Cassia Oil

#### Cassia Oil. **Cassia**** ****Oil,**** **or **Chinese**** ****Cinnamon**** ****Oil**, is steam distilled from the leaves of **Cinnamomum**** ****Cassia,**** **large slender trees which grow in the southeastern parts of China and, to a minor extent, in Viet-Nam and India (Cochin). The bark of this tree is known all over the world as “cinnamon bark” or “cassiacinnamon”, not to be confused with the true Ceylon cinnamon bark which is derived from a different species (see **Cinnamon Bark Oil).** The bark is distilled together with the leaves and the stalks, twigs and waste material from the collection of the bark of the **Cassia **tree. After proper drying of the plant material, the distillation is carried out in local stills, primitive, but quite ingeniously constructed. The distillation is, in its principle, a water-distillation. Accordingly, the oil is very crude, and appears as a dark brown liquid of strong, spicy, warm and woody-resinous odor with an intensely sweet, somewhat balsamic undertone. The bark contains significant amounts of tannin and this material causes a certain darkening of the oils from iron or copper stills. For various reasons, however, true **Cassia Oil **hardly reaches the American consumers any more. First of all, this oil has been subject to “local” adulteration for several decades, and the adulteration was quite skillfully made. Thus, very few buyers ever knew how a true oil looked or smelled. Next, the political disturbances and subsequent ban on goods from Red China have blocked off this material from the U.S.A. although smaller lots still reach Europe (but these may very well be adulterated oils!). All told, these circumstances have been well-nigh disastrous for the future of **Cassia Oil, **and artificial oils have already been accepted by the consumers for many years. The result is that the oil is not available any more in the U.S.A., and what is available in Europe, Africa and South America may very well be a “compounded” oil. The chief constituent, **Cinnamal **(or **Cinnamic Aldehyde**) is available as a low- cost synthetic chemical. Several other synthetic chemicals have cinnamon-like odor and flavor: alpha-methyl cinnamic aldehyde, alpha-methyl furanacrolein, etc., and with the addition of balsamic fixatives such as Sumatra benzoin, methyl isoeugenol, etc. it is possible to reproduce the odor and flavor of cassia cinnamon satisfactorily. Acaroid resinoid has also been used as a balsamic fixative. Its dark color is only an advantage in this case. However, for those who may still have the opportunity of working with (more or less) “true” **Cassia**** ****Cinnamon**** ****Oil**** **(“cassia leaf oil”), a brief description will follow. The description is partly based upon the author’s personal notes from the 1930’s, partly upon more recent studies of small, true samples obtained by supervised distillation of cassia leaves and stalks. The botanical material, too, was checked and found genuine by the author. Crude, locally distilled cassia oil is a brownish yellow to dark brown liquid from which a resinous matter may deposit after ageing. Rectified (redistilled) cassia oil is a pale yellow or dark yellow, clear liquid, less viscous than the crude oil. Its odor is somewhat sweeter but less tenacious. The flavor is also similar: warm, spicy, slightly woody, balsamic and intensely sweet. The suggested use level is 1.00 to 4.00 mg% (with wide variations in concentration according to type of flavor, modifier, etc.). The **Minimum Perceptible **of the redistilled oil is about 0.10 to 0.20 mg%. A certain degree of water-solubility seems to place this oil among the “medium-strong” materials and not, as one should expect from its odor- masking ability, among the very strongest of our flavor materials. Because of its intense and dark color, crude cassia oil is rarely used in perfumes as such. It may easily cause not only coloring but also discoloration of soaps and other perfumed products when incorporated in the perfume in modest concentration. For flavors, it often pays to use the crude oil which has a tremendous odor-tenacity, thanks to the significant amount of resinous matter. As a modifier with benzaldehyde in liqueur-flavors, in cherry flavors or “wild cherry” flavors, flavors for baked goods, candy, mouthwashes, etc., a true Cassia Oil lends power, sweetness and a popular spicy-warm note. Certain bactericidal effects are also attributed to this oil on account of its high content of **Cinnamic Aldehyde.** It was customary to ship crude cassia oil in lead-lined containers, and this occasionally caused not only discoloration of the oil, but also formation of the lead salt of cinnamic acid. The latter is produced by air oxidation of the main constituent in the cassia oil, **Cinnamic Aldehyde**. Annual production of **Cassia Oil **is estimated to fluctuate between *175 *and 250 metric tons, but since the western world has become accustomed to an artificial replacement, it is conceivable that production will diminish significantly. It is worthwhile noting that a large part of the “cinnamon” which goes into the spice blend in “apple pie with cinnamon” in the U.S.A. and other countries, is derived from the bark of **Cinnamomum Loureirii**, an Indochinese tree which is related to the cassia tree. This bark is recognized by authorities in many countries as “cinnamon bark”. See the monograph on **Canella**.