PPT on the flower Vanilla planfolia Andrews, including phylogeny, anatomy, medicinal uses, history, and conservation.

1. VANILLA
PLANIFOLIA
ANDREWS

2. MEET VANILLA
 Vanilla is widely used in food, cosmetics, and beverages for flavor and
scent
 (ice-creams, confectioneries, milk products, perfumes, pharmaceuticals, liqueur,
yogurts, cereals, etc)
 Most popular flavor in the world!
 Multimillion dollar industry
 Genus is pantropical, occurring in every Tropics-spanning continent
except Australia – formed before Gondwana broke up
 Vanilla was already in use when Spaniards arrived
 Aztecs used it to flavor chocolate, used the aroma to perfume temples, kept
curing methods secret from Europeans
 Now cultivated primarily in Madagascar, Indonesia, Haiti, and Tahiti
 95% of all economic vanilla is V. planifolia
 Second most expensive spice after saffron (Crocus sativa)
Synonyms: Flat-leaved vanilla, Tahitian vanilla, "West Indian
vanilla"

3. PHYLOGENY
• Land plants -> - vascular plants -> seed plants -> flowering plants -> monocots -> orchid family -> Genus:
vanilla (110 species)
• https://www.onezoom.org/life/@Vanilla_sprucei=3974277?img=best_any&anim=flight#x315,y543,w0.3941

4. ORCHIDACEAE
 Diversity: 19,500 species in 775-800 genera
 very successful group of plants - widespread, vast majority
of diversity in tropics
 Among the most specialized of all angiosperms
 Flowers: showy, usually resupinate (twisted so it presents
itself upside down), bilateral, the median inner tepal
differentiated into a Labellum (lip); highly modified
androecial and gynoecial parts, fused into a column;
Fruit: capsule – a dry dehiscent fruit derived from
compound (multicarpeled) ovary; seeds tiny, dust-like
Vanilla “beans” are not beans!
Vanilla has the only edible fruit in orchidaceae

7. FARMING & PRODUCTION
 Vanilla is the product of the mature un-ripened fruit -> sent to
facilities to ferment -> stored in alcohol or glycerin
 Production difficulties:
 Viny plant, grows on trees
 2-4 years to reach maturity
 Growth restricted to tropical regions
 Hand pollination necessary
 Flowers only open for ONE DAY!
 Disruptions due to cyclones & storms
 Curing of beans post-harvest lasts 6-9 months
 Vanilla bean theft (77% of Madagascar lives in
poverty & vanilla costs more than silver by weight)
 New wealth in vanilla villages is changing traditions and
contributing to deforestation; new wealth = new homes, more
vanilla clearings

8. Vanilla farm

9. WHY THE PRICE?
 Vanilla production is labor
intensive and time consuming, yet
demand is high for “natural
flavoring”
 Poor infrastructure in place
 Poaching, thieving, little to no
government regulation – leads to
fearful farmers who harvest early
 Vanilla prices may continue to rise
 Low quality, low production, high
demand
 Lots of corruption
“They hacked and stabbed them to death with machetes and harpoons,”
said a vanilla farmer, who was among the crowd of onlookers. “I think it’s
good. The police did nothing. Now the gangsters will be afraid of stealing
from us.”

10. CONSERVATION
 No stability in the supply chain
 Native Mexican range suffers the
typical habitat fragmentation &
ecosystem collapse
 The gene pool for Vanilla is narrow
with some species endangered –
conservation is necessary to
promote traits for disease
resistance
 In vitro conservation is viable

11. MEDICINAL USES
SUPPOSED HISTORICAL USES
 Mesoamericans used the green beans treat venomous insect bites and to
heal wounds.
 1700’s-1800’s: “New Spain, women were dosed with vanilla to keep them
calm and content when their husbands went out to socialize”
 Long thought of as an aphrodisiac from Aztecs to Europeans to early
America
CURRENT USES
 “Vanillin is an effective inhibitor of red blood cell sickling in patients with
sickle cell disease”
 Vanillin has “properties as an anticarcinogen that has the ability to inhibit
tumor formation and as an anticlastogen that has the ability to inhibit
chromosome breakage”
 Powerful antimicrobial effects; further research needed to make it a viable
natural preservative
 Vanilla scent may have anti-anxiety effetcs
 Also used to mask odors and tastes found in medicines

