The genus Cinnamomum

14 Cinnamon and Cassia – The Future
Vision
U.M. Senanayake and R.O.B. Wijesekera
Cinnamon and cassia are two established natural food flavours. Food technologists and
food manufacturers find it very difficult to imitate them completely with synthetic
substitutes. The earliest attempts to imitate cinnamon or cassia flavours were by using
synthetic cinnamic aldehyde. Although cinnamic aldehyde gives a very crude imitation
of either cinnamon or cassia, it does not closely resemble the natural flavour. Using
advanced analytical methods such as gas chromatography, Ter Heide (1972) was able to
study in detail the chemical composition of Cinnamomum cassia. Ter Heide claimed that
Germany no longer had to depend on imported cassia as his laboratory could compose
it from synthetic chemicals. To prove this Ter Heide used GLC methods that exactly
matched natural cassia oil, whose GLC charts were the same. He challenged observers
to distinguish between the GLC chart of synthetic cassia oil from that of natural cassia
oil. Even though many observers failed to distinguish between the two charts, later
organoleptic tests revealed a different story. The synthesised cassia oil had a crude
resemblance to natural cassia oil, but it was nowhere near the delicate and subtle flavour
of the natural oil. It became evident that the ultimate judgment of the flavourist was
more sensitive and discriminating. During the 1970s, many essential oil producers
feared that their industry may come to a halt as most of their oils were being studied
in detail and could possibly have been totally synthesised in the laboratory. But, soon
their fears were dispelled as synthetic essential oils were rejected by leading food
manufacturers.
Cinnamon bark oil contains no less than 90 identified compounds and over 50 very
minute unidentified compounds (Senanayake and Wijesekera, 1989). The mild and
mellow aroma of both cinnamon bark and cassia oils is due to the total synergistic effect
of all these compounds. Many of the natural chemicals are laevo-rotatory, while the synthetic
chemicals are dextro-rotatory. The olfactory sites in the nose are capable of distinguishing
the olfactory manifestation of this difference. Cinnamic aldehyde isolated
from natural cinnamon bark oil has a pleasing odour, while synthetic cinnamic aldehyde
has only a crude resemblance to this pleasing odour. The synthetic version could
replace the natural flavour to a certain extent but not entirely. Because of this reason,
the natural essential oils will always have a market.
Even natural cinnamon or cassia oils have different flavours depending upon the
origin of the source (see Chapters 3 and 4). In general, spices and spice oils contain
complex mixtures of volatiles – aromatic flavouring compounds. Some of the volatile
compounds affect the olfactory centres. Since the odour and the effect on the taste buds
determines what is called flavour, the flavouring characteristics of a spice oil are, in part,
directly related to the nature and the relative amounts of its volatile compounds.
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© 2004 by CRC Press LLC