Abstract

MODERN ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR AUTHENTICATION OF YEMENI AMBERGRIS

Yahya Abduh Salim Mohamed*, Mohamed A. Alkhawlani, Zakarya A. S. Wadi, Tawfeek Ahmed Ali Yahya, Abdu Faisal and Mahmoud M. Alburyhi

ABSTRACT

Ambergris is a sperm whale metabolite has long been used in traditional medication and one of the most valuable scents of animal origin. The aim of this study was to study the physicochemical properties of Yemeni Ambergris. Dokhny and Bacary ambergris were subjected to physicochemical testing as the pH, specific density, melting point, UV-Visible spectrophotometric absorbance, TLC, HPLC and Infra-red spectroscopy. Yemeni ambergris possess distinctive physicochemical properties including slightly acidic pH, lower specific density than water, a consistent melting point of 70±2°C and ƛ max 412.54 nm in methanol and ƛ max 420.32 nm in chloroform. The ambergris types have specific chromatograms and IR spectra. The study successfully characterized the physicochemical properties of Yemeni Ambergris contributing in development of reliable and efficient authentication protocols for ambergris helping in its medicinal, therapeutic and cosmetic usage and achieving the goal of detection any adulteration.

Keywords: Ambergris, Bacary, Dokhny, Physicochemical properties, UV-Visible spectroscopy, chromatographic method, Fourier transform Infrared.