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Vanillin can be extracted naturally but requires 500 kg of vanilla orchid pods just to produce 1 kg of vanilla.

Obtaining vanillin using the natural way is slow, labor-intensive, and costly.

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Global Vanillin Market Size

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Another method of vanilla extraction is through chemical processing using fossil fuels.

However, chemical production of vanilla produces a lot of by-products and consumes a very high amount of energy.

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Majority of natural vanilla is produced in Madagascar, Mexico, and Tahiti. However, vanilla production is greatly affected by natural disasters such as cyclones and storms, which destroy vanilla orchids before they mature.




Our Solution

Our project aims to produce vanillin using a biosynthetic pathway and utilize a microbial system. Using E. coli as the host, we are trying to synthesize vanillin more sustainably using Tyrosine as a starting point. This way, the production and extraction of vanillin do not need to affect the environment negatively, and consumers can access it more affordably.


  1. Ni J, Tao F, Du H, Xu P. Mimicking a natural pathway for de novo biosynthesis: natural vanillin production from accessible carbon sources. Scientific Reports. 2015 Sep 2;5(1).
  2. Kunjapur A, Hyun J, Prather K. Deregulation of S-adenosylmethionine biosynthesis and regeneration improves methylation in the E. coli de novo vanillin biosynthesis pathway. Microbial Cell Factories. 2016 Apr 11;15(1).
  3. Nezhukumatathil A. Opinion | This Is How the World’s Favorite Scent Disappears. The New York Times [Internet]. 2024 Aug 4; Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/04/opinion/vanilla-cooking-climate-change.html ‌
Project Description

Project Description

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Human Practices

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