Vanillin: Physiochemical Properties, Production and Uses

Vanillin: Physiochemical Properties, Production and Uses Vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde) is an important flavoring agent mostly used in beverages, pharmaceutical industries, food products, etc. Naturally present as a vanillin glucoside in vanilla pods and used as an intermediate in the synthesis of some drugs. Vanillin possesses antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. In the past, production of vanillin is very expensive and a very long process. Vanillin was obtained from the oxidation of lignin, or from ferulic acid pathway or some other pathways. The chemical production of vanillin from various methods had been described. The method used in this research is High selectivity in the oxidation of Mandelic acid derivatives and in O-Methylation of Protocatechualdehyde. The starting material used here was catechol and nowadays this method is used for the industrial production of vanillin. The method used was tiresome but produces vanillin in good yield. The analysis of obtained vanillin was done by using Thin Layer Chromatography and Infrared Spectroscopy. Infrared spectrum of obtained product and reference spectrum of vanillin were compared. The similarity of melting points of the obtained product and vanillin from literatures shows that the product obtained can be confirmed as vanillin. Introduction Vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybanzaldehyde) is a main part of natural vanilla. It is a major flavouring agent used widely in the food and dairy products, beverages and pharmaceutical industries etc. It is an organic aromatic compound which contains three functional groups (aldehyde, phenol and ether). Vanillin is obtained from the beans or pods of Vanilla plant (Vanilla planifolia). Its origin is from the subtropical forests of Mexico and Central America. Mayan and Aztec civilizations are the first who discover the properties of vanilla. It was first extracted by Nicholas Theodore Gobley in 1858.1 Vanilla Planifolia Vanilla pods Vanilla beans In freshly harvested vanilla pods vanillin is binds with the ÃŽ ²-D-glycoside. Today vanillin is used in the preparation of many pharmaceutical preparations like Papaverine, Levodopa, Levomethyldopa and antimicrobial agent Trimethoprim and also for the production of herbicides and antifoaming agents. Vanillin also has properties like antioxidants and anti-tumor. Due to its aromatic properties it is widely used in the air fresheners, perfumes, incense and candle.1 Vanillin is extracted from the vanilla beans but due to its low natural production and high demand it is prepared by various synthetic methods like chemical synthesis, enzymatic synthesis etc.1 Physiochemical properties of Vanillin: Vanillin is a white crystalline powder which has a melting point about 820C. The purity is generally above 99.0% w/w on dried basis. Vanillin has a characteristic pleasant smell and taste for which it is widely used in the world. The boiling point of vanillin is about 1540C and its sublimation temperature is reported to be 700C. Vanillin starts to decompose at 1600C. Vanillin has a vapour pressure of 0.0022 hPa at 250C and 0.0017 hPa at 650C and saturated air has a concentration of 0.00029 % at 250C, corresponding to 18.0 mg/m3. The vapour density of vanillin is found to be 5.3 at 250C. Its apparent specific gravity is 0.6 kg/dm3. Specific gravity of vanillin is reported to be 1056 kg/m3 at 200C. Vanillin is soluble in water and its solubility increases with increasing temperature. Its solubility in water at 25Â °C was reported to be 10g/L. Vanillin was reported to be readily soluble in alcohol (ethanol). Also vanillin shows slight solubility in ethyl acetone, methanol, and diethyl ether. The Octanol/ Water partition coefficient was found to be 1.21 which indicates that vanillin is unlikely to bio accumulate. The pH of vanillin in water is 4.3. The phenol group of vanillin has a pKa value of 7.38. With increasing pH the molecule will lose a proton, become negatively charged and more soluble in water. Vanillin dissolves in dilute solution of alkali hydroxides.16 Production of vanillin: The production of vanillin is a very long and expensive process which involves large number of steps as well. The pollination of flowers has to be done manually as there is lack of natural pollinators. The flowers have to be pollinated within 24 hours to bear fruits. The vanilla beans require 10- 12 months to mature from the time of pollination. The matured vanilla beans are yellowish green, and are bitter in taste. The matured beans lack the characteristic vanilla flavour which only develops upon curing, which involves three steps. 1) Killing, the green beans are treated with variety of methods such as scalded with hot water, exposed to sun, wilted in the oven, scarred, treated with ethylene gas, or frozen to disrupt tissue integrity. The second method is the cheapest but most labour- intensive. In this step tissues completely lose their integrity, but still contains high amount of moisture which has to be removed by the sweating process. This step runs for 7-10 days, during moisture content of the beans reduced to 60- 70 %. After losing the moisture the beans turn dark brown in colour and start to develop their characteristic vanilla flavour. To reduce microbial spoilage and to concentrate the flavour, the moisture content were further reduced to 25- 30 %. After this step, the beans are stored in closed containers to reach their highest flavour content and then their conditioning is done either by hot water treatment or by sun drying.5 2) Process of curing and drying together requires 4-5 months. The cured beans pods may be covered with tiny crystals of vanillin. This coating is known as givre, which sometimes used as criterion for quality assessment.6 3) During the fermentation process, vanillin is released from its non-volatile glucoside by the action of vanilla ÃŽ ±-glucosidase on vanillin glucoside.3 Vanillin alone is not present in the extract of V. Plantifolia, some related phenylpropanoid (C3-C6) compounds [mainly p-hydroxybenzaldehyde(8.6%), vanillic acid (4.3%), p-hydroxybenzyl methyl ether (0.9%) ] are also present which gives the unique flavour to natural vanilla.7,8,9 However, vanillin has also been found to be present in