Cinnamomum cassia Nees - sy.Cinnamomum aromaticum Nees; Laurus cassia L. - Lauraceae
肉桂 ròu gùi (chin.), cassia, Chinese cinnamon, Zimtkassie, Chinesischer Zimt

Evergreen handsome tree with aromatic bark, up to 17m high; native to South China, Birma; widely cultivated in tropical or subtropical areas; bark gray-brown, up to 13 mm thick when mature; leaves oblong to nearly lanceolate, caudate- or long-acuminate, leathery; flowers small, white, in axillary or terminal silky-tomentose panicles; perianth-lobes persistent in fruit; fruit ellipsoid, ca. 10 × 7-8(-9) mm, black-purple when mature, glabrous.
„The dried bark is the source of the important spice cassia. The immature fruits are a source of cassia buds. An essential oil, called oil of cassia or oil of cinnamon, is obtained by steam distillation of the leaves and twigs; it is used as a flavoring agent. The plant is used medicinally as a carminative. It contains cinnamic aldehyde.“ http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200008698

„Chinese cassia is a close relative to Ceylon cinnamon (C. verum), Saigon cinnamon (C. loureiroi, also known as „Vietnamese cinnamon“), and Indonesian cinnamon (C. burmannii). In all four species, the dried bark is used as a spice. Chinese cassia's flavour is less delicate than that of Ceylon cinnamon, so is less expensive and is sometimes called bastard cinnamon. “ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamomum_cassia

The essential oil from the bark of C.cassia has excellent antimicrobial effects against Clostridium perfringens, Bacteroïdes fragilis, and Bifidobacterium bifidus. [Growth-inhibiting effects of Cinnamomum cassia barks-derived materials on human intestinal bacteria. Lee H.S., Ahn Y.J., J Agri Food Chem Vol.46, 1998, 8-12]

Main components of the essential oil of Cinnamomum cassia stem bark were cinnamaldehyde, 2-hydroxycinnamaldehyde, coumarin, and cinnamyl acetate.
[Constituents of the essential oil of the Cinnamomum cassia stem bark and the Biological Properties. Choi, J., Lee, K. T., Ka, H., Jung, W. T., Jung, H. J., Park, H. J., Archives of pharmacal research, Vol.24(5), 2001, 418-423]

„In the presence of 1000 μg ml−1 of the substance, most of the cells were killed after 2 h of incubation suggesting that the antimicrobial activity of cinnamic aldehyde is bacteriocidal in E. coli.“
[Inactivation of Escherichia coli O157: H7 by cinnamic aldehyde purified from Cinnamomum cassia shoot. Kim, H. O., Park, S. W., Park, H. D., Food Microbiology, Vol.21(1), 2004, 105-110]

„Cassia bark or cortex cinnamomi, the dried stem bark of Cinnamomum cassia Presl. (Lauraceae), is a popular natural spice and a commonly used herb in traditional Chinese medicine. However, adulterants are frequently found in the market. In this study, 44 samples of Cassia bark including bark from seven related Cinnamomum species were collected from fields and market. Four characteristic components, cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid, cinnamyl alcohol, and coumarin were determined by RP-HPLC, and a fingerprint comprised of five markers was established. These results showed that cassia barks contained high contents of cinnamaldehyde (13.01−56.93 mg/g). The highest content of cinnamaldehyde (up to 93.83 mg/g) was found in debarked cortex, which is traditionally regarded as having the best quality in local herb shops. In contrast, the adulterants from the other Cinnamomum species, C. wilsonii Camble, C. japonicum Sieb., C. mairei Levl. and C. burmanii (Nees) Blume, contained low contents of cinnamaldehyde (<2.00 mg/g). The content of cinnamaldehyde in C. loureirii Nees was comparable to that in C. cassia. It is suggested that five characteristic peaks by HPLC are suitable for distinguishing genuine cassia bark from the adulterants and could be applied in the quality control of this commodity.“
[Authentication and quantitative analysis on the chemical profile of cassia bark (cortex cinnamomi) by high-pressure liquid chromatography., He, Z. D., Qiao, C. F., Han, Q. B., Cheng, C. L., Xu, H. X., Jiang, R. W., Shaw, P. C., Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, Vol.53(7), 2005, 2424-2428]

„The antimicrobial effectiveness of C.cassia oil and its major constituent is comparable and almost equivalent, which suggests that the broad-spectrum antibiotic activities of C. cassia oil are due to cinnamaldehyde.“
[Antimicrobial activities of cinnamon oil and cinnamaldehyde from the Chinese medicinal herb Cinnamomum cassia Blume., Ooi, L.S., Li, Y., Kam, S.L., Wang, H., Wong, E.Y., Ooi, V.E., The American journal of Chinese medicine, 34(03), 2006, 511-522]

„Using standard disk diffusion method the antibacterial activity of aqueous infusion, decoction and essential oil of C. cassia (Cinnamon bark) were investigated against 178 bacterial strains belonging to 12 different genera of bacterial population isolated from oral cavity of 250 specimens of apparently healthy individuals aged between 2-85 years. Overall, the oil of Cinnamomum cassia inhibited all type of tested bacterial strains except Salmonella para typhi B exhibiting 99.4% antibacterial effect as compared to aqueous decoction (70.2%) and aqueous infusion (52.2%)“
[Anti-microbial activity of Cinnamomum cassia against diverse microbial flora with its nutritional and medicinal impacts. Chaudhry, N. M. A., Tariq, P., Pakistan Journal of Botany, Vol.38(1), 2006, 169] http://www.pakbs.org/pjbot/PDFs/38%281%29/PJB38%281%29169.pdf

