Due to their rarity, white truffles are very expensive, typically costing over USD7,000
In 2021, Yemeni fishermen sold a 127-kilogram chunk of ambergris worth around USD1.5 MILLION to a buyer in the United Arab Emirates. The fishermen purchased houses, cars, and boats from their profits!
NAture | Prized Medicinal Plants and Animals
AMBERGRIS
Called“ treasure of the sea” and“ floating gold”, ambergris is one of the strangest useful substances of animal origin. Fossilised evidence of the substance dates back 1.75 milion years. What it was and where it came from was a mystery for many years until whalers discovered it came from the sperm whale in the 1800s. Formed from a secretion of the bile duct in the intestines of the sperm whale, ambergris is passed like fecal matter, initially expelled as a soft, fatty, white substance. After months of photodegradation and oxidation in the ocean, it hardens, becoming grey or black with a crusty, waxy texture and a sweet, marine, and animalic odour. Surprisingly, this prized substance has been used to make perfumes for hundreds of years! Ambrein, an alcohol extracted from ambergris, makes a perfume’ s scent last longer. Ancient Egyptians, Arabs, Chinese and Japanese used it as prized incense and an aphrodisiac.
Due to their rarity, white truffles are very expensive, typically costing over USD7,000
per kilogram
In 2021, Yemeni fishermen sold a 127-kilogram chunk of ambergris worth around USD1.5 MILLION to a buyer in the United Arab Emirates. The fishermen purchased houses, cars, and boats from their profits!
WHITE TRUFFLES Tuber magnatum
DID YOU KNOW?
Although ambergris is not harvested from whales, countries such as Australia, India and the USA ban the trade of ambergris as part of the more general ban on the hunting and exploitation of whales
Despite their knobbly and unappetising appearance, these fruiting bodies of Tuber magnatum – white truffles – are prized around the world for their extraordinary flavour. They usually grow several inches underground near the roots of certain trees and are harvested with the help of pigs or trained dogs. White truffles can be found in Southern Europe, The Balkans, and, surprisingly, northern Thailand. Truffles have to be collected when the spores are mature enough for release in order for the chemicals responsible for development of the aroma – and thus flavour – to be produced.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 2007, Macau casino owner Stanley Ho paid USD330,000 at auction for a 1.5-kilogram white truffle unearthed in Tuscany, Italy
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