5i6 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



inner surface light brown, smooth ; fracture short ; thick inner 

 bark separated from the very thin periderm by a layer of small 

 stone cells ; odor aromatic ; taste mucilaginous, aromatic and 

 pungent. 



Cassia Cinnamon. In quilled pieces, usually shorter than 

 those of Saigon Cinnamon, the periderm more or less removed, 

 and the bark aromatic and somewhat astringent. 



Ceylon Cinnamon occurs in closely rolled double quills com- 

 posed of numerous thin layers of the inner bark of the shoots ; the 

 odor is delicately aromatic, and very distinct from either Cassia 

 or Saigon bark. 



Inner Structure. See Figs. 224, 225, 305. 



Constituents. The most important constituent is the vola- 

 tile oil, which in Ceylon cinnamon is delicately aromatic and 

 amounts to from 0.5 to i per cent., in Cassia from 0.93 to 1.64 

 per cent., and in the Saigon from 3 to 6 per cent., the latter bark 

 being most pungent and aromatic. The oil of cinnamon consists 

 in large part of cinnamic aldehyde (not present in the oil of the 

 root bark) and other compounds, such as camphor, which is present 

 in the oil from the root bark ; safrol, which is found in the leaves ; 

 and eugenol, which is found in both leaves and stem bark and 

 which gives the characteristic odor to Ceylon Cinnamon. 



Cinnamon also contains the hexatomic alcohol mannitol (cin- 

 namanin) giving the sweetish taste to the several barks; a tannin 

 (3 to 5 per cent.) somewhat resembling that in Qucrcus alba and 

 found in greatest amount in Cassia bark and least in the Saigon 

 variety ; a bitter principle especially characteristic of Cassia bark ; 

 and a mucilage which may be the source, at least in part, of the 

 volatile oil. 



Allied Plants. Batavia Cassia or Fagot Cassia is the bark 

 of Cinnamomum Burmanni. In double quills, the larger some- 

 times enclosing smaller quills, 5 to 8 cm. long, 5 to 15 mm. in 

 diameter, bark 0.5 to 3 mm. thick ; outer surface light or reddish- 

 brown, nearly smooth ; inner surface dark-brown with occasional 

 longitudinal ridges and depressed areas ; fracture short ; odor pro- 

 nounced, aromatic ; taste aromatic and distinctly mucilaginous. 

 It forms a shiny glutinous mass with water and yields with alcohol 

 II to 17 per cent, of extract. A number of barks come into the 



