Oil Cassia

BENZALDEHYDE The precursor for speed. It makes up nearly 100% of bitter almond oil. Not a very popular oil with the DEA. Some hints Benzaldehyde is indispensable for the flavoring industry. It is the flavor in almond extract and synthetic benzaldehyde is used in all cherry flavorings. Also, there is currently a little loophole in the system when it comes to a product called Roasted Cassia Oil . Apparently, some manufacturers take cassia oil and run it through some sort of industrial process to change it into benzaldehyde. No one wanted to tell Strike the particulars of how this was done. But one company chemist gave me some hints (You can get really chatty with some of these guys). 

Cinnamomum cassia B/um (Lauraceae) is the so-caUed cassia. It is native to southeastern China and has not been grown successfuUy outside of this area. The dried bark of this evergreen tree is stripped, ground, and sold almost exclusively in China. The leaves and twigs of the tree contain the same flavor components as the bark and are steam distUled to yield the cassia oil of commerce. Infrequently, smaU amounts of bark are bundled and exported as cassia lignea but caimot compete with the other varieties as bark spice. The Chinese prefer to seU the essential oil. 

Rectified oils have been redistilled to improve a particular property or characteristic, such as flavor or aroma. Eor example, natural oil of peppermint is frequently rectified to remove dimethyl sulfide, which has a powerful and objectionable cooked vegetable note deleterious to the use of the oil in cmme de menthe Hqueurs. Distillation is also used to remove psoralens, which are harmful photosensitizing agents present in natural bergamot oil. Color may be removed, eg, from cassia oil, by vacuum steam distillation. A desirable component, such as 1,8-cineole (eucalyptol) 85% in eucalyptus oil, may be... 

A number of other valuable aroma chemicals can be isolated from essential oils, eg, eugenol from clove leaf oil, which can also, on treatment with strong caustic, be isomerked to isoeugenol, which on further chemical treatment can be converted to vanillin (qv). Sometimes the naturally occurring component does not requke prior isolation or concentration, as in the case of cinnamaldehyde in cassia oil which, on dkect treatment of the oil by a retro-aldol reaction, yields natural ben2aldehyde (qv). This product is purified by physical means. 

There are at least two routes currently being used to produce natural benzaldehyde. Principal flavor houses are reported to market a product which is derived from cassia oil. The chief constituent of cassia oil is cinnamic aldehyde which is hydrolyzed into its benzaldehyde and acetaldehyde constituents. This is a fermentative retroaldol reaction. Whether this hydrolysis allows the final benzaldehyde product to be considered natural is of great concern. The FDA has reportedly issued an opinion letter that benzaldehyde produced from cassia oil is not natural (15). 

Cinnamaldehyde, [14371-10-9] CgH CH=CHCHO (bp, 253°C at 101.3 kPa), produced by the alkaline condensation of benzaldehyde and acetaldehyde is the main ingredient in cassia oil. It is used in soap perfumes and as an intermediate in the production of other flavor and fragrance compounds. 

Spr-eimen A ll.lCldi. A turbid lii tiiJ which on smndiug separateil into two layers, the upper one wat- r. Ihn lower one cassia oil of a light Khine win coloui. ... 

The more delicate odour of cinuamon oil causes it to ho preferred lo cassia oil in England, whilst the strongei and ooarser odour of the latter, together with its mnoh lower price, gains for it prefereure in many parts of ihu continent. 

Phenyl-propyl alcohol, CgH. CHj. CH.2. CHj. OH, is the next highest homologue of phenyl-ethyl alcohol, and is also known as hydro-cinnamyl alcohol. Like the last described bodies it has been known for many years, its first preparation being described in the Aivnalen (188, 202). It occurs as a cinnamic acid ester in storax, and as an acetic ester in cassia oil. It is prepared synthetically by the reduction of cinnamyl alcohol with sodium amalgam and water, or by the reduction of cinnamic or benzyl acetic esters with sodium and absolute alcohol. It has the following characters —... 

