Edmond Albius

Edmond Albius [ ɛdmɔ albjys ] (* 1829 in Sainte -Suzanne on Réunion; † 1880 Reunion) was in the 1841 inventor of a practical procedure for manual pollination of spice vanilla (Vanilla planifolia ).

Significance of the invention

This invention was so important, because the Spaniards a spice monopoly, including the vanilla plant, possessed, which could be 300 years, cultivated only in Mexico. Only at the beginning of the 19th century (1807 ) cuttings were brought illegally to Java, and Réunion. She was taken legally by the Frenchman Pierre -Henri Philiber and David de Floris on the island until June 26th of the year 1819. The old name of the island was Ile Bourbon ( "Bourbon Island" ), hence the name Bourbon vanilla. Despite the tropical climate, the vanilla flowers did not form pods - they remained unfertilized. What you did not yet know was that make Central America native stingless bees of the genus Melipona, and representatives from the bird family of hummingbirds as pollinators for pollination.

The discovery of the twelve year old slave boy Edmond Albius allowed industrial development and cultivation of vanilla and is still used today. So the great monopoly of the Mexican vanilla collapsed because they were no longer the only vanilla exporters in the world now. Seven years later, 50 kg vanilla beans from La Réunion have already been exported to France, which increased up to the year 1898 to 200 t.

Since the original brand name " bourbon vanilla " may also be used to Madagascar and the Comoros, among others, has created a new label on La Réunion, the " vanilla de l' île de la Réunion ". This one tries to set itself apart from other vanilla -producing countries, because of the high proportion of manual work in conjunction with the high wages compared to those in the other countries of the local economic area affect the competitiveness of Réunion in the international vanilla market considerably. So amounted to 1999, the cost of production of one kilogram of vanilla in Madagascar verte € 2.3 to € 9.1 La Réunion, however.

Although nowadays the synthetic production of vanillin flavoring is much more cost effective that contains natural vanilla spice over 50 additional natural flavorings that characterize their unique flavor and character make them therefore been irreplaceable.

Vanilla cultivation