When Li Xuan saw the gray-black thing, he was stunned.

A gray-black floating object.

Combined with the huge sperm whale skeleton.

The identity of the mysterious gray-black object was about to emerge.

It was an ambergris that was expensive.

Some people say that ambergris is actually the feces of sperm whales, which slowly form after floating on the sea for many years.

This statement is actually not completely correct.

Ambergris is indeed a dry product of the secretions of the intestines of sperm whales. It is a secretion in the intestines of sperm whales, but it is not actually the feces of sperm whales, but spit out by sperm whales, some indigestion items in the intestines.

It is a unique treasure of sperm whales, and the price of each piece is not much lower than that of a house.

The first country in the world to discover ambergris is our country.

During the Han Dynasty, fishermen caught some wax-like drifts in the sea with gray and white fragrance. This is the finished dragon fragrance that has naturally changed over many years.

Ambergris ranges from a few kilograms to dozens of kilograms.

The natural ambergris has a strong fishy smell, but it can emit a lasting aroma when it is dried. When it is ignited, it smells even more fragrant than musk.

Some officials of the Han Dynasty at that time contributed ambergris as treasures to the emperor, and used them as spices or as medicines in the palace.

At that time, no one knew what treasure it was.

It is said that the external alchemy method was prevalent during the Han Dynasty. Many high-ranking officials and nobles at that time liked to take "immortal pills". Alchemy sorcerers were a group of people with great status in the Han Dynasty. They believed that ambergris was the saliva flowing out of dragons in the sea when they were sleeping, dripping into the sea water and solidifying. After a long time, ambergris was formed.

Therefore, the saying of ambergris has been passed down from the Han Dynasty.

But with the progress of the times, natural mysteries have been revealed one by one, and the saying that ambergris is the saliva of a dragon is unscientific.

As a result, people have various conjectures about the origin of ambergris.

Some people believe that ambergris was formed by an eruption of undersea volcanoes.

Some scientists say that ambergris is made by the guano from the island floating into the water and weathered for a long time.

Some people also say that ambergris is actually beeswax, which is generated after a long floating in the sea water.

Some people say that ambergris is actually a special fungus.

Because of the crowd, ambergris naturally aroused the interest of marine biologists.

After continuous research, marine biologists finally found that ambergris is a gut secretion of a huge marine animal, but as for which animal secretes it, it has not been clarified.

The person who really solved this puzzle was the fishermen from Cotra, Saudi Arabia.

The fishermen on this island mainly make a living by catching sperm whales.

Once, an old fisherman discovered an ambergris when he was cutting open the intestine of a sperm whale.

At that time, the fishermen thought that the ambergris was swallowed by the sperm whale from the sea and did not take it seriously.

But this news spread like wildfire and attracted the attention of marine biologists.

Some marine biologists immediately conducted in-depth research and finally found that the big squid and octopus had tough horny jaws and tongue teeth in their mouths, which were difficult to digest.

When the sperm whale devoured a large amount of large squid and octopus, the palate and tongue teeth accumulated in the gastrointestinal tract, which stimulated the intestines, and secreted a special waxy substance, wrapped the residue of the food, and slowly formed ambergris.

Scientists once discovered the congestion of intestinal fluid and foreign objects in the intestines of an 18-meter-long sperm whale, and determined that it was the beginning of ambergris.

Scientists believe that some sperm whales will vomit out condensation, some will leave ambergris in their bodies, and only a small number of sperm whales will expel ambergris as excretion.

So, it is not completely correct to say that ambergris is the excrement of sperm whales.

Li Xuan controlled the octopus clone and swam towards the gray-black floating object. Li Xuan wanted to carefully check whether this ambergris was worth it.

There are great differences in the quality of ambergris.

The ambergris soaked in the sea water initially turned light black, but under the action of the sea water, it gradually turned gray, light gray, and finally turned white.

White ambergris has the best quality. It takes a hundred years of soaking in Shanghai water to float all the impurities out before it can become the best among ambergris.

The ambergris taken from the intestines of the sperm whale that was killed, or the ambergris that had just been spit out by the sperm whale, are black and of no value.

A piece of ambergris must be floating and soaked in the sea for decades before it can gain a high status.

Soon, Li Xuan confirmed that this was indeed a piece of ambergris, but a gray-brown ambergris with a lower value. It had only been soaked in the sea water for a few years.

But even so, Li Xuan was already very satisfied.

In ancient times, ambergris was used as a high-end spice.

The fragrance company grades the purchased ambergris, grinds them into extremely fine powder, dissolves them in alcohol, and then mixes them into a concentrated ambergris solution for placing perfumes or as a scenting agent.

Even the lower-value ambergris is still expensive, almost the same as gold.

On December 3, 1912, a Norwegian whaling company caught a sperm whale in Australian waters and obtained a 455 kilogram ambergris from its intestines, and finally sold it for a huge price of 23,000 pounds.

In 1955, a New Zealander picked up a piece of grey ambergris weighing seven kilograms on the beach and sold it for $30,000.

These are all low-quality ambergris.

If it is white ambergris, it is really a priceless treasure and can't be bought with money.

Experiments have shown that ambergris is a collection of some polyterpene derivatives, most of which have an attractive fragrance and a ring-shaped molecular structure.

Due to humans' special love for various fragrances, there is a great market demand for spices. As early as the last century, chemists measured the structure of most terpenes, separated geraniol, linalool, anise, santou, santou, and longanou from natural essential oils, and carried out industrial production.

Artificial synthetic fragrances derived from benzene rings, such as benzoic acid, benzyl acetate, phenylacetaldehyde, etc., have also begun to be produced.

In 1920, Swiss chemists discovered the molecular structure of musk and synthetic ketone, and then American scientists invented the method of synthesizing macrocyclic esters to synthesize artificial musk.

All the ingredients in ambergris can be artificially synthesized, but they cannot completely replace the ambergris given to humans by the sea, because human technology cannot reach the wonders and harmony of nature. Especially the ambergris steroids in natural ambergris, after being added to perfume, a thin film will be formed on the skin, which can prevent the fragrance from dissipating for a long time.
Chapter completed!