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Vanilla Tahitensis
''Vanilla tahitensis'' is a species of orchid in the genus ''Vanilla''. It was first described by the botanist John William Moore in 1933 from Raiatea in the Society Islands, where it was found growing on trees, having escaped from cultivation. History ''Vanilla tahitensis'' is a polyploid species and has been shown to be a cross between ''Vanilla planifolia'' and ''Vanilla odorata''. This hybridisation may have happened naturally or inadvertently in the period 1350-1500 in tropical America. It was used by the Aztecs and the flavour proved popular with the Spaniards. Hernán Cortés brought vanilla pods to Europe where they were grown in greenhouses, and cultivation was attempted in various tropical locations. Seeds from Madagascar were taken to Tahiti in 1848 by the French Admiral Ferdinand-Alphonse Hamelin, and it was this foundation stock that is now cultivated as ''Vanilla tahitensis'' in French Polynesia. In Mexico, it is pollinated by a specific species of bee, so when gro ...
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John William Moore (botanist)
John William Moore (June 9, 1877 – December 11, 1941) was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky. Born in Morgantown, Kentucky, Moore attended the public schools and completed a commercial course at Bryant and Stratton College at Louisville in 1897. He became a clerk with the Morgantown Deposit Bank in 1898. He engaged in the timber business 1899-1919. Cashier for the Morgantown Deposit Bank 1920-1925. Moore was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-ninth Congress in a special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative Robert Y. Thomas, Jr. and reelected to the succeeding Congress (December 26, 1925 – March 3, 1929). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Seventy-first Congress in 1928. Moore was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-first Congress in a special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative Charles W. Roark, and reelected to the succeeding Congress (June 1, 1929 – March ...
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Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue adventure and riches in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an '' encomienda'' (the right to the labor of certain subjects). For a short time, he served as '' alcalde'' (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, which he partly funded. His enmity with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cu ...
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Vanilla Production In French Polynesia
Vanilla production contributes to the local economy of French Polynesia. Although it was a major export crop after its introduction by the French in 1848, vanilla is no longer a significant export product. Vanilla was first introduced to French Polynesia by French colonizers as an export crop. Later, it became an important cash crop in the development of the island's economy. In the early 20th century, production was much greater than it is today, with 150-200 tons produced annually and plantations employing a sizable percentage of the population. Over the years, its production has been influenced by several factors and has declined from a high of 200 tons to a 2013 yield of 60 tons. The largest concentration of the vanilla variety ''Vanilla tahitensis'' (Tahitian vanilla) is situated in the Society Islands. The island of Taha'a, known as the "Vanilla Island" because of its pervasive aroma of vanilla, produces about 80% of all French Polynesia's vanilla. Background ''Vanilla tahi ...
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Vanillic Acid
Vanillic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid) is a dihydroxybenzoic acid derivative used as a flavoring agent. It is an oxidized form of vanillin. It is also an intermediate in the production of vanillin from ferulic acid. Occurrence in nature The highest amount of vanillic acid in plants known so far is found in the root of ''Angelica sinensis'', an herb indigenous to China, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine. Occurrences in food Açaí oil, obtained from the fruit of the açaí palm (''Euterpe oleracea''), is rich in vanillic acid (). It is one of the main natural phenols in argan oil. It is also found in wine and vinegar. Metabolism Vanillic acid is one of the main catechins metabolites found in humans after consumption of green tea infusions. Synthesis Oxidation of vanillin Vanillin is an organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a phenolic aldehyde. Its functional groups include aldehyde, hydroxyl, and ether. It is the primary componen ...
