108 



Imperial Institute, 

 (South Kensington, London, S.W.) 

 Memorandum on the manufacture and production of Vanillin and its 

 employment as a substitute fo^ Vanilla. 



Vanillin is the constituent to which vanilla owes its aroma and fla- 

 vour. It was discovered in 1858 by Gobley, and was subsequently in- 

 vestigated by a number of chemists, notably by Tieman, who first 

 prepared it artificially from Coniferin, a glucoside found in certain 

 coniferous plants. Since that time a large number of processes for the 

 artificial preparation of vanillin on a commercial scale have been de- 

 vised. The first of these to m^et with commercial success was that of 

 DeLaire (English Patents: 1890 No. 17547: 1891 No. 17137), who 

 used as a starting po'nt eugenol, the substance to which oil of cloves 

 owes its characteristic odour. DeLaire's process, either in its original 

 form or slightly modified, was worked in France by DeLaire & Ob., 

 and in Q-erman}^ by Haarmann and Reinaer dudng the period 1891- 

 1896 apparently under an agreement to avoid competition in prices. 

 About 1897, however, a period of competition set in between tho French 

 and German makes, which was further accentuatad by additions, in 

 France, Germany and Switzerland, to the number of firms making 

 Vanillin. Ihe result has been that the price of this product, which was 

 £9 per lb. in 1890, has steadily fallen until in November la-t it 

 was quoted at £1 Is. 4d. per lb. It is probable that all the vanillin 

 so far placed on the market has been made from eugenol, aid its price 

 has therefore been governed by that of oil of cloves as the raw pro- 

 duct. In 1901, however, a patent (No. 310983) was taken out in 

 France by Yigne, in which an e'ectrolytic me hod for the preparation 

 of vanillin from sugar WdS described If the claims of the inventor 

 are borne out by practical trials on an industrial scale, it is probable 

 that a further reduction in price may be expected, owing to the great 

 difference in cost of the two raw products, euge lol and sugar. 



There is no trustworthy information as to the extent to which arti- 

 ficial vanillin is manufactured and used at the present time, but to 

 judge from the number of firms enga^^ed in its production the amount 

 must be considerable. 



As regards the effect of the manufacture and sale of ''artificial va- 

 nillin" upon the demand f )r vanilla, it is remarkable 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 uf vanillin it contains 

 it is curious that so recently as November last, good qualities of va- 

 nilla should be saleable at 17/ to 19/6d per lb., whilst the equivalent 

 amount of artificial vanillin for flavouring purposes, could be obtained 

 for about one-thirtieth of this cost It is probable that this prefer- 

 ence for vanilla over artificial vanillin is due partly 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 i . ii alleged is partly due to minute quantities of other aromatic 

 substances present in the plant. Some evidence in favour of this 

 view is furnished by the statements made at various times b}' chemists 

 who have examined particular varieties of vanilla, and have isolated 

 in addition to vanillia small quantities of heliotropin, benzoic acid, 



