Vanillin was first synthesized from coniferin by chemists Ferdinand Tiemann and Wilhelm Haarmann.
The vanillin plant Holzminden was not very successful before Karl Ludwig Reimer discovered the Reimer-Tiemann reaction which opened an alternative synthesis route to vanillin.
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In 1874 Wilhelm Haarmann and Tiemann started a company, after they discovered the synthesis of vanillin from coniferyl alcohol.
This molecule can be used as a precursor in the vanillin synthesis by biotransformation by cell cultures of Capsicum frutescens, a type of Chili pepper.