The genus Cinnamomum

Indian Cassia 201
pollen dehiscence occurs through the opening of valve, introrse, extrorse in whorl III,
glands of whorl III attached 1/3 of the base of the filament, glands and anther pale
yellow, filaments silky tomentose, pale yellow, head sagittate; pistil 1.5–2 mm long,
pale yellowish-green, silky minutely puberulous, style filiform, ovary elliptic-oblong;
fruit (drupe) black when ripe, 10–14 mm long, 5–6 mm in across, ovoid to oblongelliptic,
supported by a thickened peduncle and an enlarged truncate toothed base of
the perianth, peduncle 3–4 mm long.
Significant foliar epidermal and venation characteristics: Epidermal cells pentagonal to
polygonal and sinuous, hypostomatic, stomata sunken, stomata/mm2 589, stomatal
index 19.34, areoles tetragonal to polygonal, veinlet entering present, average frequency
of areole/mm2 14.93 (Baruah, 2000; Baruah and Nath, 1998).
Significant essential oil characteristics: Leaves are aromatic, spicy and yield volatile oil.
Oil yield 1.07% (FWB), golden-yellow in colour, refractive Index (25 °C) 1.5262.
On GC analysis, 23 components representing 99.01% of the total oil of the leaves
are identified (Nath et al., 1999) where eugenol alone constitutes 77.50%. The other
components above 1% concentration in the oil are -pinene (1.65%), -phellandrene
(10.47%), p-cymene (2.23%) and caryophyllene oxide (1.20%).
Phenology: Flowers from February–May; Fruits from June–September.
Occurrence and distribution: Found only in cultivated stands mostly in Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura.
C. tamala type 2
This type of C. tamala can be easily distinguished from the others by its leaf morphology,
having as elliptic-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate shape, apex acuminate, base acute, being
comparatively larger in size, 2.3–4.5 8–18 cm; the floral and other characteristics
including phenology, distribution and ecology are found to be similar with that of type 1.
Significant foliar epidermal and venation characteristics: Epidermal cells pentagonal to
polygonal and sinuous, hypostomatic, stomata sunken, stomata/mm2 546, stomatal
index 18.45, areoles tetragonal to polygonal, veinlet entering present, average frequency
of areole/mm2 8.47 (Baruah and Nath, 1997, 1998).
Significant essential oil characteristics: Leaves are aromatic, spicy and yield volatile oil.
Oil yield 1.35% (FWB), pale yellowish-brown in colour, refractive index (25 °C)
1.5248. On GC analysis, 20 components representing 99.91% of the total oil of the
leaves can be identified (Nath et al., 1999), where eugenol alone constitutes 68.10% of
the oil. The other components of above 1% concentration in the oil are -pinene
(2.25%), -phellandrene (14.50%), p-cymene (4.00%), 1,8-cineole (2.35%), linalool
(1.20%), -terpineol (1.30%) and eugenyl acetatete (1.60%).
C. tamala type 3
A moderately sized evergreen tree, attaining a height of about 6 m trunk up to
70 cm girth, branches slender; bark rather rough, dark grey, aromatic, reddishbrown,
darkening on exposure; leaves opposite, sub-opposite to alternate on the
same twig, thinly coriaceous, aromatic, green and shining above, glabrous, pale
below with sparsely distributed microscopic unicellular hairs, margins entire but