Vol. III. No. 51. 



THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



103 



ARTIFICIAL VANILLA. 



Tlie tullowiiig interesting in I'o inflation on the 

 production and nianufiicture of \'anillin, or artificial 

 Vanilla, prepared by Dr. Wvndham K. Dunstan, F.R.S., 

 Director of the Imperial Institute, has recently been 

 comnnuiieated to this Department under instruction 

 from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. 



The subject closely concerns the West Indies, as 

 efforts to establish a vanilla industry are being put 

 forth at Dominica, Trinidad, Jaiaaica and other 

 colonies : — 



A'anillin is the constituent to wliicli vanilla owes its 

 aroma and Havour. It was discovered in liSofS by Gohley, 

 and was subsequently investigated by a luunber of chemists, 

 notably V>y Tieman, who first jirejiared it aitifieially from 

 coniferin, a glucoside found in certain coniferous plants. 

 Since that time a large number of processes for the artificial 

 [ireiiaratiou of vanillin on a commercial scale have been 

 devised. The first of these to meet witli commercial success 

 was that of De Laire (English Patents: 1890, No. 17,-^)17 : 

 1891, No. 17,1.37), who used as a starting point ew/eiio/, the 

 substance to which oil of cloves owes its characteristic odour. 

 De Laire's process, either in its original form or slightly 

 modified, was worked in France l)y De Laire it Co., and in 

 Germany by Haannann and Reimer, during the period 1891-G, 

 apparently under an agreement to avoid competition in 

 prices. Aliout 1897, however, a period of competition set in 

 between the French and German makes, which was further 

 accentuated by additions, in France, Germany and Switzer- 

 land, to the number of firms making vanillin. The result 

 has been that the price of this jiroduct, which was £0 per lb. 

 ill 1890, has steadily fallen, until in November last it was 

 quoted at £\ Is. iJ. per Bj. It is probable that all the vanillin 

 so far placed on the market has been made from eugenol, and 

 its price has therefore been governed by that of oil of cloves 

 as the raw [noduct. In 1901, however, a patent (No. 310,983) 

 was taken out in France by Vigne, in which an electro- 

 lytic method for the preparation of vanillin from sugar was 

 described. If the claims of the inventor are l.orne out liy 

 practical trials on an industrial .scale, it is probable that a 

 further leduction in price may be exiiected, owing to the 

 great difference in cost of the two raw [products eugenol and 

 sugar. 



There is no trustworthy iiifonnafion as to the extent to 

 which artificial vanillin is manufactured and used at the 

 present time, but to judge from the number of firms engaged 

 in its production, the amount must be considerable. 



As regards the effect of the manufacture and sale of 

 'artificial vanillin' upon the demand for vanilla, it is 

 remarkalile that this has up to the present been comparatively 

 slight. When it is considered that vanilla is employed 

 principally as a flavouring agent, and that its value in this 

 respect depends upon the amount of vanillin it contains, it is 

 curious that so recentlj- as November last good qualities of 

 vanilla should be .saleable at 17.f. to 19s-. Gd. per lb., whilst 

 the e(|uivaleiit amount of artificial vaidlliii, for flavouring 

 liur])o.ses, could be obtained for about one-thirtieth of this 

 cost. It is probable that this preference for vanilla over 

 artificial vanillin is due jiarfly to conservatism on the part of 

 the consumers, and partly also to a somewhat widespread 

 belief that vanillin does not wholly represent the flavour of 

 vanilla, which, it is alleged, is partly due to minute cpiantities 

 of other aromatic substances present in the iilant. Some 

 evidence in favour of this view is furnisheil by the statements 

 made at various times by chemists who have examined 

 particular varieties of vanilla, and have isolated, in addition 



to vanillin, .small quantities of heliotiopin, lienzoic acid, et«._ 

 These substances are, however, both cheap and readily 

 obtainable, and if necessity arose, it would be a very easy 

 matter to mix them in a jiroper proportion with vanillin, in 

 order to modify the flavour of the latter in the required 

 direction. 



The foregoing statement of the present condition of 

 vanillin manufacture indicates clearly the possibility in the 

 near future of the replacement of vanilla as a flavouring 

 agent by vanillin. 



It is difficult to obtain reliable statistics of the 

 production of vanilla since the cultivation of this product is 

 so widely distributed in tropical countries, and the imports 

 of it into the inincipal consuming countries are comparatively 

 of so little value that they are rarely separately given. The 

 United States Trade I'eturns for 1902, however, give a table 

 of the imiiorts of vanilla into that country for the decennial 

 [leriod ending in 1902, of which an alistract is given below. 



ntl'ORTS OF 



VANILLA INTO 

 AMERICA. 



THE UNITED STATES 



These figures show that, although there is at present no 

 falling oft' in the demand for vanilla, there has been a great 

 decline in value. 



The same state of things is shown by the results of the 

 two auctions held in London in February and November of 

 last year. At the former, 2,800 tins were sold and at the 

 latter 1,410 tins. These quantities are in excess of those 

 of former years. The prices obtained in February ranged 

 from 22.S. 6rf. per It), for best qualities, to 14s. 6d. for somewhat 

 .short, chocolate-coloured l.eans, and 7s. 6f/. to lis. 6'7. for 

 ' foxy brown ' l>eans. In November the best qualities 

 realized only 17s. to 19.«. 6(/. per If).; .short beans from 8.?. Grf. 

 to 1 Is., and poor qualities 4s. to 7s. per lb. 



It is almost impossible to give accurately the total 

 annual production of vanilla at the present time, but it may 

 be estimated at about 350 tons, of which about 150 tons are 

 produced in the British colonies and Bourbon, and the 

 remainder in Mexico. Such statistics as are available indicate 

 that the total production has remained almost stationary 

 during the last few years, the increased output from 

 Seychelles and Mexico being comjieiLsated by smaller exports 

 from Mauritius and Bourbon. This being the case it is 

 evident that the depreciation in value of vanilla must be 

 ascribed almost entirely to the competition of vanillin as 

 a flavouring agent. In this connexion it is desirable that it 

 .should be known that the so-called ' artificial vanillin ' is 

 identi<-al in every respect with the vanillin contained in 

 vanilla, and to which the flavour of the plant is chiefly if not 

 entirely due. Ftir this reason it is not possible to encourage 

 proiio.=ials to prevent the sale of vanillin as a 'sulistitute' for 

 vanilla. 