traces amount in plants like tobacco, fruits and fruit products like orange, grapefruit, and tangerine. In mango, vanillin is present both as free vanillin and vanillyl glucoside. It is also reported to be present in elderberry juice, blueberries, orange juice, strawberries, passion fruit juice, leeches, and wines. It has also been found in diverse food products such as popcorn, extruded oat flour, apple cider brandy, commercial liquid smoke flavourings, mushrooms and chocolate.3, 10 Vanillin is added in the concentrations ranging from 1 to 26 milimolar in the food products which depend upon the nature of the product. Vanillin has a low flavor threshold value of 20Â µg/L in water at 20 Â °C.11Although more than 12000 tonnes of vanillin are produced each year only 1% of it comes from the natural sources and the rest are synthesized by chemical synthesis.12 Moreover, the high demand for vanillin and the fact that the vanillin derived from plants is relatively expensive ($1200- 1400 per kilo compared to synthetically produced which is

Sanchez and Levine Summary

In making the distinction between competency modeling (CM) and traditional Job analysis (TAXI the authors articulate that the latter encores itself with describing and measuring day-to-day operations of specific roles In an organization while the former relates to desired behavioral competencies that transcend various roles and In doing so contribute to an overarching organizational strategy. The authors compare CM and TAX along six dimensions: purpose, view of the job, focus, time orientation, performance level and measurement approach.While all dimensions are equally important in making a clear distinction between the two concepts, for the purpose of this summary I will be focusing on what is in my opinion he three most relevant distinctions between the two HRS methodologies namely, focus, time orientation and performance level. The authors argue that TAX focuses solely on the job and in doing so fails to recognize that job behavior could be influenced by factors other than formal responsibilities.CM on the other hand, builds itself around notions of 'employer brand' and 'employee value proposition' that include behavioral themes and unique performance characteristics that derive directly from the organizational identity itself. The focus of CM Is particularly important because it has significant practical implications when communicating management expectations to employees.An employer brand should identify with a business strategy and communicating strategic competencies as a component of management expectations is more likely to encourage on-brand behavior in the delivery of products and services to customers, regardless of the employee's Job title. For example, the inclusion of ‘Discretionary Effort' among Feeder's competencies encourages Its employees to go above and beyond their day-to-day Job responsibilities and provide creative solutions to customers' demands, which Is consistent with an overarching business strategy of exceeding customer expect ations.Furthermore, since competencies communicate universal behavioral themes that the organization wishes to see across all Jobs, employees seeking career advancement are able to identify with these themes and perform their duties that not only benefit themselves but the organization as well. Most organizations do not engage their employees In a manner that encourages them to demonstrate such on-brand behavior.However It seems quite clear, that accompanying specific job duties with these behavioral themes and rewarding employees for demonstrating such behaviors in the workplace could have a significant impact on a firm's reputation and overall consistency in the manner employees perform their duties. Secondly, the authors argue that TAX Is rooted In the past because It concerns itself with describing a Job by relying on those who have performed the Job till date.In contrast CM NAS a Touch on ten Torture, Decease It communicates now a Joy snouts be interpreted and performed from no w on regardless of past behavior. TAX takes a bottom-up approach relying on information obtained from employees performing the job, while CM takes a top-down approach by communicating generic behavioral themes identified by leaders who are also responsible for strategic planning.Furthermore, the authors interject that TAX outlines day-to-day operational capabilities that have facilitated the survival of the organization till date, while CM concerns itself with change-oriented competencies that encourage employees to demonstrate certain behavioral characteristics that may facilitate growth and hang. In essence, CM allows employees to better understand how their specific Job assignments contribute to the organization's strategic initiatives and when provided with the right incentives, employees are more likely to change their behaviors that align with these strategies going in to the future.Providing employees with a sense of purpose and direction that facilitates the firm's future gr owth is more likely to encourage behaviors that go above and beyond an employee's basic duties in serving the customers which may in turn serve the organization as well. Last but not the least, the distinct performance level addressed by TAX and CM is of particular significance because it allows us to understand what will bring out the best from employees in an organization.While TAX addresses the typical' requirements needed to perform the work assignments, CM focuses on ‘maximal' performance by encouraging a series of loosely coupled behavioral themes that go beyond the operational efficiency of basic aspects of a Job. This distinction is significant because if managers wish to encourage employees to perform at a level hat goes beyond the typical day-to-day responsibilities, they must excel at implicitly communicating these behavioral themes to others in the organization.These themes tend to be generic so they transcend across all Job titles within the organization and bear on the interpersonal aspects of the manner in which the Job ought to be performed. Therefore, as mentioned earlier, those seeking career advancement have a clear idea of what sort of behavior will result in favorable outcomes and that optimizing day-to-day operations alone will not serve them or the organization in the long run.

