NOTE ON VANILLA. 
193 
The last kind is named by the French Vanillon, by the 
Spaniards it is called pompona or bova, from its swollen ap- 
pearance. It is always from five to seven inches long, but 
from six to nine lines broad. It is very brown, soft, viscid 
almost always open, and appears to have passed the point of 
maturity; it is endowed with a strong odor, but less agreeable 
than the first, and little balsamic ; often, also, it has the taste 
of fermentation ; it is bought for a lower price. This kind, 
must certainly be produced by a different species of the plant* 
The analysis made by Bucholz, showed that Vanilla con- 
tains, 
1. A fatty oil. 
2. Soft Resin. 
3. An Extract, a little bitter. 
4. Peculiar Extractive. 
5. Apothema. 
6. Sugar. 
7. Amyloid substance. 
8. Benzoic Acid. 
9. Fibre. 
The fatty oil has a rancid taste and a disagreeable odor, the 
resin is soft and gives off when heated the feeble smell of 
Vanilla. The peculiar extractive resembles tannin. It pre- 
cipitates the salts of iron green, renders tartar emetic cloudy, 
but does not precipitate gelatine. As to the benzoic acid, 
the crystals regarded as such are not acid.t 
Bucholz says that Vanilla does not give off a volatile oil 
by distillation. This favors the idea of the generation of the 
odoriferous principle by fermentation. 
In the mode of affecting the economy, the substance under 
* There are a number of species noticed by authors, as V. claviculata, V. 
angustifolia, and V . planifolia. Schiede, (Schlechteudas,) Linnoea, Oct. 
1829, s. 573, mentions three Mexican species, V. sativa, V. sylvestris, and 
V. Pompona. — See Pereira's Mat. Med. Mr. Salisbury states the V. 
planifolia was discovered in St. Domingo by Father Plumier, and intro- 
duced into the hot-houses of England. — Loudon, Encyc. of Plants. 
f Soubeiran, Nouveau Traite de Pharmacie. 
VOL. VII. — no. in. 25 
