Effect of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum Persl) Leaf Flush Color and Maturity Levels on Leaf Oil Content and Quality

Abstract

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum Presl) is a spice obtained from the inner bark of the several trees from the genus Cinnamomum and family Lauraceae. Cinnamomum verum Presl is the commercial Cinnamon variety also known as “true cinnamon” or “Ceylon cinnamon” is native to Sri Lanka. Cinnamon and Sri Lanka synonyms in the world spice trade. The four types of essential oil obtained from the different parts of the cinnamon tree are, Cinnamon bark oil from the inner stem bark, Cinnamon leaf oil from the leaves, Cinnamon root oil from the root bark and Cinnamon seed oil from the seed pericarp. The unique feature where the oil distilled from these different parts of Cinnamon differ in their chemical composition, gives rise to much interest in connection with the biosynthesis of the various chemical constituents in the oil. The distillation of Cinnamon bark oil and leaf oil carried out in Sri Lanka. Cinnamon leaf oil is yellowish in colour and has a warm, spicy aroma. The viscosity is medium to watery. The main chemical components are Euginol, Safrol, Cinnamyl acetate and Cinnamldehyde. Over 50%- 80% Euginol can be obtained from leaf oil. There are several factors which affect the Cinnamon leaf oil content and quality such as season, age of the tree, location, time of harvest etc. Purpose of this current study was to determine the effect of Cinnamon leaf flush color and maturity levels on leaf oil content and quality and to determine the different flush colors in Cinnamon population, different component of leaf oil related to leaf flush color and different component of leaf oil related to different maturity levels.

Methodology

For the experiment1, Effect of Cinnamon leaf flush color on leaf oil content and quality of 300 Cinnamon plants were observed and 5 different flush colors were identified. Five plants were selected as replicates in each flush color. Mature leaves of second and third branches from the main stems were picked and air dried about 5 days. After that they were cut into small pieces. The volatile oils were isolated by Clevenger arm method. Air dried leaf sample of 50g was placed in the distillation flask with 250 ml of distilled water and the distillation was continued for 4 hours. Extracted oil was separated from the water and was collected in small glass bottles and kept in the fridge until quality extraction. For quality determination of leaf oil 2 replicates from each flush color was taken. Extracted oil from each flush color and authentic samples (Euginol, Safrol, Cinnamaldehyde and Cinnamyl acetate) for cinnamon leaf oil was subjected to Gas Liquid Chromatographic analysis (GLC) to identified four important components named Euginol, Cinnamaldehyde, Safrol and Cinnamyl acetate. The second experiment, effect of cinnamon leaf maturity levels on leaf oil content and quality was carried out according to the same procedure described above. But the planting material was “SRI GAMUNU” variety established in the research station.

Results and Discussion

The data was collected by conducting 4 months research at Cinnamon Research Station. Established Cinnamon varieties with different flush colors were taken to this research. Five (5) different flush colors were identified and leaf oil content was calculated. Dark red, Red, Brownish red, Brownish yellow red and light green were the 5 different flush colors. The colors were identified using Muncell color chart.

Effect of Cinnamon flush color on leaf oil content and quality

According to the data analysis (Figure 1), dark red flush color contain highest amount of leaf oil that is around 3g of leaf oil per 50g of leaf. Brownish yellow red and light green flush color contains equal amount of leaf oil that is 2.8g of leaf oil content per 50g of leaves. Lowest amount of leaf oil was extracted from Brownish red color flush. According to the statistical analysis, results shows that there was a significant difference of the leaf flush color on leaf oil content. The results showed that the intensity of the red color increased with the increase of the leaf oil content and it emphasized that there was an indirect relationship between red color pigments and the leaf oil content also.