A substance obtained from vanilla pods or produced artificially and used to flavor foods or to impart a fragrant scent to cosmetic preparations. The seed pod of this plant also called vanilla bean. A flavoring extract is prepared from the cured seedpods of this plant or produced synthetically.

NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS:

• Vanilla beans are one of the expensive non-pungent spices used especially as a flavoring agent in wide array of sweet-drinks and confectionaries.

• Vanilla extract is chiefly composed of simple and complex sugars, essential oils, vitamins, and minerals.

• The chief chemical component in the beans is vanillin. The pods also compose of numerous traces of other constituents such as eugenol, caproic acid, phenoles, phenol ether, alcohols, carbonyl compounds, acids, ester, lactones, aliphatic and aromatic carbohydrates and vitispiranes.