„Coumarin is a flavoring which can cause hepatotoxicity in experimental animals and in a proportion of the human population. The tolerable daily intake (TDI) may be exceeded in consumers with high intake of cinnamon containing high levels of coumarin. The objective of this study was to determine these levels in cinnamon samples and to identify possible factors influencing them. A HPLC method to quantify coumarin and related constituents (cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid, cinnamyl alcohol, eugenol) in a single run was used. Results found in 47 cinnamon powder samples obtained from the German retail market confirmed high levels of coumarin in cassia cinnamon. A huge variation was observed in stick samples from two packages (range from below the limit of detection to about 10000 mg/kg). Cassia bark samples of five trees received directly from Indonesia were analyzed additionally. Interestingly, a high variation was observed in one of the trees, whereas no coumarin was detected in the samples of two other trees. In conclusion, coumarin levels in cassia cinnamon can vary widely even within a single tree.“
[Quantification of flavoring constituents in cinnamon: high variation of coumarin in cassia bark from the German retail market and in authentic samples from Indonesia. Woehrlin, F., Fry, H., Abraham, K., Preiss-Weigert, A., Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 58(19), 2010, 10568-10575]

„Coumarin… Using the human data, a TDI [tolerable daily intake] of 0.1 mg/kg body weight was derived, confirming that of the European Food Safety Authority. Nutritional exposure may be considerably, and is mainly due to use of cassia cinnamon, which is a popular spice especially, used for cookies and sweet dishes. To estimate exposure to coumarin during the Christmas season in Germany, a telephone survey was performed with more than 1000 randomly selected persons. Heavy consumers of cassia cinnamon may reach a daily coumarin intake corresponding to the TDI.“
[Toxicology and risk assessment of coumarin: focus on human data., Abraham, K., Wöhrlin, F., Lindtner, O., Heinemeyer, G., Lampen, A., Molecular nutrition & food research, 54(2), 2010, 228-239]
[Neue Erkenntnisse zu Cumarin in Zimt, Stellungnahme Nr. 036/2012 des BfR vom 27. September 2012]
http://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/343/neue-erkenntnisse-zu-cumarin-in-zimt.pdf

„Cinnamomum cassia Blume is a popular traditional Chinese herbal medicine that has been used to manage respiratory tract disease, including common cold and chronic bronchitis for thousand years. Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is one of the leading causes of severe lower respiratory tract illness worldwide…. Antiviral activity of the hot water extract of Cinnamomum cassia against HRSV was tested by plaque reduction assay in both human upper (HEp-2) and low (A549) respiratory tract cell lines… Cinnamomum cassia dose-dependently inhibited HRSV-induced plaque formation in both HEp-2 and A549 cell lines (p<0.0001). Cinnamomum cassia was more effective when given before viral infection (p<0.0001) mainly by inhibition of viral attachment (p<0.0001) and internalization (p<0.0001). Cinnamomum cassia could inhibit F protein production and syncytium formation to interfere with HRSV spreading… Cinnamomum cassia prevented airway epithelia from HRSV infection through inhibiting viral attachment, internalization and syncytium formation. Cinnamomum cassia could be a candidate to develop therapeutic modalities to manage HRSV infection in the future.“
[Water extract of Cinnamomum cassia Blume inhibited human respiratory syncytial virus by preventing viral attachment, internalization, and syncytium formation., Yeh, C.F., San Chang, J., Wang, K.C., Shieh, D.E., Chiang, L.C., Journal of ethnopharmacology, 147(2), 2013, 321-326]

Of the 26 components identified with GC-O, the ten most odorous compounds (highest mean FD factors in AEDA) were (odor description, logFD): 3-phenylpropanal (green floral hyacinth balsamic, 18.1), (E)-cinnamaldehyde (spicy cinnamon cassia sweet, 17.6), guaiacol (strong sweet smoky vanilla, 16.2), 2-phenylethanol (flowers rose, 14.7), cinnamyl acetate (sweet balsamic floral spicy, 10.9), 2-phenylacetaldehyde (floral hyacinth rose honey, 10.5), acetophenone (sweet pungent cherry sour, 10.0), benzaldehyde (almonds sweet cherry, 9.0), 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (oily green herbaceous, 9.0) and o-methoxy cinnamaldehyde (sweet warm spicy cassia, 8.1).
[Bongiovanni, V., et al. „Determining Odor-Active Compounds in a Commercial Sample of Cinnamomum cassia Essential Oil Using GC-MS and GC-O.“ Journal of Chromatography (2017), 8:1] https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/determining-odoractive-compounds-in-a-commercial-sample-ofcinnamomum-cassia-essential-oil-using-gcms-and-gco-2157-7064-1000347.pdf

Main components of commercial cassia oils were (E)-cinnamaldehyde (75.3-79.1%), o-methoxy cinnamaldehyde (0.7-10.1%), cinnamyl acetate (2.0-10.5%), and coumarin (1.9-3.8%).
https://www.planttherapy.com/cinnamon-cassia-essential-oil GC/MS provided, retrieved 2019-01-25.

Kohl,F.G., Die officinellen Pflanzen der Pharmacopoea Germanica, t.36 (1891-1895) [F.G.Kohl]
http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=244192