CINNAMON 



255 



single, spindle-shaped with attenuated ends, the walls being very 

 thick and but slightly lignified; colorless stone cells resembling those 

 of Saigon Cinnamon; numerous cellular fragments with yellowish- 

 brown walls or contents; calcium oxalate in raphides from 0.005 to 

 0.008 mm. in length. 



The Powder of Cassia Buds (flowers of Cinnamomum Cassia) 

 is characterized by numerous thick-walled, irregularly curved simple 

 hairs; fragments of reticulate and scalariform tracheae; and broad, 

 blunt bast fibers. 



Constituents. The most important constituent is the volatile 

 oil, which in Ceylon Cinnamon is delicately aromatic and is present 



FIG. 116. Cassia cinnamon: st, stp, stone cells; pr, bp, parenchyma containing 

 starch grains; bf, bast fibers; P, cork cells with lignified walls. Numerous 

 simple and compound starch grains are shown at the left and among the 

 fragments of tissues. After Moeller. 



from 0.5 to 1 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 com- 

 pounds, 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, character- 

 istic 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 Quercus alba and 



