Skip to content
aroma class club
EN · FR About the club

Family: Ambers

Vanillin: the molecule of vanilla, first synthesised in 1874

Vanillin is the molecule that dominates the smell of vanilla, sweet and balsamic, and chemists have been able to make it since 1874. Almost all the vanillin used today is synthetic.

Brown vanilla pods drying in a large round woven basket in Madagascar

Where does vanillin come from?

Vanillin, or 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde, is a phenolic aldehyde and the main flavour compound of cured vanilla pods, where it makes up about 2% of the dry weight. According to Wikipedia's vanillin article, Théodore Nicolas Gobley first isolated it in relatively pure form in 1858; in 1874 Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann worked out its structure and a synthesis from coniferin, found in pine bark, and in 1876 Karl Reimer made it from guaiacol.

Today about 85% of vanillin is synthesised from the petrochemicals guaiacol and glyoxylic acid, and about 15% still comes from lignin, a by-product of papermaking. Other routes start from clove oil eugenol or from ferulic acid, using microbes.

What does vanillin smell like?

Vanillin smells sweet, balsamic and vanilla-like, but simpler than a real pod, which holds many other compounds. Its close relative, ethylvanillin, gives a stronger note; the French Wikipedia page on vanillin puts it at two to four times more powerful.

What does vanillin do in a perfume?

Vanillin changed perfume history: in 1889, Jicky, composed by Aimé Guerlain, folded coumarin and synthetic vanillin into the fougère accord of lavender, coumarin and oakmoss. Since then, the vanilla effect in amber and gourmand fragrances has often rested on vanillin, alongside vanilla, coumarin and tonka bean.

What should you know about vanillin?

Vanillin is now one of the fragrance allergens that Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 requires on EU cosmetic labels. For the wider story of the molecules that reshaped perfumery, from coumarin to Iso E Super, read our class on natural versus synthetic.

Often paired with

Vanilla Coumarin Lavender Tonka bean

Further reading

Vanillin in the feed

hamish_heatherin Ambers, Spices & Gourmands · Edinburgh ·

Challenge
Vanilla vines wound around the trees of a shaded plantation woodland

Describe vanilla without the word sweet

Aye, here's a wee challenge. In the shop, folk who come in call half the casks 'vanilla' and stop there, as if the word did the job. Split a vanilla pod or open your extract and describe it without saying sweet. It's dreich outside, so I've had time: damp…

Vanilla Vanillin

dex_in_brooklyn wet tobacco and the inside of a cigar box. you're not getting sweet out of me

10 comments

dex_in_brooklynin Learning to Smell · New York ·

Memory
Black vanilla pods spread in a heap on a cloth to dry in Tahiti

Splitting my first real vanilla pod

ok so first week on the line the pastry cook made me split a real vanilla pod and smell it next to a bottle of imitation vanilla from the baking aisle. the pod was boozy and smoky, the bottle was just sweet. your never the same after

Vanilla Vanillin

nell.wattle The Wikipedia page on vanillin says it's the main flavour compound of vanilla, and that most synthetic vanillin today is made from guaiacol, a…

4 comments

In the Classes

Small heap of white needle-shaped vanillin crystals on a dark surface

Class no. 4 · 6 min read

Natural vs synthetic fragrance: what chemistry gave perfume

Since the 1860s, perfumery has mixed natural materials with synthetic molecules, and neither is better or safer by default. You'll be able to date the molecules that changed perfume, from coumarin to Iso E Super, and read the word natural on a label without reading too much into it.

Cluster of ripe, bumpy-skinned lemons lit against dark foliage

Class no. 8 · 8 min read

Training your nose: learning to smell with your kitchen cupboard

Training your nose means smelling often, in pairs, and putting a word to each smell: research shows that recognising odours is a skill that improves with practice. By the end of this class you will know how to use a blotter, run a blind test with your spice rack and look after your nose when it gets tired.

Branching grey-green oakmoss lichen covering a piece of bark lying on grass

Class no. 22 · 7 min read

Reading a perfume label: ingredients, allergens, batch codes, symbols

A perfume label reads in four parts: the ingredient list with "parfum" and the named allergens, the batch code, the symbols about shelf life, and the concentration, which the EU cosmetics regulation puts no number on. You will know what each detail tells you, what it is allowed to leave out, and how labels differ in the EU, the US and Canada.