Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

The problem of adulteration of vanilla with vanillin and a few other components has always plagued the vanilla market and the pricing. After 35 years of work and study of natural products, I am convinced that we are not yet able to do a better job than Nature. There is really nothing like the pure unadulterated vanilla extract or various folded and concentrated vanilla extracts that are available. It is always a shame when users try to stretch the use and performance of vanilla with the adulteration by vanillin or other mixtures to make an economic price point or performance point. When this happens, it affects the overall market by introducing unfair competitive pricing that can drive honest growers and manufacturers of vanilla extracts to their breaking points, or at worst put them out of business permanently. The supply is then cut, the prices go up and the demand for good quality extracts goes down, thus creating a spiral downwards in supply and upwards in pricing of good quality material. We have seen this happening in a variety of other natural products. The most striking examples are cinnamon bark oil, supplanted or replaced by cinnamic aldehyde, or bitter almond oil replaced by benzaldehyde. Our world would be much worse off without the quality of real vanilla extract in our daily lives.

Lastly, I hope the continued EU regulations do not prevent or eliminate use of natural products due to very weak contact allergens. This continues to affect the overall quality of items we use daily, as well as to impact the farmers and growers of botanical products.

REFERENCE

Glaser, D., Etzweiler, F., Graf, R., Neuner-Jehle, N., Calame, J. and Mueller, P. (1995) The first odor threshold measurement in a non-human primate (Cebuella pygmaea; Callitrichidae) with a computerized olfactometer. In: Chemical signals in vertebrates VII, Apfelbach, R. and Mueller-Schwarze, D. (Eds), Pergamon, Oxford, pp. 445-455.

BIOLOGY OF VANILLA

14 Vanilla Phylogeny and Classification

Kenneth M. Cameron

Reviews of plant systematics and economic botany regularly list Vanilla planifolia as a species unique in Orchidaceae (the orchid family), and it is true that the plant exhibits some features uncommon among orchids. For example, mature plants of this species are succulent climbing vines that begin life as terrestrials rooted in the soil, but may eventually become epiphytes attached to tree trunks and branches. Roots are used for both water and mineral absorption as well as for clinging to supports. New flowers open on a daily basis but last for only a few hours. Unlike most other orchids, the flowers shed individual pollen grains (monads) rather than packaging their pollen into complex pollinia. If pollinated, then each flower may develop into a long slender fruit, which often remains fleshy as a “berry” rather than drying out and dehiscing at maturity, as in a more typical orchid capsule. Whereas the vast majority of orchids produce microscopic dust-like seeds containing an undifferentiated embryo lacking endosperm and surrounded by only a thin transparent seed coat, the seeds of Vanilla planifolia are visible to the naked eye, black, hard, crustose, and may contain at least a few cells of endosperm to nourish the embryo within.