How do generic conventions inform your understanding of Macbeth? Essay

The tragedy of Macbeth is his â€Å"Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and fallson th’other.† In this famous play, William Shakespeare positions the audience to feel pity towards the protagonist involved, and potentially the protagonist is the tragic hero. But in the play, Macbeth, how does he do this? Shakespeare positions us to feel pity for Macbeth, the protagonist, by using generic, dramatic and theatrical conventions such as soliloquies, hamartia and symbolism. My understanding of the play Macbeth, is shaped by Shakespeare’s use of generic conventions to represent the characters inner turmoil and through this, their tragic flaws. Specifically, soliloquies are used to reveal Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s inner turmoil as they lose their sanity for power. The first soliloquy in Macbeth is said by Lady Macbeth which reveals her inner turmoil about the letter she receives from Macbeth, as she worries that he may not be strong enough to kill Duncan, and through this her tragic flaw is revealed . As the witches prediction about Macbeth to become â€Å"Thane of Glamis and Cawdor† comes true, she is lured into the trap of believing that he will become king however worries that he is too much of a coward to make it happen. Act 1 Scene 5, line 6, â€Å"Yet do thy nature; It is too full o’ milk of human nature†. It’s evident that through the term â€Å"o’milk of human nature† symbolises the milk of a human and the only kind of human that produces milk is a female. Milk only comes from the female when she is a mother and mothers are traditionally nurturing and kind. So Lady Macbeth is saying that Macbeth is quite feminine in the way of his kindness. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth thinks Macbeth doesn’t have the ruthless nature like she does to strike aggressively at a first opportunity to have power and even though he wants power, his â€Å"nature† is too kind to be king in the evil way that she plans to do it. When receiving news that the king is going to stay at the Macbeth castle, she feels she must be the one to kill Duncan in order for Macbeth to become king and her to be queen, however in the soliloquy after she received the news, she talks to the â€Å"spirits† about how willing she is to do the deed to get the power and seize the throne. Although at the same time, it touches on the theme of masculinity, â€Å"tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,† Act 1 Scene 5, line 31. â€Å"Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall,† Act 1 Scene 5, line 38. Both quotes suggest the different sex, â€Å"unsex me here†, by changing sex Lady Macbeth feels she would be more masculine, than she is now, as a man. With the second quote mentioning â€Å"milk†, this suggests womanhood, represented by milk and breasts, symbolising nurture and compassion and she says she has this as well as her ruthlessness but wants to be more cruel, â€Å"of direct cruelty! Make thick my blood† Act 1 Scene 5, line 33. When all of her plans and inner turmoil is revealed to us, her hamartia suddenly becomes clearer – her flaw is that she is extremely power hungry and will do anything to feed it, however this results in her downfall as she turns insane from her guilty conscience of manipulating Macbeth, simply because she is too cowardice to do her own business. Macbeth’s first soliloquy in the play portrays him to be his sane self, making the agonizing decision of whether he should go through with the evil deed of assassinating King Duncan. In his decision he puts into account King Duncan’s qualities, â€Å"this Duncan, hath borne his faculties so meek,† Act 1 Scene 7, line 16, and his loyalty and faith towards the king, â€Å"He is here in bought trust†¦as I am his kinsman†¦then as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife himself† Act 1 Scene 7, line 12, which represents the kind nature of Macbeth, not wanting to go through with seizing the throne by murdering Duncan because he likes Duncan as he is a strong and humble leader. He also describes that his death would be showered with, â€Å"angels, trumpet-tongued,† Act 