Cinnamic aldehyde, C HgO, is the principal odorous constituent of dnnamon and cassia oils, and is manufactured to a considerable extent, artificially. It can be extracted from the oils in which it occurs by means of sodium bisulphite, the sodium bisulphite compound being decomposed with dilute sulphuric acid, and distilled in a current of steam. The preparation of artificial cinnamic aldehyde, which is used in perfumery as a substitute for the natural oils, is usually carried out. by a condensation of benzaldehyde and acetaldehyde, according to the following reaction —... 

Ortho-methoxy-cinnamic aldehyde is present in small amount in cassia oil. It has the composition Cj( Hjq02, and its physical characters are as follows —... 

It is advisable, generally speaking, to take about an hour over the addition of the bisulphite solution, and heating in a water-bath, but in the case of cassia oils containing much resinous matter it is sometimes necessary to prolong the heating in boiling water for three or four hours before the unabsorbed oil separates as a clear oil on the top of the solution. 

Five to 10 c.c. of the oil are shaken in a Hirschsohn fiask, as used for cassia oil analysis, with a 5 per cent, solution of caustic soda, until absorption is complete, and the unabsorbed oil driven into the neck cf the flask by more of the solution and its volume read off. The difference between the original amount of oil used and the unabsorbed portion may be taken as phenols. Strictly speaking, this method gives a volume percentage, which can be converted into a weight percentage if the specific gravities of the two portions of the oil be known. 

Resin is frequently found in cassia oil. It interferes with the accurate determination of the aldehyde by making it difficult to read off the uncombined oil. It may be detected by adding a solution of lead acetate in 70 per cent, alcohol to a solution of the oil in alcohol of the same strength. The presence of resin increases the amount of non-volatile residue, and also increases the acid value of the oil. 

Cassia-dl, n. cassia oil. -rinde, /. cassia bark. Cassie, /. cassia. 

Zimt, m. cinnamon. — weisser —, canella bark, canella. — chinesischer cassia bark. Zimt-. cinnamic cinnamon. -aldehyd, n. cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic aldehyde, -alko-hol, m. cinnamic alcohol, -blute,/. cinnamon flower, cassia bud. -bliltendl, n. cassia oil. zimtbraun, a. cinnamon-brown. Zimtcarbonsaure, /. carboxycinnamic acid, zimt-farbig, -farben, a. cinnamon-colored. Zimt-kaneel, m. canella bark, canella. -kassia, /. cassia bark, cassia, -kassienbl, n. oil of cassia. 

Cassia oil (Chinese ciimamon oil) is obtained by steam distillation of the leaves, twigs, and bark of Cinnamomum aromaticum Nees (C. cassia Bl., Lauraceae). It is a reddish-brown liquid with a sweet-spicy, cinnamon-like odor. 

In contrast to cinnamon bark oil, cassia oil contains a considerable amount of 2-methoxycinnamaldehyde (3—15%) in addition to its main constituent, cinnamaldehyde (70-88%) [346-350a]. Cassia oil is used predominantly in flavoring soft drinks (cola-type). Aimually a few hundred tons are are produced. FCT 1975 (13) p. 109 [8007-80-5], [91844-89-2],... 

Since cinnamyl aldehyde is the main component of cassia oil (approximately 90%) and Sri Lanka cinnamon bark oil (approximately 75%) [49], it is industrially more important to generate cinnamyl alcohol, which is less abundantly available from nature but is important as cinnamon flavour, by biotransformation of natural cinnamyl aldehyde than vice versa. Recently, a whole-cell reduction of cinnamyl aldehyde with a conversion yield of 98% at very high precursor concentrations of up to 166 g L was described [136]. Escherichia coli DSM 14459 expressing a NADPH-dependent R alcohol dehydrogenase from Lactobacillus kefir and a glucose dehydrogenase from Thermoplasma acidophilum for intracellular cofactor regeneration was applied as the biocatalyst (Scheme 23.8). 

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