Ambergris (龙涎香)¶
Claim & Evidence¶
Claim: 龙涎香 (lóngxiánxiāng) is a Chinese incense ingredient (animal-derived, not botanical) — ambergris, a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) secretion — with an aroma profile of marine, sweet, earthy, waxy. Most 'ambergris' today is synthetic.
Evidence sources:
| Source | Type | Evidence level | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physeter macrocephalus (sperm whale) on GBIF | taxonomy | Tier 2 — Academic / Museum / Institutional | 2026-09-20 |
| Physeter macrocephalus in the CITES species checklist | regulatory | Tier 1 — Scientific / Government | 2026-09-20 |
| Bencao Gangmu (本草綱目) full text on Wikisource | traditional | Tier 3 — Historical primary source | 2026-09-20 |
Attributes¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Chinese | 龙涎香 |
| Pinyin | lóngxiánxiāng |
| Scientific name | Physeter macrocephalus (sperm whale) — animal-derived, not botanical |
| Type | ingredient |
| Aroma | marine, sweet, earthy, waxy |
| Category | Animal-derived |
Relationships¶
| Type | Related entity |
|---|---|
| category | Animal-derived |
| aroma | Sweet |
| aroma | Earthy |
| related | Sandalwood |
| related | Agarwood |
Main Site¶
Read the full article: Ambergris on IncenseHerbs
Auto-generated from the LanDeng Open Datasets (single source of truth: datasets/*.json). See Format & Governance for data conventions.