1 Scene 7. Angels are a representation of heaven and heaven is symbolised as good which means Duncan will go to heaven if he dies because of his goodness. This reminds us how severe and alarming it is to kill a human being just for power and Macbeth realises this also, this is seen through the use of language, â€Å"Bloody instructions† and â€Å"our poisoned chalice† and â€Å"deep damnation† and through this, an image of darkness is made which makes it clear to us that Macbeth knows what he could do is wrong and if he does it he will be forever in a world of sin. At the same time, the one only reason Macbeth wants to proceed in the deed is his ambition to become powerful, â€Å"but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and fallson th’other.† Act 1 Scene 7, line 27. The only thing motivating him is his ambition, however Macbeth knows ambition could lead him on towards disaster, (coincidentally it did) therefore decides not to go along with his wife’s plans. Although after his soliloquy when he admits to Lady Macbeth he doesn’t want to carry on with the plan, Lady Macbeth threatens Macbeth that he will no longer be a man in her eyes but a coward and that she might never love him again if he doesn’t kill Duncan. This affects Macbeth’s inner turmoil because as a man, he like to show his bravery and have courage and by going against his wife could damage his masculinity and so carries on with the play. My understanding of Macbeth’s tragic flaw, as evidenced in this soliloquy, is that he doesn’t want to damage his pride, his masculinity or his ambition and this, then, leads to his downfall. The next soliloquy used by Macbeth reveals to the audience that the pressure of killing the king is finally taking a turn on his mind. In his speech, Macbeth makes accusations of seeing a dagger, identical to his, in front of him however he becomes confused when he can’t decide what is happening. At first, when the dagger appears he believes it to be a â€Å"false creation† which is a hallucination, as he has already tried to grab it but failed, caused by a â€Å"Heat- oppressà ¨d brain†, in other words, he’s ill. Then just after saying this, he believes that it’s something different, â€Å"Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going,† Act 2 Scene 1. The meaning for this quote is that the dagger is pointing him in the direction that he is going and this symbolises and proves that his decision to kill the king is already set in motion. The direction of the dagger may have been just his mind but could have been witchcraft also†¦ 3â€Å"Witchcraft celebrates, Pale Hecate’s offerings,† Since Macbeth already believes the witches, there is no other reasons not to disagree with them. Macbeth’s tragic flaw of his self-pride of masculinity, ambition and lust for power ends up in his downfall of insanity from confusion and stress and later on in the play he metaphorically â€Å"plummets to his death† as he loses control of his paranoia. Shakespeare positions the audience, with monologues like this, to see that Macbeth is stressed, scared and confused about the act he is about to commit, this slowly leads him to lose his sanity just so he can please his wife, achieve his goal of ambition and protect his pride and masculinity. My understanding of Macbeth is greatly shaped by generic conventions such a soliloquies. Throughout the play soliloquies were used to explain the main character’s inner turmoil. Macbeth appeared to be a power greed murder that stopped at nothing to be the king of Scotland. However through soliloquies, it was clear to me that this was his hamartia and his tragic flaw, which made him this way, was that he was ambitious, proud of his masculinity and courage. So when Lady Macbeth threatens him and names him a coward for not killing Duncan, he want does it to protect his pride. This makes us pity him as he had no choice and becomes insane from the paranoia and guilty conscience. In my opinion, I think Shakespeare had a message of purpose of Macbeth and that was to show the audience that ambition and desire is destructive and no matter how much a person wants power, they should never let it overcome them.

