Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

Other major commercial crops have had similar historical trajectories to vanilla. For example, coffee reached the status of an important cultivar only during the colonial period, despite a long history of relative low-intensity use (Smith et al. 1992). The pre-Columbian use of vanilla was based on discriminate and occasional harvesting from the tropical “healing forest”, a use pattern that generally characterizes patterns of exploitation of non-staples and ritual plants (Schultes and Raffauf 1990; DeFilipps et al. 2004;). In contrast to V. planifolia, which is naturally rare and thrives in semi-isolation from its con-specifics, many of the areas where vanilla was gathered in the colonial period were lowland, swampy, seasonally-inundated habitats that tend to favor Vanilla species that live and reproduce in populations. For example, the species that Dampier mentions at “Caibooca” (Uxpanapa Delta, Tabasco, Mexico) were probably either V insignis or V. odorata (at Bocas del Toro, Dampier may have observed V. planifolia or multiple species; R. Dressler, personal communication). In Peru, Ruiz observed trade in vanilla fruits that could have derived from species less rare than V. planifolia, such as V bicolor, V grandiflora, or V palmarum. A localized, natural abundance of vanilla also provided fruits in Belize (see Gretzinger, Chapter #, this volume), French Guiana (Aublet 1776/Humboldt 1819), and Honduras/Nicaragua (Offen 2000), and in none of these situations did knowledge of artificial pollination exist.

We can speculate on a number of factors that contributed to the absence of vanilla cultivation historically in South America. In addition to Veracruz being the best-situated locale for export to Europe, South America furthermore lacked a pre-Columbian tradition of drinking cacao-beverages (McNeil 2006). To this day, South American Amerindians prefer to consume the sweet aril surrounding cacao seeds, usually discarding the latter. The lack of reliable cultivars (Diaz 1861; p. 268), and pests and diseases, may also have stymied commercial production of vanilla in South America. There are many fungi that attack vanilla, including Fusarium batatas Wollenw. var. vanillae Tucker (Childers et al. 1959 [referred to as “batatatis”]; Duke 1993).

If vanilla cultivation was absent in pre-Columbian tropical America, vanilla curing was not. In addition to various Mesoamerican techniques for curing (i.e. in Papantla, Oaxaca (Teuitla), and the Maya area [Kouri 2004]), the Amerindians of the Guianas have cured vanilla since at least the mid-seventeenth century, while the Siona-Secoya of Colombia/Ecuador have also developed their own process. A “Guiana method” (Purseglove et al. 1981) and a “Peruvian process” (Ridley 1912) have been mentioned in the literature, with both employing the use of oil to help preserve the vanilla fruits as well as tying them up into bundles.

Arguably, the art and science of vanilla curing has yet to reach perfection. One of the major obstacles to the production of quality vanilla fruits today is the widespread harvesting of green fruits that are hardly redolent and not ripe. Early harvesting, which is now almost habituated in some countries, precludes the formation of a full complement of unique aromatic compounds in the curing and aging process (McGee 2004). It is not for nothing that vanilla fruits take nearly 11 months to reach the ripening stage.

Scholarly research will doubtless uncover more documents bearing testament to the history of vanilla use in colonial tropical America, but they are unlikely to diverge thematically from the core historical synthesis we have presented here. The records of vanilla use on hand are remarkably consistent with regard to time and space and, in most cases, for their brevity. Whatever emphasis may be given to the commercial history of vanilla, it is important also to not neglect the original uses for vanilla that were fashioned by various cultures. In this regard, we feel that the medicinal properties of Vanilla, which include treating severe headaches (Hernández-LtSpez 1988; Cano Asseleih 1997), use as a vermifuge (Lawler 1984; Atran et al. 2004), and use to relieve circulatory problems and skin diseases (Heyde 1987; DeFilipps et al. 2004), comprise an especially fruitful avenue for future research inquiry.

Acknowledgements

P.L. thanks R. Russell, C. Kelloff, J. Gasco, J. Carney, and R. Bussman for their support and input. G.A.R.-G. acknowledges S.M. Rossi-Wilcox for pointing out the necklace described in the text, and the Orchid Society of Arizona and the Massachusetts Orchid Society for their generous support, and S.Z. gives thanks to her co-workers at the Harvard University Herbaria.

References