CINNAMON. 197 
The Java cmnamon ranks between Ceylon and Tellicherry in 
flavour, and is imported almost exclusively into Holland. For 
recent observations on “ China cinnamon ” see article on Cassia. 
The Cayenne cinnamon (also derived from C. Zeylanicum, 
Breyn.) is almost as thin and long in the bark as the Ceylon grown, 
but it is paler in colour, more feeble in flavour and odour, and its 
essential oil is more acrid. It is, however, frequently sold as 
Ceylon cinnamon. 
The same tree is grown in Brazil and in the Antilles, but the 
resulting barks are very variable in quality and always inferior to 
the Ceylon growth. The Brazilian has the least flavour of any ; 
it is spongy and almost inodorous. 
The cinnamon tree yields essential oils from its leaves, bark, 
and root, each oil differing in composition and value. The most 
valuable is the oil from the bark, consisting chiefly of cinnamic 
aldehyde, now called cinnamaldehyde, and a variable quantity of 
hydrocarbon, the nature of which has not yet been definitely de- 
termined. The oil of cinnamon bark is worth about eighteen times 
as much as the oil distilled from the leaf, which contains chiefly 
eugenol, a hydrocarbon having an odour of cymene, a little benzoic 
acid, and some cinnamaldehyde. The oil from the root contains 
cinuamaldehyde, hydrocarbon, and ordinary camphor. The oil of 
the root is hghter than water, that of the leaves and bark being 
heavier. 
Oil of cinnamon is obtained in Ceylon by macerating the 
inferior pieces of the bark and broken quills which are incapable 
of being worked in with the usual quills, reduced to coarse powder, 
in a saturated solution of common salt for two days, and then - 
submitting the whole to distillation. The yield of oil varies 
according to the quality of the bark, from 4} to 1 per cent. This 
oil is largely distilled in Ceylon. As imported into London it 
varies somewhat in colour from yellow to cherry-red and very 
much in value, the paler varieties are the most esteemed ; hence 
London druggists frequently redistil the imported oil, by which 
they procure two pale yellow oils; one lighter (amounting to about 
a quarter of the whole), the other heavier than water. The loss 
on this process being near 10 per cent. 
The oil distilled from the finer sorts of cinnamon bark is of a 
golden colour when fresh, becoming red by age. The sp. gr. of 
the fresh oil is 1:035. The oil obtained from the coarser bark is 
