The genus Cinnamomum

Botany and Crop Improvement of Cinnamon and Cassia 71
Table 2.14 Mean, range and coefficient of variation for nine characteristics in cinnamon
Character Mean Range W (%)
Leaf length (cm) 13.08 8.75–20.69 17.83
Leaf breadth (cm) 5.06 3.31–8.30 18.74
Leaf size index 0.67 0.29–1.71 35.13
Fresh weight of bark (g) 207.41 30.0–840.0 67.19
Recovery of bark (%) 32.08 10.70–80.0 34.00
Bark oleoresin (%) 8.48 1.32–20.02 57.08
Bark oil (%) 1.81 0.51–3.85 36.28
Leaf oil (%) 1.97 0.72–4.80 48.46
Dry weight of bark (g) 64.70 8.00–305.00 74.73
Source: Krishnamoorthy et al., 1992.
cinnamon in the Orissa state, Paul and Sahoo (1993) recorded wide variations in many
characteristics such as plant height (2.17–3.30 m), stem girth (7–16.6 cm), leaf oil
(0.38–1.80%), eugenol in leaf oil (traces to 80–98%) and bark oil (0.05–2.18%).
They also noticed plants having very low eugenol and high benzyl benzoate content
ranging from 2.3% to 66.0%. The presence of benzyl benzoate and eugenol showed
a negative relationship (Rao et al., 1988; Paul and Sahoo, 1993; Paul et al., 1996;
Sahoo et al., 2000).
Lin et al. (1997) reported allozyme variation in C. kanchirae, a Taiwanese endangered
species. Genetic diversity within and genetic differentiation among four geographic
areas were investigated using 164 clones. Seven out of 11 loci examined were polymorphic.
The mean, expected heterozygous loci per individual ranged from 13.9%
to 21.6%, the number of alleles per locus ranged from 1.7 to 1.9, and the effective
number of alleles per locus ranged from 1.34 to 1.54 at the area level. The large seed size
and insect pollination impose a barrier to free gene flow, according to the above studies.
Improvement of Chinese cassia
The crop improvement programme in Chinese cassia aims mainly at: (1) selection of
clones with high quality (high essential oil content having high cinnamaldehyde);
(2) high bark recovery; and (3) high regeneration capacity and growth. With these
objectives, cassia germplasm maintained at IISR were evaluated for morphological and
quality parameters (Krishnamoorthy et al., 1999, 2001) (Tables 2.15, 2.16).
Table 2.15 Quality characteristics of four elite lines of cassia
Sl. no. Character Range Mean CV% CD
(P:0.05)
1 Bark oil (%) 1.2–4.9 3.09 0.59 26.79 1.71
2 Leaf oil (%) 0.4–1.6 1.08 0.21 26.79 0.60
3 Bark oleoresin (%) 6.0–10.5 8.40 1.13 18.98 3.29
4 Cinnamaldehyde (%) 61.5–91.0 77.2 6.31 11.5 18.42
(bark oil)
Source: Krishnamoorthy et al., 1999.