An analysis of sealed, 100-year-old bottles of the infamous spirit absinthe found that the drink, while containing a potent amount of alcohol, has no other ingredients that could explain its reputation for causing hallucinations, Monsters & Critics reported May 19.

German researchers said that their study of absinthe produced before the drink was banned in France in 1915 found that it contained only small amounts of the chemical thujone -- found in the absinthe ingredient wormwood and thought to cause the hallucinations, facial tics, numbness and dementia associated with "absinthe madness" and "absinthism."

However, researchers found that the ancient absinthe contained 70 percent alcohol, making the drink 140 proof. "All things considered, nothing besides ethanol was found in the absinthes that was able to explain the syndrome of absinthism," said researcher Dirk Lachenmeier of the Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Laboratory in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Absinthe has once again been legalized in Europe, but with limits on its thujone content. "Today it seems a substantial minority of consumers want these myths to be true, even if there is no empirical evidence that they are," Lachenmeier said. "These consumers seem to feel that absinthe, in view of its fabled and exotic reputation, ought to be dangerous, even in the absence of evidence that it is. It is to be hoped that this paper will go some way to refuting at least the first of these myths, conclusively demonstrating that the thujone content of a representative selection of pre-ban absinthe, including the largest and most popular brands, fell within the modern EU limit."

Some critics said it was possible that the bottles of absinthe studied could have been pale imitations of the genuine article, but the researchers said they chose to study the brands of absinthe that were the most popular and well-distributed during their time, and that the fact that the bottles were carefully stored by their owners after absinthe was banned indicated that they were of high quality.

The study was published in the May 14, 2008 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.