The Egyptians have been known to use food colors, seasonings, spices, flavors, etc. and all these objects were regarded so invaluable so as to serve as items of trade and, at times, reason for waging war. Simple methods for the distillation and extraction of essential oils and resins were already known in pre-Christian times and subsequently elaborated by the Arabs.
In the 11th century, the physician Avicenna figures out that oils can be distilled in much the same way alcohol is, by steaming plants, which extracts the oil, and then condensing the steam back into liquid.
In the medieval age, mostly monks were the pioneers in the art of capturing natural essences and transforming them into substances capable of flavoring food.
In the second half of the 16th century essential oils began to be widely produced and used predominantly by the pharmacists, which became a factor in the flavor industry only during 19th century.
Nicholas-Theodore Gobley isolates vanillin, the organic compound mainly responsible for vanilla’s flavor, from vanilla beans. It’s the first time anyone has managed to extract a flavor compound from the ingredient itself, a major development in the science of flavor.
The discovery paves the way, in 1874, the pharmacist and chemist Ferdinand Tiemann (1848–1899) having succeeded in the synthesis of vanillin from the bark of a pine tree, and he is considered to be the father of Geschmackstoff-Chemie (flavor chemistry).
Tiemann, together with Paul Krüger (1859–1916) and then with Friedrich-Wilhelm Semmler (1860–1931), developed a method to obtain with a good yield Veilchenduft (violet scent); they condensed citral with di-methyl-ketone (acetone) thus generating an intermediate which upon exposure to an acidic environment cyclizes to ionone.
Known as the Reimer-Tiemann reaction, this led to the formation of the Haarmann & Reimer Company, a corporate predecessor of the flavor powerhouse now known as Symrise.
History of food flavors
