Vanilla Research Paper

Vanillin
Vanilla is a complex mixture of flavour that is extracted from vanilla orchids. The most important ingredient in vanilla is vanillin. The vanilla flavour is widely used as a flavouring agent in the food, fragrance and pharmaceutical industries. However, due to the high cost and scarcity of natural vanillin, the flavour and fragrance industries have resorted to synthetically produced vanillin.

The primary opportunity is in providing a competitively priced product that is naturally synthesized from natural and sustainable sources which complies with the EU and US food regulatory standards.

Madagascar remains the largest producer of natural vanilla orchids, however, with political issues, climate changes and crop disease the price

Vanilla is cultivated in a moist, warm and tropical climate. The structure of the vanilla orchids is closed and self-pollination is almost impossible. Artificial pollination is manually done usinga bamboo stick for a good yield.
Fresh vanilla pods have a bitter odour; the characteristic pleasant aroma only develops when the pods are cured. Harvesting time differs from different regions.
The limited supply and high price of natural vanillin has stimulated research to biotechnologically produce natural vanillin.
The procedure of curing vanilla includes killing, sweating, drying and conditioning. This entire process could take months or even a year. Hence this is a laborious process contributing to the high cost of vanillin.

Bio-based produced vanillin is likely to meet the global markets demand. It is predicted that the bio-based vanillin will have a reasonable price compared to the natural vanillin from the orchids.
The market of the natural vanillin from the orchids may not be disturbed since the biotechnologically synthesized vanillin does not match the vanillin from the vanilla pods. Biotechnologically synthesized vanillin depends on the

The percolation method consists of circulating a solvent, which is an ethanol/water solution in the range
35±50:65±50 (v/v), over and through the beans under vacuum. This process may take from 48 to 72h.37 By using this process, an approximately fourfold strength vanillin can be obtained.
The oleoresin method consists of pulverising whole beans and then circulating ethanol over the beans under vacuum at about 45C. The excess alcohol is removed by evaporation. This process takes about 8±9 days.37 However, by using the oleoresin process, an approximately 10-fold strength vanillin may be obtained.
Commercially, natural vanillin is sold as a dilute ethanolic extract.21 Post-extraction processing involves clari®cation by centrifugation or ®ltration followed by aging of the extract for 1year.
STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS
Standard speci®cation is an important criterion for any commercially important product that determines its market value. Therefore speci®cations of quality of raw materials, processing methodologies and their in¯uence on quality of the product are of vital importance. Vanilla bean qualities are hence graded in a systematic manner that determines the quality of