Cinnamon is used as a spice and an aromatic plant. Their leaves and bark are used as source of cinnamon oil. Cinnamon belongs to the Lauraceae family.
For this review, an extensive bibliographic ...research on cinnamon was carried out, including its main uses, components (both nutrients and bioactive), biological activities, interactions with drugs and potential applications.
Cinnamon is a spice that can be used as a traditional medicine to control blood pressure, tumor growth, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The nutrient composition of cinnamon reveals a great amount of vitamins and minerals and the main bioactive compounds are polyphenols and cinnamaldehyde. The amount of bioactive compounds depends on several factors, such as the variety, part of the plant, edaphoclimatic conditions, drying conditions, extraction and analysis methods. Due to its numerous biological properties, cinnamon can be used by direct application to food, to be incorporated in active food packaging, as an active principle by the pharmaceutical industry and as a fragrance by the cosmetic industry. As a result of its various and easy forms of use, this spice presents a vast potential of new applications with health benefits for the consumers.
•Aromatic plants have many applications: in culinary, cosmetics and medicine.•Cinnamon is a natural product with numerous benefits for human health.•Cinnamon can be used as alternative medicine for treatment and prevention of diseases.•Cinnamon can be used whole, ground, as extract or as essential oil.•Application of cinnamon includes the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industry.
► The volatile compounds of cinnamon barks were studied by GC–MS and FTIR. ► GC–MS and FTIR, combined with chemometrics for the assessment of cinnamon quality. ► These methods are usable for ...determining species or their geographical distribution. ► Guangxi is a suitable cultivation site for C. loureirii and C. verum utilization.
In this work, the volatile compounds of cinnamon barks from three species and seven habitats were detected and identified for the first time by GC–MS and FTIR analysis. GC–MS analysis indicated that the main compound in the volatile oils of nine samples was trans-cinnamaldehyde (66.28–81.97%). Cinnamomum loureirii had the highest volatile oil yield (3.08%) and in that yield was a high percentage of trans-cinnamaldehyde (81.97%). Cinnamomum verum contained significant quantities of eugenol, and Cinnamomum cassia had more abundant α-guaiene compared with C. loureirii and C. verum. Hierarchical cluster analysis, similarity evaluation and principal component analysis showed that the nine samples were effectively identified and evaluated. Load factor analysis revealed that the differences in the volatile compounds of the nine samples were mainly reflected in the aldehyde, alcohol, alkane and eugenol contents. Our research indicated that GC–MS and FTIR techniques, combined with chemometrics, proved to be an effective strategy for identifying the species and for determining their geographical distribution, especially in the assessment of cinnamon quality for use in raw herbal medicines.
Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume, also known as true cinnamon, has gained more attention recently because of its proven medicinal properties. Having uniform quality raw materials is the key to the ...sustainability of pharmaceutical and other industries. Nevertheless, the majority of the cinnamon plantations in Sri Lanka and elsewhere have originated from highly cross-pollinated seeds. However, no reported studies exist on the variability of individuals caused by the natural cross-pollination of cinnamon. Therefore, our work focused on morphological, genetic, and biochemical characterization of a population of individuals that resulted from a single cross-pollination event of a known C. zeylanicum mother plant. The mother plant, the possible pollen donor and the selected progeny were assessed with several age- and environment-independent morphological traits and several Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) regions. Progeny had significantly different leaf and apex shapes and ISSR regions were about 80% polymorphic compared to the parents. The morphological and genetic diversity of progeny was also represented in the cinnamaldehyde, cinnamyl alcohol and cinnamyl acetate content at the seedling stage.
Peroxisome‐proliferator activated receptor (PPARγ) plays a role in tumor growth inhibition and metabolic activity. Cinnamon extract components have been proposed as a possible PPARγ ligand and we ...sought to investigate if cinnamon treatment of cells affected the PPARγ and adiponectin expression. 3T3‐L1 cells were cinnamon treated for 72 and 120 hours. Media was collected for ELISA quantification of Adiponectin levels. Copy DNA was produced from the total RNA and expression levels of PPARγ and Adiponectin were examined by TaqMan real‐time PCR assays. Expression of PPARγ increases significantly in both post‐differentiated cells at 72 hours and in non‐differentiated cells at 120 hours. Expression of AdipoQ is increased in post‐differentiated cells significantly when compared to non‐differentiated cells. AdipoQ expression increases at 72 hours post differentiation. Post differentiation cells demonstrated high levels of adiponectin in the media. No significant difference was observed between the cinnamon treated cells and the vehicle control cells. Higher levels of PPARγ in the post‐differentiated cells correlate with the increase in adiponectin expression and adiponectin secreted in the post‐differentiation cells. A lag between the adipoQ expression increases at 72 hours post‐differentiation and adiponectin in the media was detected at high levels at 120 hours. Although there is no significant difference in the adiponectin in the media between vehicle samples and cinnamon treated samples, the expression data compares the control to the cinnamon treated cells, therefore the expression changes observed result from cinnamon treatment. This data suggests that perhaps a mechanism exists that stops adiponectin at the translation level.
