Amber grey Substance or waxy consistency or greyish-black and musky odor found in the digestive tube or the sperm whale and other marine cetaceans, which are expelled together with fecal matter on the surface of tropical seas in masses of 14 to 15 kilograms. It comes from the action of cetacean gastric juices on their cephalopods, the basic alimentation of the first. Their principal components are cholesterol (80%) and amber. It melts down at 60C and is inflammable and evaporates almost without residue, insoluble in water and soluble in organic solvents. It is used in perfumery as a fixative and tint; in olden times it was used as an aphrodisiac
.
Text translated from La Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana