Coffee, Perfumes and Civets

There's a myth that synthetic chemicals are naturally more dangerous than natural ones but it simply isn't true. Every moment of our lives we are exposed to a vast assay of environmental chemicals, all of which—whether synthetically or naturally occurring—can cause harm in sufficient quantity.

Natural occurring botulinum, one of the most poisonous substances known, is used in tiny doses as cosmetic Botox injections. Caffeine, weight by weight, is considered more toxic than most pesticides. A cup of coffee is estimated to contain more than 2,000 natural chemical compounds and just one cup has fifty times the mutagenic activity of the smoke absorbed from smoking a single cigarette. (1) There are more natural rodent carcinogens by weight in a single cup of coffee than potentially carcinogenic synthetic pesticide residues in the average US diet in a year, and this doesn't count the 1,000 or so chemicals yet to be tested. (2) And here's an even more astounding natural chemical fact- the most expensive coffee in the world, Kopi Luwak, is civet poop. Civets are small, lithe-bodied mostly nocturnal mammals native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests. To make Kopi Luwak you must start with high-quality beans. But then you have to feed them to palm civets, wait while they pass through the animals' gut (having their fleshy exteriors digested as they go) and be ready to collect them when they come out the other end. The result, when cleaned, fermented, dried, roasted, ground and brewed sells for as much as $80 a cup. As reported in The Economist, the reason for this apparently ludicrous price is the sublime effect on the beans' flavor of the chemical reactions they undergo in a civet's stomach. (3)

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Additionally, besides drinking it's droppings in our coffee, we smear civet buttock juice on our necks. From civets you can derive civetone, which is used as a scent. The musk, scraped periodically from the perineal gland of captive African civets is refined into civetone, which 'exalts' the fragrances of expensive perfumes. (4) Civetone is one of the oldest perfume ingredients known. It is a pheromone that has a strong musky odor that becomes pleasant at extreme dilutions. Civetone is closely related to muscone, the principal odiferous compound found in musk. Fortunately, for civets, today civetone can by synthesized from precursor chemicals found in palm oil. (5) Want to lure jaguars to camera traps? Field biologists have used the cologne Calvin Klein's Obsession For Men. It is believed that the civetone in the cologne resembles a territorial marking. (5) What does this infer about human use of the Calvin Klein product? Some final items about civets: they are also a popular ingredient in a common Chinese medicinal soup. And lastly, perhaps civets may have the last laugh on we human tormentors. Civet cats are thought to be a source of the SARS epidemic in 2003. (6) So, if you are a person concerned about chemicals, stay away from expensive Kopi Luwak coffee and check your perfume or musks to see if 'civetone' is listed in the ingredients. References

1. Roger Coulombe, Does Nature Know Best? Natural Carcinogens and Anti-Carcinogens in America's Food, (New York, American Council on Science and Health, 1996)
2. L. S. Gold, Science, 258, 261, October 1992
3. “Brown-gold blend,” The Economist, August 31, 2013, Page 70
4. “Is there a civet in your perfume?, laelaps.wordpress.com, June 3, 2007
5. “Civetone,” en.wikipedia.org, accessed October 20, 2013

6. Bruce M. Hood, SuperSense, (New York, Harper One, 2009), 156