Study of The Organoleptic and Physicochemical Properties of Cinnamon Essential Oil (Cinnamomum zeylanicum).

Abstract

Essential oils must meet characteristics imposed by the laws of producing and exporting countries and by importing countries. These criteria are defined in international standards ISO (International Organization for Standardization) or French AFNOR (French Association of Normalization). Thus the organoleptic and physical properties such as coloration, odor, refraction, solubility, flash point, but also chemical properties such as acid and ester indices are controlled. About that, our study comes to determine some organoleptic and physicochemical properties of cinnamon essential oil (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) a medicinal plant (spice) widely marketed in Algerian public markets. The evaluation of the essential oil yield extracted by hydrodistillation is: 1.5%. The qualitative and quantitative analysis (GC/MS) of the essential oil identified 60 compounds that represent: Cinnamic aldehyde (81.529%), Eugenol (2.915%), p-Cineole (2.914%), Camphene (2.124%), α-Pipene (1.482%), Hydrocinnamic aldehyde (1.218%), α-Terpineol (1.041%) totaling approximately 93.223%. The density is: 1,050 ± 0,005. The measurement of the calculated refractive index and reduced to 20 °C is of low refraction to light: 1.6020 ± 0.007. The boiling and evaporation index are: (185-196 °C).