In this work, the effects of cinnamon and mustard essential oils against nine foodborne bacteria were evaluated. Their antimicrobial susceptibility and action mechanism was also assessed. ...Additionally, the effects of the combination between both were evaluated. To provide data on the in vitro action of essential oils, the transfer mechanism was assessed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The results indicated that the mustard presents 10 times more bactericidal/bacteriostatic effect than cinnamon essential oil. In both cases the action mechanism happened intracellularly, but since mustard induces cell cycle arrest, cinnamon produces protrusions and aggregation. The combinatorial assays demonstrated in most cases an additive effect. In addition, synergies for P. putida and E. coli OI57:H7 were shown. Therefore, to introduce them in combination, could be a great way to make a natural-active packaging. The distinct activity profiles can be explained by their transfer mechanism that involves vapour release and agar diffusion.
The industry is focused on improving food safety by controlling the growth of foodborne and food spoilage microorganisms and by reducing the use of synthetic preservatives. The novelty of this research article lies in the study of antimicrobial activity of two natural active agents (mustard and cinnamon essential oil), separately and in combination, against nine foodborne bacteria; as well as the study of its mechanism of action and transfer. The set of all outcomes give the necessary information to be able to design a novel food active packaging based on the applied microbiology studied.
•Mustard EO has 10 times more bactericidal/bacteriostatic effect than cinnamon EO.•The absence/presence of inhibition halo is related to the EO transfer mechanism.•Transfer mechanism involves EO vapour release and agar diffusion.•Synergies were shown for P. putida (bacteriostatic) and E. coli OI57:H7 (bactericide).•Mustard induces cell cycle arrest while cinnamon produces protrusions and aggregation.
Cancer is known as a leading cause of death worldwide. In the last two decades, the incidence of cancer has been dramatically increased mostly due to lifestyle changes. The importance of this issue ...has attracted further attention to discover novel therapies to prevent and treat cancers. According to previous studies, drugs used to treat cancer have shown significant limitations. Therefore, the role of herbal medicines alone or in combination with chemotherapy drugs has been extensively studied in cancer treatment. Cinnamon is a natural component showing a wide range of pharmacological functions including anti-oxidant, anti-microbial and anti-cancer activities. Impaired apoptosis plays critical roles in the initiation and progression of cancer. Increasing evidence indicates that cinnamon, as a therapeutic agent, has anti-cancer effects via affecting numerous apoptosis-related pathways in cancer cells. Here, we highlighted anticancer properties of cinnamon, particularly through targeting apoptosis-related mechanisms.
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•Cinnamon and its analogues shows anti-cancer impacts via affecting on numerous cancer-related pathways such as apoptosis.•Inhibition of apoptosis is very common mechanism for escaping cancer cells from death.•Cinnamon and its analogues exert anti—apoptosis impacts on cancer cells via targeting Fas/CD95, caspase-3, and Bcl-XL.
Cinnamon is one of the most popular spices used in cuisines worldwide. Among its different species, Ceylon cinnamon (“true cinnamon") is the one with the most health benefits due to its high ...concentration in the antioxidant eugenol and the ultra-low content of the hepatotoxic compound coumarin. However, the higher price of Ceylon cinnamon makes it vulnerable to fraudulent adulteration with more economic species of cinnamon, such as Cassia and Saigon. Thus, for the detection of frauds in cinnamon samples, a HPLC-UV method was developed for the determination of 4 characteristic cinnamon compounds: eugenol, cinnamaldehyde, coumarin and cinnamic acid. The obtained data were analyzed by PLS to attain not only the authentication of cinnamon species but also the detection and quantification of partial adulterations. Several mixtures prepared in the laboratory using different cinnamon powder samples considered ‘pure’ Ceylon, Cassia or Saigon were tested, concluding that the proposed approach allows a clear identification of Ceylon cinnamon and a suitable quantification of the Ceylon: non-Ceylon ratio regardless of the commercial sample selected (RMSE <0.06 for both training and test sets).
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•HPLC-UV is proposed for the determination of four characteristic cinnamon compounds.•The discrimination among cinnamon species was achieved.•The detection and quantification of partial adulterations in cinnamon samples were assessed.•A simple, versatile, low-cost method for cinnamon authentication was proposed.
Aims
To investigate the antimicrobial activity of various natural products against Clostridium difficile in vitro.
Methods and Results
The antibacterial activity of 20 natural products was determined ...by the agar well diffusion and broth microdilution assays against four C. difficile strains, three comparator organisms and four gastrointestinal commensal organisms. Of the raw natural products, garlic juice had the highest activity. The most active processed products were peppermint oil and the four pure compounds trans‐cinnamaldehyde, allicin, menthol and zingerone. Furthermore, Bacteroides species had similar susceptibility to C. difficile to most natural products; however, Lactobacillus casei was less susceptible. The combined effect of natural products with vancomycin or metronidazole was determined using the conventional checkerboard titration method and the fractional inhibitory concentration index was calculated. The results showed a possible synergism between trans‐cinnamaldehyde and vancomycin and partial synergy between trans‐cinnamaldehyde and metronidazole.
Conclusions
The study indicates a range of antimicrobial activity of natural products against C. difficile and suggests that they may be useful as alternative or complementary treatments for C. difficile infection (CDI), particularly as most are able to be given orally.
Significance and Impact of the Study
This study encourages further investigation of natural products for treatment of CDI.
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