Haarmann, Wilhelm

Provisional Specification.—I, Johann Carl Wilhelm Fei-dinand Tiemann, member of the firm of Haarmann and Reimer, of Holzminden, residing at Berlin, Germany, do hereby deelare the nature of this invention to be as follows —... 

In 1874, Holzminden chemists Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann first succeeded in synthesising vanillin from coniferin. Holzminden became the site where vanillin was first produced industrially. Haarmann Reimer was the world s first factory in which synthetic scents and flavourings were produced [5]. 

In 1874 Wilhelm Haarmann started to produce the first synthetic aroma chemical, vanillin [2-4]. Since then the flavour, fragrance and aroma chemical industry has shown rapid progress. In the beginning, perfumers created the first flavour formula with synthetic aroma chemicals. Over the years many different parameters, like the availability of natural products, the development of food industry and changes in consumers lifestyles, have led to a broad range of widely accepted flavourings. 

Vanillin was isolated for the first time from vaniUa pods by Nicolas-Theodore Gobley in 1858, and by 1874 its structure was elucidated by Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann. Because of its high price and a considerably variable product yield, dependent on weather conditions, there was a strong incentive to prepare vanillin synthetically. This was the time, when the scent and flavours industry was born. 

At the same time, Wilhelm Haarmann in Holzminden (Germany) prepared vaniUin directly by oxidation of coniferin, which is a glucoside obtained from the cambial sap of various conifers (Fig. 3.35). [140]... 

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