Antimicrobial cinnamon

Cinnamon is believed to have antispasmodic, carminative, orexigenic, antidiarrheal, antimicrobial, refrigerant, and anthelmintic properties. It is used for anorexia, intestinal colic, infantile diarrhea, common cold, influenza, and specifically for flatulent colic and dyspepsia with nausea. Cinnamon bark is also an astringent, and cinnamon oil is reported to possess carminative and antiseptic properties. 

Cinnamon is used as an ingredient in many Ayurvedic and Unani medicinal preparations. The bark of C. zeylanicum is an aphrodisiac, anthelmintic and tonic. It is useful in the treatment of vata, biliousness, parched mouth, bronchitis, diarrhoea, itching, heart disease and urinary disease. The bark is a carminative and expectorant it is useful in hydrocoele, flatulence, headache, piles, etc. (Kirtikar and Basu, 1984). Cinnamon possesses various biological activities, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, antidiabetic and antiallergic. 

Cinnamon oil and extracts possess various antimicrobial activities against several bacteria, fungi, etc. Aqueous extract from cinnamon (C. zeylanicum, Blume) inhibited the replication of the influenza virus (Mancini et al., 1999). Oral administration of t-cinnamaldehyde and Omethoxycinnamaldehyde inhibited candidiasis at a MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) value of 0.03-0.05 mg/ml. 

Challenge Problem. Cinnamaldehyde is the component responsible for cinnamon flavor. It is also a potent antimicrobial compound present in essential oils (see M. Friedman, N. Kozukue, and L. A. Harden, J. Agric. Food Chem., 2000, 48, 5702). The GC response of an artificial mixture containing six essential oil components and methyl benzoate as an internal standard is shown in the figure. 

Cinnamaldehyde is the component responsible for cinnamon flavor. It is also a potent antimicrobial compound present in essential oils (see M. Friedman. 

Products and Uses Naturally occuring in cinnamon, cloves (ripe), cranberries, plums, and prunes. Used in food preservatives, tobacco seasoning, flavors, perfumes, and toothpastes. Utilized orally as an antiseptic, diuretic, and expectorant and as an antimicrobial (antiseptic) agent, flavoring agent, and food preservative. 

Perdones, A., Vargas, M., Atares, L. Chiralt, A. (2014). Physical, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of chitosan-cinnamon leaf oil films as affected by oleic acid. Food Hydrocolloids, 36, 256-64. 

The antimicrobial activity of cinnamon bark, lavender, marjoram, tea tree, peppermint EOs combined with ampicillin, piperacillin, cefazolin, cefuroxime, carbenicillin, ceftazidime, and merope-nem was investigated against p-lactamase-producing E. coll Fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) values were the results of the trial. It was found that peppermint EO improved the activity of piperacillin against multidrug-resistant E. coli strains (FIC 0.31) compared with piperacillin alone. Also the used dose of meropenem can be reduced when combined with peppermint oil (FIC 0.26) (Xi Yap et ah, 2013). 

The in vitro most antimicrobially active essential oils regularly (or normally) contain substances as main components, which are themselves known to exhibit pronounced antimicrobial properties. These are cinnamic aldehyde (cinnamon bark and cassia oil) and the phenolic compounds eugenol (clove and cinnamon leaf oil) and thymol (thyme oil) (Pauli, 2001). All these essential oils reveal a broadband spectrum of activity in various in vitro test systems (agar diffusion, dilution, and VP) due to their considerable water solubility and volatility. The evaluated antimicrobial inhibitory data of the essential oils obtained in agar dilution tests, serial DIL, and VP tests are summarized in Table 14.81. 

Hill, R, C.S. Evans, and R.G. Veness, 1997. Antimicrobial action of essential oils The effect of dimethylsul-phoxide on the activity of cinnamon oil. Lett. Appl. Microbiol., 24 269-275. 

Singh, G., S. Maurya, M.P. DeLampasona et al., 2007. A comparison of chemical, antioxidant and antimicrobial studies of cinnamon ieaf and bark volatile oils, oleoresins and their constitnents. Food Chem. Toxicol., 45 1650-1661. 

Hosseini MH, Razavi SH, Mousavi MA. Antimicrobial, physical and mechanical properties of chitosan-based films incorporated with thyme, clove and cinnamon essential oils. J Food Process Preserv 2009 33 727-743. 

Gupta, C., Garg, A.P., Uniyal, R.C., and Kumari, A. 2008. Comparative analysis of the antimicrobial activity of cinnamon oil and cinnamon extract on somefood-bome microbes. African Journal of Microbiology Research, 2 247-251. 

Clove oil and cinnamon leaf oil contain eugenol as the main constituent and are usually tested for their antimicrobial activity in the same investigations. Hence, they will be discussed together. 

Antimicrobial activity of cinnamon bark oil was assessed many times while there are only a few reports on activity of cassia oil. The antibacterial activity of cinnamon bark oil was one of the highest among 45 essential oils (Chao et al. 2000) and higher... 

It is amazing that even in the latest reports about antimicrobial activity of cinnamon oil the authors were not clear as to whether the oil under investigation was leaf or bark oil. This is the case of strong activity of cinnamon oil against E. coli, MIC 300 ppm (Ceylan and Fung 2003), Listeria monocytogenes (PapareUa et al. 2008) and three Aspergillus species (Carmo et al. 2008). 

Edris AE (2007) Pharmaceutical and therapeutic potentials of essential oils and their individual constituents a review. Phytother Res 21 308-323 El-Baroty GS, El-Baky HH, Earag RS et al (2010) Characterization of antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds of cinnamon and ginger essential oils. African J Biochem Res 4 167-174 Espina L, Somolinos M, Loran S et al (2011) Chemical composition of commercial citrus fruit essential oils and evaluation of their antimicrobial activity acting alone or in combined processes. Food Control 22 896-902... 

Goni P, Lopez P, Sanchez C et al (2009) Antimicrobial activity in the vapor phase of a combination of cinnamon and clove essential ods. Eood Chem 116 982-989 Hajlaoui H, Snoussi M, Noumi E et al (2010) Chemical composition, antiotddant and antibacterial activities of the essential ods of five Tunisian aromatic plants. Ital J Eood Sci 3 320-329 Hammer KA, Carson CE, Rdey TV (1999) Antimicrobial activity of essential ods and another plant extracts. J Appl Microbiol 86 985-990... 

Hdi P, Evans CS, Veness RG (1997) Antimicrobial action of essential ods the effect of dimethyl-sulphoxide on the activity of cinnamon od. Lett Appl Microbiol 24 269-275 Home D, Holm M, Oberg C et al (2001) Antimicrobial effects of essential ods on Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Essent Od Res 13 387-392... 

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