Whaling, banning

Spermaceti, a fragrant substance from sperm whales, was much used in cosmetics until it was banned in 1976 to protect the whales from extinction. Chemically, spermaceti is cetyl palmitate, the ester of cetyl alcohol (u-ClrtH33OH) with palmitic acid. Draw its structure. 

No observed adverse effect level Polychlorinated biphenyls - used as cooling agent in transformers because of low flammability. Now banned because of their environmental persistence and bioaccumulation in fat of many species including whales and humans... 

Essential oils occur mainly in aromatic plants. A few of them are found in animal sources, e.g. musk, civet and sperm whale, or are produced by microorganisms [1, 3, 6, 23, 25, 26, 29-33]. The Council of Europe describes essential oil as a product obtained from vegetable raw material [27]. Owing to a ban on animal-based flavour and fragrance materials, essential oils of trade are entirely of plant origin... 

Hydrolysis of Wax Esters. Fatty alcohol was first obtained from the hydrolysis of wax esters of animal origin, primarily spermaceti from sperm whale. With the worldwide ban on whale hunting, however, this source is no longer available. 

Another oil of interest for lubricants is jojoba oil as a replacement of sperm whale oil, the use of which is now banned. Jojoba oil is not a triglyceride but is a wax ester composed mainly of straight chain esters of C20-C22 monounsaturated acids and alcohols. The major constituents, shown in Fig. 6.11, are eicosenyl and docosenyl eicosenoates, where m = 9 and n = 10, 12 ... 

Naturally occurring waxes have a variety of uses. Lanolin, which serves as a protective coating for hair and skin, is used in skin creams and ointments. Car-nauba wax is used in automobile polish. Whale oil was once used as a fuel, in ointments, and in candles. However, synthetic waxes have replaced whale oil to a large extent, because of efforts to ban the hunting of whales. 

Commercial whaling is now limited to certain species and is controlled by the International Whaling Commission. The use of whale-derived products is banned in a number of countries. 

The commercial exploitation of sperm oil has led to the depletion of whale populations and is banned in some countries. Attention has, therefore, turned to the jojoba plant whose oil also consists of wax esters. Most fatty chemicals obtained from natural sources have chain lengths of Cig-Cig. The limited availability of compounds with 12-14 carbon atoms, which are important in surfactants, was one of the driving forces behind the development of petrochemical processes for the production of fatty alcohols. Higher alcohols, such as C20-C22 alcohols, can be produced from rapeseed oils rich in erucic acid and fish oils. Unsaturated fatty alcohols may be manufactured in the presence of selective catalysts. 

Similarly, Huhnerfiiss etal. [107, 117] detected PCBs in marine and limnic biota tissues. The authors reported the presence of these xenobiotics in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis). Toxaphene pesticide was used in the southeastern US states for cotton and soya bean crops, but was subsequently banned by the EPA in 1986, due to its long persistence. Hoekstra et al. [118] collected blubber and liver samples from the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) in Canada in 1997-8. The authors reported the presence of eight chiral PCB congeners (PCBs 91, 95,135,136,149,174, 176 and 183) in these samples. De Cues et al. [119] reported the presence of toxaphene, produced in large quantities similar to those of polychlorinated biphenyls. 

Essential oils occur mainly in plants and are produced solely from the same source. The production of essential oils from animals such as musk, civet, and sperm whale has been banned to protect biodiversity. Essential oils and their constituents are indispensable raw materials for the flavor and fragrance industries. Essential oils are either used as such, or a pure aroma chemical or an oil fraction can be added to flavor or fragrance compositions. However, flavor and fragrance industries prefer to use their synthetic derivatives in compounding because of their lower cost. Essential oils also are used in food industries, especially in flavoring sauces and package food (13-21). 

With the banning of whale products for food and technical applications, the importance of j. plantations rose tremendously in the late 1970 s, especially when market prices of 40 to 50 per gallon of oil were reported. A tremendous increase of plantations resulted in the 1980 s in oil prices of under 10. 

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