12. MEDICINAL QUOTES:
Francisco Hernandez In The
Natural History of New Spain,
cites:
“A decoction of vanilla beans
steeped in water causes the urine
to flow admirably; mixed with
mecaxochitl [the Aztec name for
chocolate], vanilla beans cause
abortion; they warm and
strengthen the stomach; diminish
flatulence; cook the humors and
attenuate them; give strength and
vigor to the mind; heal female
troubles; and are said to be good
against cold poisons and the bites
of venomous animals”
In 1898, King’s American
Dispensary cited vanilla as
an
Aromatic stimulant. Vanilla is said
to exhilarate the brain, prevent
sleep, increase muscular energy,
and stimulate the sexual
properties. Useful in infusion, in
hysteria, rheumatism, and low
forms of fever. It is also
considered an aphrodisiac,
powerfully exciting the generative
system. Much used in perfumery,
and to flavor tinctures, syrups,
ointments, and confectionary.

13. VANILLA FLAVOR
 Vanillin – a phenolic aldehyde, primary aromatic compound in vanilla
extract
 β-d-glucosides, are broken down by β-d-glucosidases during
curing, creating vanillin
 Artificial vs Naturally-derived vanilla extract
 Artificial: made from lignin wastes from paper mills or with
guaiacol, cheaper, almost identical flavor – more
 Natural: 100’s of other compounds, deeper flavor, expensive, supply
chain issues
 Extract made from macerating and percolating vanilla pods in a
solution of ethanol and water.
 Castoreum – beaver anal secretion; not a common additive; is NOT a
common vanilla flavoring – more for perfume
Guaiaco
l

14. FUN FACTS
 Natural vanillin is the most expensive form at a cost of nearly US$ 1200/kg to more than US$ 4000/kg.
 Commercial extraction methods for vanillin include Soxhlet, supercritical fluid extraction (SCEF), microwave and ultrasound-assisted extraction, enzymatic extraction,
solid-phase extraction and biphasic sonoelectroanalysis (Hardcastle et al. 2001;Kun 2002;Sharma et al. 2006;Sostaric et al. 2000;Voisine et al. 1995;Waliszewski et al.
2007).
 Approx. 75% of the world’s vanilla comes from Madagascar
 Vanillin is also found in Southern Chinese red pine and Leptotes bicolor, an orchid from Paraguay
 Approx. 75% of the vanillin market is due to the ice cream and chocolate industries
 85% of the vanillin market is comprised of synthetic vanillin
 Vanilla gets its moisture from the air, but roots need to be in the ground for it to survive
 Biotech company Evolva has engineered a vanillin-producing microorganism to expand vanillin commercialism and sidestep the plants all
together
 https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/news/iff-evolva-join-forces-to-expand-vanillin-commercialization.html
ADVERSE EFFECTS
 People can have allergic reactions to vanilla – to synthetic, natural, or both
 Contact dermatitis can develop in workers in the vanilla trade

15. LITERATURE CITED
1. Correll, D.S. Vanilla-its botany, history, cultivation and economic import. Econ Bot 7, 291–358 (1953).
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02930810.
2. Bory, Séverine, et al. “Biodiversity and Preservation of Vanilla: Present State of Knowledge.” Genetic
Resources and Crop Evolution, vol. 55, no. 4, 2007, pp. 551–571., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-007-9260-3.
3. Bythrow, Jenna Deanne. “Vanilla as a Medicinal Plant.” Seminars in Integrative Medicine, vol. 3, no. 4, 2005,
pp. 129–131., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sigm.2006.03.001.
4. Divakaran, Minoo, et al. “Conservation of Vanilla Species, in Vitro.” Scientia Horticulturae, vol. 110, no. 2,
2006, pp. 175–180., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2006.07.003.
5. Ramachandra Rao, S, and G?A Ravishankar. “Vanilla Flavour: Production by Conventional and
Biotechnological Routes.” Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, vol. 80, no. 3, 2000, pp. 289–304.,
https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-0010(200002)80:3<289::aid-jsfa543>3.0.co;2-2.
6. Steavenson, Wendell. “Photos: Vanilla Boom Is Making People Crazy Rich - and Jittery - in Madagascar.”
NPR, NPR, 15 Sept. 2019, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/09/15/757899271/photos-vanilla-
boom-is-making-people-crazy-rich-and-jittery-in-madagascar.

16.  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/1097-0010%28200002%2980%3A3%3C289%3A%3AAID-
JSFA543%3E3.0.CO%3B2-2?casa_token=9dc-
CbaV32oAAAAA%3Aeu1AJhyejuf8Y10kqaSSqcv5UCwSYEyEruYx8wL7n8JBsU7wta0Gh76inmPBYXgqG9SHdKv78
iNRziho-Q
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla