a grayish-white, water-soluble powder, C 16 H 22 O 8 ⋅2H 2 O, obtained from the cambium of coniferous trees and from asparagus: used chiefly in the manufacture of vanillin.
a brown powder consisting of a sulfonate salt made from waste liquor of the sulfate pulping process of soft wood: used in concrete, leather tanning, as an additive in oil-well drilling mud, and as a source of vanillin.