SHORT AND SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF VANILLIN. 157 



VANILLA: and a SHORT and SIMPLE METHOD for 

 the DETERMINATION OF VANILLIN. 



By W. M. DOHBRTY, F.I.C., F.C.S. 

 With Plate VII. 



[Bead before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, October 1, 1913.~\ 



In all civilised countries vanilla is known and used, either 

 alone or blended, as a perfume or as a flavouring substance 

 in food, confectionery, and the like, and although there are 

 persons to whom its flavour and odour are unpleasant, it 

 has managed to worm its way into almost every household, 

 and rare indeed is the domicile which does not know it 

 some time in the year. It is of much interest to the organic 

 chemist, inasmuch as the artificial elaboration of vanillin, 

 the aromatic aldehyde to which vanilla owes its character- 

 istic odour, is one of the early successes of synthesis. So 

 great was the value put upon this substance that in the 

 year of its artificial production, namely 1876, its price 

 was no less than £160 per pound avoirdupois. This 

 price gradually decreased, and now it can be purchased 

 for a tenth of that number of shillings. The high price I 

 have quoted, is an indication of the value of the vanilla 

 pods from which previously the vanillin had been prepared, 

 and the reduction in cost shows well how great has been 

 the success of the chemists. 



To the analyst also, who has to investigate certain pre- 

 parations into the menstruum of which vanilla extractives 

 should enter, there is much food for thought. Indeed a 

 pulling to pieces of the concoctions which in days before 

 the Pure Food Act came into force used to pass muster as 

 the genuine article, was a matter for serious application. 

 I have known mixtures of benzoic acid, coumarin, helio- 



