Vanillin Molecule
Natural "vanilla extract" is a mixture of several hundred different compounds in addition to vanillin. Artificial vanilla flavoring is a solution of pure vanillin, usually of synthetic origin. Because of the scarcity and expense of natural vanilla extract, there has long been interest in the synthetic preparation of its predominant component. The first commercial synthesis of vanillin began with the more readily available natural compound eugenol. Today, artificial vanillin is made from either guaiacol or from lignin, a constituent of wood which is a byproduct of the pulp industry. Vanillin is a single molecule, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde (much easier to call it Vanillin), whose structure is shown in the image on the right. It's a white crystalline solid, which melts at 81°C. Vanilla planifola is an orchid which produces seed pods from which vanilla extracts are obtained; these extracts contain nearly 200 different molecules, of which vanillin is the most important, and most abundant, making up 98% of the eventual vanilla extract. Vanillin itself was first isolated from vanilla pods by Nicholas-Theodore Gobley in 1858 (though he thought that its formula was C10H6O2, not C8H8O2). The biosynthetic pathway starts with phenylalanine.
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Keywords: 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, artificial, flavoring, molecule, planifola, synthetic, vanilla, vanillin
