Ingredient

It is a glandular secretion contained in two pear-shaped pouches situated near the organs of reproduction of the castor beaver, a semi aquatic rodent. Hippocrates mentioned the medicinal use of castoreum way back in 500 B.C. It is stimulant of the exhausted nervous system and also an antiseptic. As an antispasmodic it is very useful in hysteria, epilepsy, infantile epilepsy, asthma, muscular tremor and tympani. Also useful in headaches, gout, sciatica, lethargy and rheumatism. The antiinflammatory action has been credited to the accumulation of salicin from willow trees in the beaver’s diet, which is transformed to salicylic acid and has an action very similar to aspirin. Castoreum was described in the 1911 British Pharmaceutical Codex for use in dysmenorrhoea and hysterical conditions, for raising blood pressure and increasing cardiac output.