Valorization of Agro-Industrial Wastes into Vanillin: A Sustainable and Bio-Economical Step Towards the Indigenous Production of Flavors

Presently, 1% vanillin is obtained naturally from vanilla beans. Vanilla beans are majorly cultivated in Indonesia and Madagascar. The United States of America is the biggest vanillin consumer following European countries (such as Germany, France, and Italy). The expanding claim for value-added products, for example, vanilla-based products, and expanding environmental regulations require a sustainable alternative to food and pharmaceutical industries. The inevitable shortages of non-renewable resources because of rising demands accompany significant supply problems and inflation in prices, resulting in social consequences that are difficult to anticipate. The wastes generated by agricultural practices and industrial processes are designated as cost-effective and sustainable resources to produce bulk chemicals and natural flavors like vanillin. Vanillin is a highly valued market product with pre-dominance in the pharmaceutical and food industries. In the majority, vanillin is synthesized chemically due to the expensive status of natural vanillin. Therefore, looking for alternative options to synthesize cost-effective vanillin is the need of an hour. In this regard, bio-refinery has gained immense importance worldwide. Hence, circumventing concerns associated with vanillin production can be accomplished by producing vanillin from lignin. In this article, we will briefly discuss vanillin and its precursors. Further, we will shed light on different conventional production processes and associated concerns for synthesizing different vanillin types. This article emphasized the usage of different agro-industrial wastes and the importance of valorized lignin for producing sustainable vanillin.