s opinion:
It’s 95% ethanol !!!
I know in some cases as many mentions here ,in some cases there’s bacteria or even yeast can grow in alcohol or produce alcohol ,
One example is the yeast that transfer sugar to alcohol, then right after the bacteria transferring that alcohol to vinegar!
But we are talking about very low alcohol % here ! Not 95% !
Again I never heard of something can live in such an environment.
Let’s see what happens after I dumped it in the liquid , and honestly I am thinking of the suggestion of taking one of them out and see if dissolve in fresh alcohol as Abu Amir said.
I will keep you guys informed.
Jalal
 

Joyoud

Oud Fan
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Dude you can believe whatever you want and I don't judge you - you can only work with the knowledge you possess after all. Differentiating between living and nonliving phenomena is not always a simple thing. I'm actually going use this case in my classroom with my life science class this week because it's kind of interesting and amusing. The idea of a colony of germs growing on ambergris residue in an atmosphere of alcohol vapor over a pool of 95% just indicates you have not worked with microorganisms...

abu Amir has some practical advice for you there. Another option is to warm the bottle in a hot water bath but be careful. Ambrein can crystallize in some unhelpful ways of you heat and cool ambergris tinctures. You can end up with lots of white flocculant stuff floating in your tincture if it is a very strong extract.
Mr. P you are the winner !
Yes you are definitely right it’s Ambrein Crystals , I took the biggest one out and I added pure 95% ethanol then I brake it down to smaller pieces,
And within 2 to 3 minutes they all gone and the ethanol turn light yellow with the scent of ambergris in it.
The only thing that made suspicious is usually crystals is forming on the edge of the liquid (like the salt crystals for example) , and these are way above the liquid!!
That’s mean the Ambrein can evaporate and can condense on the surfaces forming crystals ?!
If this is the case , then it’s interesting to know.
You nailed it Mr.P and good job.
After all I am happy that I didn’t create a new pandemic lol
Thank you very much all.
Jalal
 

Mr.P

oud<3er
I believe the ambrein is deposited in thin layers with each "slosh" of alcohol. I'm guessing there is some kind of wicking (?) or adhesion/ cohesion thing going on that causes some to be continuously deposited in very thin layers as alcohol wicks (?) up the sides.

I understand completely why someone would think those were bacterial colonies. They really do look just like a textbook colony of bacteria. Ambergris is a strange material to work with.
 
That’s Great!!
No need to quarantine.

I’ve had some solids form around the threading of my ambergris timcture vials, highly concentrated tinctures, and when I scrape some, then crush it between my fingers, it was very fragrant.
But they never form within the vial, even when not shaken for months.

Ambergris is strange indeed, but strangely wonderful:Inlove:
 

Mr.P

oud<3er
You can get long needle like crystals if you heat and cool an alcohol extract.

The white crystals I don't think are fragrant in themselves. When you crush them in between your fingers and get a smell, that's everything else that's trapped in there with them when they form, but if you truly isolated those crystals from all the other residue, they would not have an odor.

If someone knows otherwise please correct me. I'm only 90% certain on this.
 

Mr.P

oud<3er
From Wikipedia:

Ambrein is a triterpene alcohol that is the chief constituent of ambergris, a secretion from the digestive system of the sperm whale, and has been suggested as the possible active component producing the supposed aphrodisiac effects of ambergris.[1] Although ambrein itself is odorless, it serves as the biological precursor for a number of aromatic derivatives such as ambroxan and is thought to possess fixative properties for other odorants
 

Bandar

Oud Beginner
What is the temperature of the house in degrees? As you know, amber is one of its compositions. I think it is a fatty and gummy substance. What happened may be the result of crystallization, such as cases of crystallization of organic honey due to the cold. Therefore, it may be due to the cold weather. You can put the bottle in a water bath and heat it. If it returns to its liquid state, this will be the case. It is the logical explanation or you can benefit from it by eliminating the fungi or bacteria resulting from the mixture
 

Ibn Abdillah

True Ouddict
View attachment 15463 View attachment 15464 View attachment 15465 View attachment 15466 Hello everyone,
I made Ambergris tincture (very trusted Pure Ambergris 3 grams) in Everclear alcohol ( 95% grain alcohol -the purest) .
It’s 6 months old now, I shake it everyday and I place it on top of fridge in a dark box .

now I need to make it clear for the following so you have a clear picture of the situation:-

1- before I use my Pyrex bottles I sterilize by bleach then boiling water.

