The genus Cinnamomum

328 U.M. Senanayake and R.O.B. Wijesekera
Cinnamon, cassia and their products have long been recognised for their delicate
flavours, and are widely used in food, pharmaceutical, soap and cosmetic industries.
As such, the development of methods for the assessment of quality and adulterants are
required. The complex interplay of producers, buyers, users and consumers is possible
only if all the parties concerned use the same and consistent technical language. The
standarisation of spices, such as cinnamon, cassia and their products is a difficult problem.
Often the quality depends on environmental influences, such as climate and soil
conditions; botanical variety; methods of production; and, harvesting conditions.
Future visions on cinnamon and cassia largely depend on the answers to the above
issues. Even though true cinnamon (C. verum) has been introduced to countries with
suitable climates, such as east African countries, and grows in the Seychelles, the
Malagasy Republic, and South Vietnam, the quality of the bark and bark oils produced
by them are different from those cultivated in Sri Lanka. Also, it has been noted that
cinnamon from the same root stock but grown in different climatic conditions, even
within Sri Lanka, have different chemical and organoleptic properties. Thus, both producers
and consumers suffer from being unable to demand the quality to be consistent
in different consignments.
In Sri Lanka this problem has been somewhat overcome by confining the products
from one micro-climatic zone away from those of others. Differences have been amply
demonstrated in assessing the cinnamon bark and bark oils from the three main zones
of Sri Lanka. The most acceptable cinnamon is generated from the sea belt area, from
Colombo to Matara. The cinnamon grown in area north of Colombo has a higher safrole
content, while that grown in the hill country has a higher cinnamic aldehyde content
and fewer minor terpenoid constituents.
The same situation applies to cassia. Various categories of cassia, such as Chinese cassia,
Saigon cassia, Burmese cassia and Taiwan cassia are thus named to distinguish crops
originating from the respective geographic regions. Lawrence (1967) proposed to use
the country of origin as a prefix to indicate the source. In nomenclature, true cinnamon
or C. zeylanicum or C. verum is known as cinnamon and C. cassia is known as cinnamon
cassia, whilst the country of origin denotes the quality.
There will always be a demand for natural cinnamon and cassia. Recently, Sri Lanka
and other cinnamon and cassia growing countries, have embarked on programmes to
propagate the best varieties using tissue culture techniques. There is a prospect of large
scale plantations evolving from selected plants through tissue culture, thereby producing
a product of consistent quality.
Both cinnamon and cassia are labour-intensive crops. Harvesting is similar to tea
plucking, where each bud has to be hand picked. In the case of cinnamon quills, each
quill has to be produced by hand peeling. As each bush and stick is unique, it is not
conceivable to devise a machine for this purpose. In countries where cinnamon and
cassia are grown, plenty of relatively cheap labour can be available, but the situation
seems to be changing, as in Sri Lanka. The making of quills requires skilled labour of
a specialised kind. There is a shortage of such skilled labour and situation is worsening
each year. Cinnamon is not a profitable crop for countries where labour is costly.
One immediate matter that should be considered in future visions is the depletion of
supply due to natural causes, such as rain, drought and disease. In many countries the
present supply comes from small holders. As a long-term solution, organised cultivation
of cinnamon and cassia on a plantation basis, with government support, should be
encouraged.