Hyrax Hyraceum

[AbdesSalaam Attar]

I got some Hyraceum. Strange aromatic raw material of the antique perfumery, the existence of which I even doubted.
It is supposed to be fossilized excrements of a rabbit size rat, Hyrax, “small brother of the elephants”, as tribesmen in South Africa call it.
The raw material is a dark brown charcoal like stone, difficult to brittle, with a smell reminiscent of Ambergris and Castoreum.
The smell did not seem that much fascinating as a perfume ingredient to me, but going through documentation I learned that it is used as a traditional medicine against epilepsy and this renders it excitingly interesting.
I tried today to make a tincture and the hardest part is to pulverize it before putting it into alcohol.
The process of making it into powder revealed a unique note from all most animal scents. It is strongly urinary, while ambergris and particularly Civet Musk have a faecal note.
This urinary smell seems to take power with the tincturing so much that the initial smell of the raw material seems to disappear completely.
According to my experience with tincturing animal scents and observing the way Hyraceum rected with alcohol I presume that probably a few weeks will be necessary in order to have a full result of the tincture.

Scritto Da – salaam Attar il 04 Dicembre 2006alle ore 23:09:49

[Autore]

Post