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.