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Vanilla. Among the aromatic constituents of vanilla, vanillin is the 

 most important one. Good varieties of vanilla contain about 2 °/ of vanillin, 

 but the value of vanilla cannot be judged entirely by its vanillin con- 

 tent; the aromatics which accompany vanillin are also of great impor- 

 tance in determining the character of the aroma of vanilla. Up to 

 the present hardly any attempts have been made to isolate these 

 constituents and to investigate their properties. W. Busse 1 ) surmises 

 that the fruit of certain inferior varieties of vanilla, the so-called 

 vanillons, as well as that of Vanilla planifolia Andr., which is cultivated 

 in Tahiti, contains piperonal as well as vanillin. But up to. the present 

 no definite proof for this statement has been given. 



In order to obtain further knowledge of the aromatic principles, 

 other than vanillin, which are contained in Tahiti vanilla, we prepared 

 an ethereal extract from 9,2 kilos of this vanilla, from which, after 

 removing the vanillin by means of soda liquor, we obtained by steam 

 distillation 7 g. of a pale brown oil with a pleasant characteristic odour. 2 ) 



The oil was heavier than water; its b. p. lay between 105 and 

 118 (6 mm.). 6 g. distilled over at about the b. p. of anisic alcohol, 

 1 1 5 to 1 1 8° (6 mm.). Artificial anisic alcohol prepared from anisic 

 aldehyde showed, at 5 mm., a b. p. of 117 to 11 8°. The fraction 115 

 to 1 1 8° of the vanilla oil contained, besides anisic alcohol, a little 

 anisic aldehyde, of which the semicarbazone melted at 204 °. With 

 phenyl wcyanate the fraction gave a urethane, m. p. 93 °, which was 

 identical with the urethane from artificial anisic alcohol. When the 

 fraction was oxidised with permanganate solution anisic acid was formed, 

 m. p. 180 . Free anisic acid was also detected in the alkaline extract 

 of the vanilla, extract. On the other hand, no piperonal could be 

 discovered. We have not yet been able to determine whether anisic 

 alcohol and anisic aldehyde are also constituents of the odoriferous 

 principle of the more valuable Bourbon vanilla, but it is our intention 

 to experiment in this direction with considerable quantities of raw material. 



Vanillin. The French Government have received a memorial 

 containing 2500 signatures, from vanilla planters in the French Colonies, 

 urging the imposition of a sufficient excise-duty upon vanillin to enable 

 the vanilla-producers, who describe themselves as struggling for their 

 existence, to compete successfully with the artificial scent. As a result 

 of this step it is intended to ask the French Parliament to sanction 

 an increase in the import-duty on vanillin to frcs. 15 per kilo, in 

 addition to an excise-duty of 60 frcs. per kilo. Six colonial Deputies, 



*) Arbeiten a. d. Kaiserl. Ges.-Amt 15 (1898 — 1899), 107. 



2 ) H. "Walbaum, Uber das Vorkommen von Anisalkohol und Anisaldehyd in 

 der Tahiti- Vanille. Wallach Jubilee Publication, p. 649 (Gottingen, Vandenhoek & 

 Ruprecht, 1909). 



