Furfural
Furfural is an organic compound derived from a variety of agricultural byproducts, including corncobs, oat, wheat bran, and sawdust. The name furfural comes from the Latin word furfur, meaning bran, referring to its usual source.
Furfural is a heterocyclic aldehyde, with the ring structure shown at right. Its chemical formula is OC4H3CHO. It is a colorless oily liquid with the odor of almonds, which quickly darkens when exposed to air.
It is one of the components found in vanilla.
History
Furfural was first isolated in 1821 (published in 1832) by the German chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, who produced a small sample as a byproduct of formic acid synthesis. At the time, formic acid was formed by the distillation of dead ants, and Döbereiner's ant bodies probably contained some plant matter. In 1840, the Scottish chemist John Stenhouse found that the same chemical could be produced by distilling a wide variety of crop materials, including corn, oats, bran, and sawdust, with aqueous sulfuric acid, and he determined the empirical formula (C5H4O2). In 1901, the German chemist Carl Harries deduced furfural's structure.
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