2- I did not expose the tincture to any kind of extreme Heat after mixing.

3- as you can see in the attached photos,the bottle is 70% empty so there’s definitely Oxygen there (I am assuming !)

4- the ambergris as we all knows from the Ocean which is full with all kinds of life forms.

I travelled out of the province (for work), so I didn’t see or shake the tincture for 11 days,
After I came back (a week ago) I noticed a very small (about 1 mm diameter) 4 to 5 spots in the inner side of the bottle (above the level of the tincture, they are yellow to dark yellow in colour.
I did not open the bottle since, and I left them alone to see what going to happen.
Now a week later, as you can see they grow in size big time, so definitely this is a kind of life form !!!!!
What on earth can grow in such an environment ?!!!! I don’t know !!
I mean it’s 95% alcohol !!
With my limited knowledge in Biology,
I know that no virus can live in there ( maybe I am wrong) , bacteria very few can!
But maybe Yeast !!! Specially that it’s building a colony ! because it’s growing.
Now again I am not an expert that’s why I am not going to open the bottle but I need from expert people here please ( I know we have couple at least but I forgot who )to take a look and maybe they know (I know it’s not that easy without analysis ) but at least :
What kind of things can live and grow in this environment ?!!!
It’s not about the cost and the money ! Simply I can destroy the bottle in safe way (maybe just boil the bottle and throw it away) , but for our own safety SPECIALLY that I read in here that some members try to taste the Ambergris !!!
Finally:
Am I creating a monster ?!!
Thank you very much
Jalal
Let me just say as a disclaimer that I do not want to suggest that I want to criticize someone's opinion.
I give my insight based on what has achieved me, see if it helps you.

Here is my humble input:
The first thing I noticed in your 1st point is that you used chlorine as a disinfectant.
I will personally never use that, as it also kills the good bacteria, which you need for the shelf life of your mixture, among other things, provided you want to do it all naturally and healthily. I assume that its also the intention, since natural products are used.
A better alternative would be to alternately use hot and cold water to clean your equipment, but absolutely no detergents, chlorine or other junk.
If you have it available, you can use food grade h202 (hydrogen peroxide) in a 3% diluted solution, this will kill any harmful bacteria. A much better alternative than chlorine.

There is a nuance to the comment from @Mr.P that bacteria cannot live in alcohol, yes "most" wat is "known in science" of the bacteria, but not "all". There are indeed bacteria that (can become) resistant to alcohol.
Research shows that the Enterococcus faecalis bacteria is one of the bacteria that is resistant to alcohol.
And these bacteria naturally live in the intestines, exactly the area where the ambergris comes from.
Only sidenote is, that i not know if this bacteria also lives in animal intestines, but research shows that this bacteria have the possibility to also be transferred through hands.

it's very plausible that with the chlorine you have created a basis for an unfavorable environment where bad bacteria can multiply.
I also noticed that your bottle is not full to the neck, and that the spots are precisely in the area where there is no liquid.
I believe that the area where there is no liquid is the most vulnerable, as there is air between them and it is a good place for bad bacteria to grow.
It seems to me that these are not ambergris. The color, the place where it is located and the fact that it sticks to the glass wall gives me the impression that it is plaque/biofilm of bad bacteria.

I haven't studied chemistry, but chlorine consists of salts/crystals, so don't rule out the possibility that that is also an option, namely the chemical reaction of chlorine residues with alcohol or the other products you have added to your fragrance mix.

What I would do in your situation is pour the contents into a new (smaller) bottle, where the entire contents just fit (up to the edge of the bottle).
I would therefore observe the previous steps, do not use chlorine or detergent.

As a final (extra) step, you can do the following from an educational perspective:
After transferring the contents to an other bottle, you can spray the old bottle with H202.
If the spots on the bottle turn white, you can be sure that they are bad bacteria, as H202 immediately reacts/fizzes when it comes into contact with bad bacteria.
This way you can fairly accurately assume that it was bad bacteria.
 
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