A flavoring agent used in sweet foods, ice cream and chocolate. It is used in perfumes as well as to control the unpleasant odors in medicines. It acts as a chemical intermediate in the preparation of pharmaceuticals. In thin layer chromatography, it is used as a general-purpose stain for developing TLC plates to enable in visualizing components of a reaction mixture. Similarly, vanillin hydro chloride staining can be used to visualize the localization of tannins in cells. Also been used as reference standard in calibrating hot stage; during thermomicroscopic investigation performed with optical polarizing microscope; usually equipped with a hot stage and temperature controller.
