The Aztecs used vanilla to flavor chocolate as early as the 16th century, but vanillin was not isolated until 1858, when French biochemist Nicolas-Theodore Gobley crystallized it from vanilla extract.
When and where was vanillin discovered?
Vanilla is a native of South and Central America and the Caribbean; and the first people to have cultivated it seem to have been the Totonacs of Mexico's east coast. The Aztecs acquired vanilla when they conquered the Totonacs in the 15th Century; the Spanish, in turn, got it when they conquered the Aztecs.
Where was vanillin first found?
Vanillin itself was first isolated from vanilla pods by Nicholas-Theodore Gobley in 1858 (though he thought that its formula was C10H6O2, not C8H8O2). The biosynthetic pathway starts with phenylalanine.
