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vanilla Today vanilla is among the most common of the flavoring extracts. It is used in a variety of sweet foods and beverages and in the manufacture of perfumes. Vanilla beans of commerce are the cured, unripe fruit of primarily one species of climbing orchid the Mexican, or Bourbon, vanilla of the tropical Americas. The plant has a long, fleshy climbing stem and oblong leaves. Its numerous yellowish flowers bloom briefly. Because of their dainty structure, the blossoms can be naturally pollinated only by a small bee of Mexico. In other countries the flowers are pollinated artificially with a wooden needle as soon as they open. The beans are without odor or flavor until they are cured. This is done by alternately warming them in the sun and putting them into sweatboxes at night to ferment. During this curing process the volatile oil vanillin is formed. The beans are then dried. To make vanilla extract, the cured, dried vanilla beans are crushed and the vanillin is extracted with alcohol. Vanilla flavor is made from a concentration of vanilla extract, alcohol, and water. The scientific name of the Mexican vanilla plant is Vanilla planifolia.

vegetables In the broadest sense, any kind of plant is "vegetable matter." In common, narrow usage, however, the term vegetables usually refers to the fresh, edible parts of herbaceous plants. Herbaceous plants are distinguished from other plants by stems that are generally softer and less fibrous than the woody stems of trees, shrubs, and bushes (see Plant).

ventral On the lower or bottom side or surface

vertebrate An animal (including amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles) with a backbone

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