Vanillin is one of the most important commercial flavours.
For a long time it was exclusively produced by oxidation of
lignosulfonates1,2 (LS); more recently a synthetic industrial
process has been developed for the production of vanillin
starting from guaiacol and glyoxylic acid. Very recently Li
and Frost3 reported a new enzymatic process for the synthesis
of vanillin using D-glucose as the carbon source. Borregaard
Synthesis is operating a plant synthesising vanillin from
guaiacol and glyoxylic acid and is also the only current
producer of vanillin by oxidation of LS using a process
originally developed by Monsanto.1 Over the past few years
the desire to improve the efficiency of the LS oxidation
process has been focused.