VANILLA EXTRACT
Scientific name: Vanilla planifolia
Family Name: orchidaceae, orchid
Plant Origin: Indonesia, Mexico
Parts: bean
Extraction method: solvent or CO2
GOOD FOR ALL SKIN TYPES
Ingredient Features
- balsamic
User Benefits
- soothing
Function in Product
- preservative
About VANILLA PLANIFOLIA (VANILLA) FRUIT EXTRACT: This ingredient is an extract of the fruit (bean) of the vanilla plant, Vanilla planifolia.
Function(s): Proprietary; Skin-Conditioning Agent - Miscellaneous; SKIN CONDITIONING; SKIN PROTECTING; SMOOTHING
Synoym(s): VANILLA PLANIFOLIA FRUIT EXTRACT, EXTRACT OF VANILLA PLANIFOLIA; VANILLA EXTRACT; VANILLA FRUIT EXTRACT; VANILLA PLANIFOLIA EXTRACT
PAULA'S CHOICE says:
Rating:
GOOD
Categories:
Plant Extracts , Antioxidants , Fragrance: Synthetic and Fragrant Plant Extracts , Anti-Irritants
Extract used primarily as a fragrance and flavoring agent. The vanilla plant is a source of catechins (also known as polyphenols), which exhibit antioxidant activity and serve as anti-inflammatory agents (Source: Drugs Experimental Clinical Research, 2004; 30(1):1–10).
When vanilla is grown in cultivation the deep trumpet-shaped flowers have to be hand-pollinated - except in Mexico where the native humming birds do most of the work.
Vanilla is a flavor derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (V. planifolia). The word vanilla, derived from the diminutive of the Spanish word vaina (vaina itself meaning sheath or pod), simply translates as little pod.[1] Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people cultivated the vine of the vanilla orchid, called tlilxochitl by the Aztecs, and Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s.[2]
Initial attempts to cultivate vanilla outside Mexico and Central America proved futile because of the symbiotic relationship between the vanilla orchid and its natural pollinator, the local species of Melipona bee.[citation needed] Pollination is required to set the fruit from which the flavoring is derived. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact and pioneered a method of artificially pollinating the plant. The method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially.[3] In 1841, Edmond Albius, a slave who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, discovered at the age of 12 that the plant could be hand-pollinated. Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant.[4]
Three major species of vanilla currently are grown globally, all of which derive from a species originally found in Mesoamerica, including parts of modern-day Mexico.[5] The various subspecies are Vanilla planifolia (syn. V. fragrans), grown on Madagascar, Réunion, and other tropical areas along the Indian Ocean; V. tahitensis, grown in the South Pacific; and V. pompona, found in the West Indies, and Central and South America.[6] The majority of the world's vanilla is the V. planifolia species, more commonly known as Bourbon vanilla (after the former name of Réunion, Île Bourbon) or Madagascar vanilla, which is produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and in Indonesia.[7][8] Leptotes bicolor is used in the same way in South America.
Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron,[9][10] because growing the vanilla seed pods is labor-intensive.[10]Despite the expense, vanilla is highly valued for its flavor, which author Frederic Rosengarten, Jr. described in The Book of Spices as "pure, spicy, and delicate"; he called its complex floral aroma a "peculiar bouquet".[11] As a result, vanilla is widely used in both commercial and domestic baking, perfume manufacture andaromatherapy.
VANILLA EXTRACT IS IN:
Hand Soap
Pangea Organics Canadian Pine with White Sage Hand Soap
Body Wash
Pangea Organics Canadian Pine with White Sage Body Wash