Video Games And Its Effects On Children - 1519 Words

Video games in the 21st century have transformed from friendly competing into guns, explosions, and major violence. Video games are getting away with more violence every year and the games are becoming more extreme. The consistence and severity of violence is at an all-time high leading the most popular games in the gaming community to have a ‘mature’ rating due to the considerable amount of violence involved. For example, one of the highest selling video games of all time grossing one billion its first weekend, Grand Theft Auto 5, contains gang violence, nudity, and obscene language (Thier 2014). Although the extreme violence is rated accordingly for certain ages, parents often purchase these games for their kids not knowing what is†¦show more content†¦Violence in games may not affect adolescents with no previously displayed health problems, but it is possible it heightens the likelihood in violence with children who have a clinical diagnosis such as depressio n. Young children and teens who have been playing video games on a regular basis may begin to have a hostile view of the world which in turn may have varying consequences, but children who are depressed may be at a higher risk. With a consideration of the benefits of video games in mind, there is still overwhelming research stating that there is a correlation between video games and aggression. When adolescents are playing video games multiple hours during the day, depending on the video game, there are often high amounts of crime, violence, guns, explosions, and other extremely graphic material. Graphic imaging is getting better as technology gets better which makes the images in video games seem much more realistic. Virtual reality headsets are the new thing in the gaming community and they allow gamers to be immersed in the virtual world of video games. Video games require and encourage active participation while playing, there is a lot of involvement from the player which is som ething that may be exposing them further to certain actions. The large amounts of exposure and the reality ofShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Video Games On Children Essay1279 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Video games have always been a controversial type of entertainment, that may come from how relatively new video games are compared to other mediums of entertainment[1]. Maybe because of that when a violent crime occurs and the culprit has played a lot of games the media is quick to point at violent games as the reason for the crime, but is that true or are the media just biased or looking for quick views, this report aims to answer that question. Do games affect our way of thinkingRead MoreEffects Of Video Games On Children Essay1357 Words   |  6 PagesScreening to a halt: Are parents in New Zealand able to identify signs of dependency or addiction in their children due to over use of screen-time from the recreational use of video games? Digital technology and the vast amount of video games have increased the amount of screen time consumption in contemporary New Zealand society. The saturation of smart phones, ipad’s, tablets, computers, game consoles and the Internet are devices with the means of connection to gaming. Many New Zealand families integrateRead MoreThe Effects of Video Games on Children1288 Words   |  6 PagesThe Effects of Video Games on Children Technology today has progressed rapidly from generation to generation. Children and young adults are both into video games and the latest gadgets out there. Video games have been available to customers for the last 30 years. They are a unique way to entertain individuals because they encourage players to become a part of the games script. Victor Strasburger an author of â€Å"Children, Adolescents, and the media† stated â€Å"The rising popularity of video games hasRead MoreThe Effects of Video and Video Games on Children2043 Words   |  8 Pagesaction, usually in a cartoon, movie, or video game. For many of us, Disney is where we refer back to early forms of animation with the idea of using thousands of consecutive drawings; through Disney, we can now see how far this idea of breathing life into static objects has advanced. Today, animation is becoming more and more realistic. With highly advanced technology and computer programs, it has become easier for simple cartoons to develop into what children see as real life. These animated cartoonsRead MoreThe Effects Of Video Games On Children1548 Words   |  7 PagesVideo Games Introduction Today video games are a staple in most households. It is pretty amazing to know that the first creation of games date all the way back to the 1900s. They were not originally invented to make a profit, but to give patients something to do while waiting in the lobby of an office. One inventor had a simple idea of using the monitor not just as a television set, but as a way to play games. College students were just playing around with equipment and happened upon something greatRead MoreVideo Games And Its Effects On Children927 Words   |  4 PagesVideo games are a more interesting form of entertainment for the simple reason that players may become part of the game’s plot. Video games were invented for many years now. However, the current variety of games raised concerns about how they affect the children s behavior due to the fact that the games are becoming more sophisticated. Children spend most of their free time playing video games. Sometimes children refrain from completi ng important duties and dedicate all of their time playing videoRead MoreVideo Games And Its Effects On Children940 Words   |  4 Pageswas bored they went outside to play, they created new games, or they played with friends. But, for the past three decades, video games and other digital media have been persuading many adolescents and children to spend the majority of their time playing them. Video games seem to satisfy children’s natural need to interact socially, however more often than not, they lead to social isolation. Overexposure to digital media, such as video games is detrimental to the health and function of a child’sRead MoreThe Effects of Video Games on Children1656 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction For more than 30 years, video gaming has been a popular activity amongst many of America’s children. With over $63 billion (Reuters, reuters.com) worth sold each year, video games are here to stay. While much controversy has arisen over the subject, video games have benefited the United States of America and its citizens to a great degree. For example, the military and CIA use gaming to train soldiers (Davidson, www.ehow.com), and classrooms use video games to teach students. The potentialRead MoreThe Effects Of Video Games On Children1034 Words   |  5 PagesThe world of today has developed in a way that even children are affected by technology. They enjoy video games in their leisure time and even prefer them to studying that, in its turn, can contribute to their poor performance in the class. These days, video games have become an issue that has brought concern to many people from parents to scholars about their potential effect on the future of children through influenci ng their conduct. They feel that the violent behavior or any other negative consequenceRead MoreThe Effects Of Video Games On Children Essay1736 Words   |  7 PagesEffects of Video Games We see it everywhere we go, video games. Kids and adults are being captivated over the new video games that are coming out. Call of Duty, Battlefield,Uncharted; these are the games that people are enjoying and becoming fascinated with. What do all of those things have in common? There is only one answer and that is violence. Fighting, shooting, killing, these are the things that video games bring to the table and stimulate people s minds. We should ask ourselves whether