In reference to the posting, “Joe Marino, Sue Benford and the Carbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin « Shroud of Turin Blog,” Chidambaram Ramesh remarks:
Further to the findings of Sue Benford and Joe Marino, Rogers made his studies on Vanillin (chemically 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde) content of the samples used for C-14 tests. Lignin is a chemical compound present in the flax plants used to make linen cloths. One of the major products obtained from the breakdown of lignin is vanillin. As linen ages, the vanillin content diminishes and eventually becomes untraceable in the course of time. Thus, by measuring the amount of vanillin remaining on the cloth, one might be able to estimate the age of the cloth. Rogers believed that vanillin was detectable in the sample taken for radiocarbon testing. Thus, it must date from medieval times. He believed that vanillin was also present in the ‘Holland cloth’ used to back the Shroud. However, he could not detect it in material taken from the rest of the Shroud.
Had the findings of the C-14 test that the Shroud belongs to the 13th or 14 century been correct, it should have retained about 37% of its vanillin, reasoned Roger. Not only does this verify that the carbon 14 sample is chemically different from the rest of Shroud, it proves that the carbon 14 sample contains much newer material. Further, examining the loss of the chemical vanillin in the Shroud, Rogers estimated that it is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old!