Does Vanilla Flavor Come From Beaver Butts? Over the course of a few decades in the early 1900s, scientists were experimenting with different combinations of both organic and artificial ingredients to create vanillin. One of the components they stumbled upon was castoreum, a type of chemical that is derived from, well, beaver butts.
https://www.dailysciencejournal.com/where-vanilla-flavor-come-from/