Two of the major uses of pure alcohol are as a solvent and raw material. As a
solvent, it is used to extract flavoring chemicals from plant materials such as vanilla
beans. Dilute ethyl alcohol is almost universally used for the extraction of vanilla
beans. After the extraction, vanilla flavor, called natural vanilla flavoring, is standardized
with alcohol. By the FDA’s standard of identity, natural vanilla flavoring
must contain at least 35% alcohol by volume, otherwise it cannot be called natural
vanilla flavoring (FDA, 2000).