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4-Hydroxybenzoic Acid
4-Hydroxybenzoic acid, also known as ''p''-hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA), is a monohydroxybenzoic acid, a phenolic derivative of benzoic acid. It is a white crystalline solid that is slightly soluble in water and chloroform but more soluble in polar organic solvents such as alcohols and acetone. 4-Hydroxybenzoic acid is primarily known as the basis for the preparation of its esters, known as parabens, which are used as preservatives in cosmetics and some ophthalmic solutions. It is isomeric with 2-hydroxybenzoic acid, known as salicylic acid, a precursor to aspirin, and with 3-hydroxybenzoic acid. Natural occurrences It is found in plants of the genus ''Vitex'' such as '' V. agnus-castus'' or '' V. negundo'', and in ''Hypericum perforatum'' (St John's wort). It is also found in '' Spongiochloris spongiosa'', a freshwater green alga. The compound is also found in '' Ganoderma lucidum'', a medicinal mushroom with the longest record of use. ''Cryptanaerobacter phenolicus'' is ...
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Vanillin
Vanillin is an organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a phenolic aldehyde. Its functional groups include aldehyde, hydroxyl, and ether. It is the primary component of the extract of the vanilla bean. Synthetic vanillin is now used more often than natural vanilla extract as a flavoring in foods, beverages, and pharmaceuticals. Vanillin and ethylvanillin are used by the food industry; ethylvanillin is more expensive, but has a stronger note. It differs from vanillin by having an ethoxy group (−O−CH2CH3) instead of a methoxy group (−O−CH3). Natural vanilla extract is a mixture of several hundred different compounds in addition to vanillin. Artificial vanilla flavoring is often a solution of pure vanillin, usually of synthetic origin. Because of the scarcity and expense of natural vanilla extract, synthetic preparation of its predominant component has long been of interest. The first commercial synthesis of vanillin began with the more readily available na ...
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Vine
A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Daydon (1928). ''A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Derivation and Accent'', 4th ed. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. In parts of the world, including the British Isles, the term "vine" usually applies exclusively to grapevines (''Vitis''), while the term "climber" is used for all climbing plants. Growth forms Certain plants always grow as vines, while a few grow as vines only part of the time. For instance, poison ivy and bittersweet can grow as low shrubs when support is not available, but will become vines when support is available. A vine displays a growth form based on very long stems. This has two purposes. A vine may use rock exposures, other plants, or other ...
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Vanilla No Tahiti
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from which the vanilla spice is obtained. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact and pioneered a method of artificially pollinating the plant. The method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old enslaved child who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, discovered that the plant could be hand-pollination, hand-pollinated. Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant. Noted French botanist and plant collector Jean Michel Claude Richard falsely claimed to have discovered the technique three or four years earlier. By the end of the 20th century, Albius was considered the true discoverer ...
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Ferdinand-Alphonse Hamelin
Ferdinand-Alphonse Hamelin (2 September 1796 – 10 January 1864), French admiral, was born in Pont-l'Évêque, Normandy. He was the nephew of Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, a successful rear admiral in the French Navy of the Napoleonic era. Early career Hamelain went to sea in 1806 as cabin boy with his uncle, Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, on the frigate '' Vénus'' in the era of Napoleon and the French Empire. The ''Vénus'' was part of the French squadron in the Indian Ocean during the Mauritius Campaign of 1809-1811, and young Hamelin had an opportunity of seeing much active service. She, in company with another and a smaller vessel, captured the English frigate ''Ceylon'' in 1810, but was immediately afterwards captured herself by the ''Boadicea'', under Commodore Josias Rowley (1765–1842). Young Hamelin was a prisoner of war for a short time. His identification as François seems to be in error. Career after the First French Empire fell He returned to France in 1 ...
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Aztecs
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl, Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (''altepetl''), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires. The Aztec Empire was a confederation of three city-states established in 1427: Tenochtitlan, city-state of the Mexica or Tenochca; Texcoco (altepetl), Texcoco; and Tlacopan, previously part of the Tepanec empire, whose dominant power was Azcapotzalco (altepetl), Azcapotzalco. Although the term Aztecs is often narrowly restricted to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, it is also broadly used to refer to Nahuas, Nahua polities or peoples of central Pre-Columbian Mexico, Mexico in the preh ...
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