The long-cherished idea that absinthe, an anise-flavored alcoholic beverage with a history of use by artists like Van Gogh and Picasso, is or ever was hallucinogenic might have met its death by data today.

German scientists put old bottles of the substance to the test and found that the liquid is 70 percent alcohol (140 proof) and 0 percent hallucination.

"All things considered, nothing besides ethanol was found in the absinthes that was able to explain the syndrome 'absinthism'," the researchers wrote in an open-access paper in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Absinthe, widely known as the 'Green Fairy' was banned across Europe in the early 20th century after it became the purported cause of absinthism, the symptoms of which included hallucinations, tremors and convulsions. It turns out that absinthism was probably just alcoholism.

Absinthe so scared the responsible adults of the world that only in the last few years was the substance allowed back onto the market. But when people failed to report excellent trips, arguments sprung up about whether or not the new absinthe was chemically equivalent to the old stuff.

The researchers took a systematic look at 13 samples of pre-ban absinthe and measured their levels of thujone, the active chemical component in the drink's famed wormwood. They found them to be no higher than today's licorice-tasting brew.

“Today it seems a substantial minority of consumers want these myths to be true, even if there is no empirical evidence that they are,” said the study's lead author Dirk Lachenmeier in a release. “It is hoped that this paper will go some way to refute at least the first of these myths, conclusively demonstrating that the thujone content of a representative selection of pre-ban absinthe... fell within the modern EU limit.”

UPDATE: In the comments, Herbal Ed brings up a good point, saying "It sounds like they're not considering that thujone from the wormwood

(Artemisia absinthium) has probably broken down in to other components." I should have included this tidbit from the latter half of the paper in which the authors say they "have not found any evidentiary or investigative support for ... the proposition that thujone content changes in bottle, as a result of aging or other environmental factors."

Image: Courtesy of Dirk Lachenmeier, showing the implements of their absinthe sampling process, including a vintage bottle of Pernod Fils, a popular pre-ban absinthe brand.

See Also: A fantastic Wired article – "The Mystery of the Green Menace" – on Ted Breaux, one of Lachenmeier's collaborators for the most recent study.