absinthin
compound / compound-absinthin
アブシンチン
Absinthin is a dimeric bitter sesquiterpene lactone derived from wormwood. Associated with the bitterness of absinthe and vermouth-class beverages.
Photographs (captions in Japanese)
The above-ground part of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). Absinthin is a bitter sesquiterpene lactone dimer derived from this plant, and this is a photograph of the source plant, not of the compound itself.
Raw materialShown: Artemisia absinthium (wormwood)Part / state: Above-ground plant
Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 / original image / ledger's original image
Scope and provenance of the photo
Identification: Identified as labelled in the source. A different file from the photographs used for ingredient-bask and compound-thujone (to avoid duplication).
Image shown: The full-size file from Wikimedia Commons, reduced to 2400 px on the long side with sips. No cropping or color changes by NIGAMI LAB (resizing only). For display, a WebP capped at 1200 px wide is served; the ledger's original image can be checked from the link above.
On this page (8 sections)
Reading the bitterness
Absinthin is a bitter sesquiterpene lactone derived from wormwood, known to be a dimer (a structure in which two molecules are joined together). It is a compound discussed in connection with the bitterness of beverages such as absinthe and vermouth, and appears by name in a review table summarizing bitter compounds and their source plants — recorded as a sesquiterpene lactone from wormwood. This record comes from the review table, not from a primary analysis that directly measured the contents.
At the receptor level, absinthin is registered in pharmacology databases as an agonist of the human bitter receptor TAS2R46, with an affinity value documented as approximately 10 µM. A separate review summarizes that absinthin activates not only TAS2R46 but also TAS2R10, TAS2R14, and TAS2R47 in the 0.1–100 µM range. However, the primary research on which these values are based has not yet been read in full.
In a study where wormwood extract (abundant in absinthin) was microencapsulated in alginate microparticles and incorporated into biscuits, a panel test with 50 consumers found no difference in overall sensory acceptability between the biscuits containing the microencapsulated extract and control biscuits without it. The amount of absinthin remaining in the biscuits was quantified by HPLC-DAD as 356.8 ± 1.0 ng/g, with the coexisting anabsinthin quantified as 45.0 ± 1.5 ng/g.
Sources for this overview
Checked for this overview: Listed in review table as a sesquiterpene lactone from wormwood / Review summary of activation of TAS2R10, TAS2R14, TAS2R46, and TAS2R47 in the 0.1–100 µM range
IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY: TAS2R46 (target 679) interaction records
Checked for this overview: Pharmacology database registration as a TAS2R46 agonist and affinity documentation
Checked for this overview: Reservation: primary research background for TAS2R46 broad-spectrum activation has unread sections
Checked for this overview: Quantified residual amount after microencapsulation and panel sensory acceptability results
Structured claims — open a section to read each claim's confidence, evidence and limits
Composition and content (1)
Scope: A review summary (Table 1 of a 2026 review on the receptor pharmacology of bitter compounds in herbs and spices).
Show data
ingredient-wormwood —contains→ compound-absinthinMechanism and receptors (1)
Scope: A curated and review-level summary of heterologous-expression receptor assays
Note: The individual values from the primary paper (Brockhoff 2007) are not in the abstract, and the full text has not been read. The gap between the receptor set given by the curation (46 only) and the review (10/14/46/47) is kept as is.
Show data
compound-absinthin —activates→ receptor-tas2r46How processing and cooking change it (1)
Scope: Layer: food. Wormwood ethanol-extract-derived absinthin, alginate microencapsulation (ionic gelation), incorporation into biscuits, consumer panel acceptance questionnaire (n = 50), and HPLC-DAD quantification of residual amount.
Show data
compound-absinthin —has_perceived_bitterness_suppressed_by→ (the claim sentence above)