page_title: Vanilla
section_title: Nonplant vanilla flavoring
hierarchical_section_title: Vanilla / Cultivation / Nonplant vanilla flavoring
caption_attribution_description: A vanilla planifolia vine growing up a tree in a vanilla plantation on Réunion Island.
context_page_description: Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla. The word vanilla, derived from vainilla, the diminutive of the Spanish word vaina, is translated simply as "little pod". Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people cultivated the vine of the vanilla orchid, called tlīlxochitl by the Aztecs.
  Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from which the vanilla spice is obtained. 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. 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.
  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.
context_section_description: In the United States, castoreum, the exudate from the castor sacs of mature beavers, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration  as a food additive, often referenced simply as a "natural flavoring" in the product's list of ingredients. It is used in both food and beverages, especially as vanilla and raspberry flavoring, with a total annual U.S. production of less than 300 pounds. It is also used to flavor some cigarettes and in perfume-making, and is used by fur trappers as a scent lure.
caption: A vanilla plantation in a forest of Réunion Island
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