Fermentation of Vanilla planifolia pods

Abstract

Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) is an orchid native to the rainforests of southeastern Mexico and Central America. It is a perennial, terrestrial, climbing plant with a flexible, simple, or branched stem, bright green. Mexico has been ranked as the fifth largest producer of vanilla internationally with 4.97%, after Indonesia (34.93%), Madagascar (31.81%), China (11.63%) and Papua New Guinea (6.97%). In the country, Veracruz is the main producer with 70%, followed by Oaxaca and Puebla, which together contribute around 29% of the total production. Unfortunately, there are no homogeneous and standardized fermentation and drying treatments for V. planifolia that accentuate the flavor and aroma, and this limits the income of producers. Therefore, it is not able to directly enter markets such as food, beverages, pharmacies, cosmetics, crafts, among others. The above raises the need to establish a fermentation (curing) protocol for V. planifolia pods, which allows unifying the stages and fermentation time, so that fair trade is established by homogenizing the sensory properties of the product (extract). To contribute with this, the first step is to unify the reports that show fermentation efforts of the pods of this plant. The objective of this review is to collect information related to the fermentation process and time of V. planifolia pods to obtain flavorings.